Buy Two of Everything

Well we've had our first few days at daycare and so far so good. The first day when I picked him up in the afternoon he was in the swing crying, but not badly, just fussing. Cody has only been in his swing at home one time so I know he's not used to it. Overall it was a good report for day #1. They worked on listening skills as the teachers sang and read stories to him. I'm sure Cody LOVED this as these are two of his favorite things to do with Mommy and Daddy. The teachers in his room seem very loving and genuinely seem to care about his well-being. I appreciate that they ask intelligent questions and seek my input.

It's a little bizarre having Cody in daycare; he seems so tiny and felt like I was ripping a part of myself off. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but that's what it feels like. Emma has been a big helper in the mornings, and David too for that matter. David gets home from work about 6:30 and gets all of Cody's bottles ready for the day and in his "lunchbox" as well as making Emma's lunch and having them both on the sofa table by the door for us to grab on our way out. This makes my life easier since it is like moving mountains to get us out the door in the morning.

Cody wakes up about 6-6:30AM. When I start to hear him I jump out of bed and get myself dressed before I get him up, changed, dressed and fed. When he's done I make sure Emma is up and dressing herself- I've been laying out her clothes the night before. Emma helps me grab everything we need for the day and we're out the door.

First stop, Cody's daycare. If we get out of the house on time we can usually make it there by 7:30 and there is only one or two other babies at school by that time. I like it because the room is calm and I have an opportunity to visit with the 'lead' teacher. We have to take the bottles pre-made so I put those in his cubby in the refrigerator. Cody usually falls asleep in the car on the way to school so he usually stays in his carseat when he first gets there.

So far I'm happy overall with this Stepping Stones location. But after the first week of daycare David and I did some soul-searching. We were both stressed and worried about being able to afford both Cody and Emma in full time daycare through August! The bottom line is we just can't. For about a day we discussed me working part time and staying home with the kids on the days that David has to work. That really saves us no money, we would just come out even and still be tight. Even if I did work part time I would want Emma to finish preschool and "graduate" with her class at the end of May- so we'd still be paying her tuition until then. {Hang in there, I'm getting to the point post haste.} Since David had volunteered the idea of keeping one or both of the kids on his days off, now we just needed to find someone to keep one or both of the kids on the other days. It only works out to 10 days out of the month because David works Mon/Tues/Fri (so we'd need childcare three days that week) and then Wed/Thurs (so we'd need childcare only those two days) the next week.

I felt such relief just by discussing this option! We've spoken to a couple of our friends about helping out with one or both of the kids and now we just pray and wait.