Surviving Day Care.

The first two days of Day Care have been surprisingly stress free. I'm probably shooting myself in the foot for saying so but it's true. A fair bit of organization has helped.  The night before I get all bottles, breast pumps, extra clothes and lunch packed and ready to go. I even make sure the coffee machine is ready, down to my travel mug under the spout so I just have to hit "brew". Brett gets Max ready and I get myself ready so we can be out the door at the unholy hour of 6:30AM.  Even the drive is mildly pleasant. Max usually screams on car rides but the past two mornings he's been asleep the whole time, allowing me to catch up on world events courtesy of NPR. (It's not quite the same without Carl Kasell).

(please pardon crummy iPhone picture)

Dropping Max off has also been easy. I feel like a bad mom because I didn’t cry.  So many friends talked about how they cried for hours  after dropping off their baby for the first time. Not me.  I think I was too exhausted to cry. We are still not making progress on the sleep issue. Max, however, wasn’t very happy I was leaving. He gave me the wet eyed frown this morning and actually buried his head my shoulder when his teach went to take him.  There was some guilt on my end, but it was more that he was crying and I wasn't.  I was feeling guilty for not feeling guilty.  Catholic much?

I'm really happy with the day care (or school, which is what I call it to make it sound better).  The teachers are wonderful and of all the times I've stopped by unannounced not once was there a screaming child. In just two days most of the teachers know Max, not just the ones in the infant room. Another plus is that I don't have to go all day without seeing him.  During lunch I just walk down the hall, out the door and across a small parking to give my Little Man some lunch.  There is even a little comfy room where I can nurse him. I'm sure my feelings about going back to work would be much more negative if I didn't have such an ideal situation. Plus, when I came to get him at the end of the day, he was all smiles!

While I know there are going to be bad days, I hope this is a sign of things to come. I've even learned one really important lesson in all of this.  If you are a working Mom who is able to nurse their child during the day....be sure to have an emergency change of clothes in your office. Massive milk stains (or worse) aren't professional.