First day of daycare/work

So today was Ivan's first day of daycare. Can't you tell by the picture how cute he is? Well anyways, it was pretty emotional for me just to drop him off at daycare. The lady asked if I was ok, sure I'm ok, I'm leaving my 7-week old baby with you and crying about it, but I'm ok.

Let me just first start off saying, finding daycare in Huntsville isn't that hard. The hardest part is finding daycare with availability. I first thought back in November when I put my name on the waiting list (#37) at the Marshall daycare that, hey that's plenty of time to make it down their wait list and get in by the time the baby is born. Well just on the safe side I thought about putting my name down at the Whitesburg daycare in February just in case because my name hadn't moved that much by the time February rolled around, oh let's say I was #31 by that point. So April comes around I've called the Marshall daycare every month since November checking where I was, and needless to say my name hadn't moved an inch on the list. Then I finally got to talk to someone at the Marshall daycare about the odds of me actually getting my child in at that facility, the lady was like, it wasn't good. So then I went on a daycare hunt, I put my name on at least 6 other daycare waiting lists. Got told by several that they wouldn't have availability till February of next year. Holy Cow! To top it all off the cheapest daycare I found was $130/week (The facility smelled like pine sol and the lady running it was missing teeth and had a speech impediment from that kind of scary) for infants and the most expensive was $210/week (This one happened to have $120 wait list fee, no guarantee that I would get in if I paid that)!!! Whitesburg even told me that there were a few people ahead of me (a set of twins!). Honestly felt as if there was no hope in ever getting in anywhere. So about the third time calling in April at the Whiteburg daycare, they told me they had availability for August! Perfect! I'll be right there to sign the registration form!

Well that was that for getting into daycare. My next worry didn't come till much later after I had the baby. I kept wondering how they take care of babies who initially are one on one with their parents to the 1:4 ratio they have at the daycare. Which to say is better than the 1:5 DHR regulation. The Marshall daycare had a 1:3, but then again there really isn't any hope in getting in since my name didn't move at all.

So Ivan's first day or rather morning was spent crying all the time. I felt so bad after I called. I just wanted to go and pick him up right then. But like Ben said he's with professionals that are used to caring for babies and have had more experience than us. When I finally got there in the afternoon, he was quietly sitting in the bouncy seat looking very serious. I want to think he got daycare shock - kind of like I'll behave and be as sweet as possible if I don't ever have to come back kind of look. He acted about the same after his 2 month shots at 6 weeks. The lady handed him to me and it took him a minute to figure out who I was. Thankfully he slept the whole way home in the car. I was afraid he'd be so upset at me he would cry all the time (which is a usual car ride experience). I was also afraid he'd hate me for the rest of his life because I dropped him off there.

Anyways, I now understand what first time moms feel when they drop their babies off at daycare. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day, for me and him.

As for work, it was the same ole same ole. Everyone was glad I was back.