Daycare

Our First Day at DayCare

We’re the only car in the parking lot of our daycare at 10a.m. My baby girl is wailing. I’m in the back seat fumbling with my shirt buttons trying to nurse her before we go inside to drop her off for the first day. I’m unnecessarily frantic because baby girl has been yelling at the top of her lungs for the entire 8 minute drive to the day care. I had fed her right before we got in the car, but apparently she was still a little hungry. Or maybe she saw a murderer- who knows what’s going on from these absurd loud cries.

It’s mid-December, and the car temp is chilling fast. I finally get her latched and she stops crying and eats for about 5 minutes. I pull myself together, put my now-smiling baby’s jacket on, grab her monogrammed tiny seersucker backpack and strut into the school with the fake confidence I hope all new moms can relate to. Yeah I have no idea what I’m doing, and I’m just praying that I’ve packed everything she needs for her first day. I’ve got some diapers, wipes, a sleep sack, and enough bottles to last her for a solid two days. What I do know is that I’m about to get three hours of freedom from my precious, but needy, angel baby.

Of course when I hand her off to her new teacher, she’s all smiles, cooing like I’m the best mom on the planet. “Awe she’s so sweet,” the teacher says. “Yeah, she’s such an easy baby!” which is mostly true, despite recent events.

All of my mom friends told me that their first day at daycare left them in the parking lot in tears, realizing that it’s the first time they’ve ever been separated from their babe. So I felt a little guilty for actually feeling… free.

As I walk back to the car, I’m realizing that I’m not going to have to change a diaper or nurse for 3 whole hours, all while baby girl is in the safe and loving care of childcare professionals who really do know more than me about babies.

I immediately scoot over to the post office, which I believe is one of the least baby-friendly places ever. It’s super quiet (you can hear babies crying) and there is no where to nurse or change a diaper. You’re just stuck in line until you get back to your car. During this baby-free visit, I got all of our Christmas packages mailed out and holiday cards dropped off in under 10 minutes. Success!!

I go to smoothie king and Costco next before heading home to pump. Then I did some laundry and then drove back to day care to pick up my little angel who was safe and sound and literally giggling with glee when I got there.

I’ve never been this productive in three hours in my life.

By the end of her first week, she could already hold her head up during tummy time better than ever and was sleeping 9 hours at night. I owe it all to those angel teachers, and I can’t wait to see what else she’ll accomplish during her first year there.

Starting DayCare

Some unsolicited advice from a mother who really doesn’t know what she’s doing- it seems that taking baby to day care a week or so before you actually start back work is a really nice way to ease into being separated from them.

If I had to go back to work the same day we tested out daycare, I think it would have been much harder on me. And she only went for a couple hours for that first week, before going the full 8-5:30. I am aware that not everyone can start daycare before their maternity leave is over, we were just really lucky. It should be noted that we had been on the waitlist for over 13 months before we got the call that we had a spot. She also started at 8 weeks old, which was my preference. Every family is different! So do what’s right for you!

Prepping for DayCare

When we went to our “meet the teacher,” I realized how unprepared I actually was. Since the key safety and health factors were clearly present at this facility, I didn’t know what else to ask. For our daycare, we need the following items:

• Bag/backpack/lunchbox
  • We bring our bottles each day in a little lunchbox cooler. Hers is seersucker and monogrammed because I’m over the top. I ordered it from Etsy for not very much, but local children’s stores can order these for you too (i.e. Plaid Rabbit in Nashville).
  • I also ordered a matching backpack to bring extra diapers, wipes, pacis, she puts her jacket in there, etc.
• Plastic Bottles– our day care doesn’t allow glass bottles. You know I love a good Phillips Avent bottle, see my previous post on baby essentials.
• Bottle labels– we got ours from minted. (The circle ones fit PERFECTLY on the Phillips Avent plastic 8 oz bottles. They literally have a circle indention that is the exact same size.) These labels claim to be washing machine friendly but I just use them for bottles and wipes.
• Clothing iron-in labels
• Diapers– I sent about 30 with her on her first day, and they’ll let me know when to send more.
• Wipes– I brought 2 packs and put a label on them. Then I got lazy and started writing her name on them with a sharpie.
• Paci – I wrote her name on it with a sharpie, then I found these cute personalized ones from Etsy.

Our daycare also uses an app for communication. They send me two pictures a day and keep me posted of how much she eats, etc.

Questions I should have asked:

• How do I let you know if someone other than her parents is doing pick up or drop off?
• How do I get other authorized pick up people added to her file?
• What do I do if she has a cold? Can she still come in?
• How do I let you know how she did last night?
• How do I leave special instructions?
• How do I notify you of early pick up/late drop off?
• How do I notify you of when we won’t be going to day care (out of town, etc.)?
• Would you let me know of any milestones that she makes during the day?
• How do I keep you posted on her milestones at home? (She sit up for the first time last night, etc.)
• How can I encourage her to reach milestones at home? (i.e. our school does baby sign language for certain requests)
• What kinds of snacks do my teachers like? (For fun Christmas, Valentine’s day happies, etc.)
• Can I use a credit card for payment? (we can, and we are getting ALL of the points)
• How would you like for breast bottles vs formula bottles to be labeled?
• Do you care if my baby wears snaps or zippers? (Our daycare prefers no buttons lol)
• Can I bring a sleep sack for my baby to wear during naps? (Iron a label in that sucker!)
• How many pacis should I bring?
• Other than wipes, diapers, pacis, a sleep sack, and bottles, what else do I need to bring?
• Is there any paperwork that I need to sign? (Our daycare has a diaper rash cream form you have to sign if you want them to use it.)
• How do you communicate with parents? (App, send home a card, text, etc.)