Childcare Update

Last month, I talked about our childcare situation - or lack there of - here.

Since that post, we've had a couple big changes: 1) we said goodbye to our beloved nanny J and 2) Cruz started day care...yet again. Both days were full of tears and loads of heartache.

When we originally brought C to day care back in January 2012 - when he was 2 months old, mind you - I remember it being tough. It was tough for me as a mom having to get used to going back to work and not spending every hour of the day with him, as I had the prior two months on maternity leave. I was a bucket of tears for a good two weeks every day I had to drop him off.

But Cruz? He was fine - he didn't know any better. He was two months old, remember? All he was concerned with was when he would get his next bottle, getting his diaper changed when it needed it and having a place to sleep.

Last week, Cruz started a new day care in Millard. We had checked this one out before choosing Primrose the first time around because it was part of the Millard School system, but also the proximity couldn't be beat - it's literally three blocks from our house. At that time there were just no spots available, should we have chosen it.

On the first day, I had to wake our sleeping boy up (definitely hate doing this - note to self, get this boy to bed earlier at night!) and dressed him and we were out the door. I have to say that was much easier than our first day care experience because back then I had to wake up earlier to feed him before leaving the house and pack a bag with enough bottles, etc for him to make it through the day. Now as long as he's there by 8am, he gets breakfast, so we just need about 10 minutes. We wake up, I rock him for a bit while we talk about his day, change his diaper and clothes and we are off.

Here are a couple first day of school pics of our little man. Obviously poorly planned by me...and yes, in one he is standing in our bare flower pot in front of the trash can because, well, why not? Good planning, mom...

Big Changes - Going To Day Care

As you know, we started day care with little man last week. The week was VERY difficult and I hated having to spend the day away from him after 8 weeks of being with him {almost} 24/7. As much as it stunk, I have to say that it did get easier as the week went on. Yes, it's true, that on Tuesday and Wednesday I was a bawling mess leaving Primrose and the entire way to work...and I hastily tried to come up with reasons for my red-rimmed eyes other than the fact that I'm a big crying girl. But on Thursday morning after I laid Cruzer on the floor mat and he gave me a big gummy smile, I actually started to feel better about leaving him for a few hours each day.

It also doesn't hurt that the teachers at Primrose are excellent - the primaries in the room are Ms Bev and Ms Ida and they seem to treat the kids as they would their own grandchildren. Each day we get a report card so to speak on what they worked on with Cruzer, any games they played {So Big & Tickle Tickle are his favs}, it outlines his eating/diaper/napping schedule from the day, you name it. Most days they do arts & crafts with our little guy and send home his excellent artwork - it's so fun to go through! We've received a couple "Happy Grams" which are notes they send about something Cruz does well - I love how Miss Bev explained how she feels positive reinforcement is so important for kids and if she has to discipline a child {she doesn't do this in the infant room}, she makes sure she follows up with a couple words of praise. I think that is a great way to teach children.

Air Travel

Happy Gram "Cruz enjoyed painting clouds for art.
He loved the feel of the paint on his hands. Great job, Cruz!"

Cloud Play

Cloud Painting - used his fingers!

Another awesome thing about Primrose is that the owner is one of Omaha's most well known pediatricians, Dr. Laura. On any given day, she may be in and out of the infant rooms looking in on the kiddos to make sure they are developing appropriately and do exercises with them - she was actually the one who stopped Nick as he was picking up Cruz and told him she was worried about his neck and thought it was Torticollis {read about it here and here}. After our pediatrician appointment, we both dropped Cruz off and she was there and talked with us for about 20 minutes about Torticollis, his development and showed us some exercises to help him when he's on tummy time. It's truly amazing to have access to Dr. Laura if we should have any questions as well as just having her check in on Cruz and the other babies during the week.

Outside of the care he receives from Primrose, the fact that we've been able to get him on a schedule since starting is the best. He is so exhausted when he comes home from day care from all of the play time and fun activities that he wants to crash when he gets home. Last week was the first night he actually slept 5 1/2 hours in a row - ahhhh so amazing! I love that we get to spend a couple of great awake hours playing with him when we get him home, then we usually give him a bath {every other night} and by that time he's hungry and then we put him to bed.

We are so happy with Primrose and it makes having to leave him somewhere for precious hours of the day that much easier.



Practicing his special exercises at home... and exhausted from day care