Wednesday, July 01, 2015

On Starting Daycare

First day of daycare was as expected - emotional (me), tearful (my mom), confused (Olivia).  The ladies at daycare are all very caring and attentive.  They rocked Olivia and held her both when I left and when I arrived.  I feel reassured having O there.  But... it's not the same as staying home with grandma.  I wonder if she even knows that she isn't home, that the ladies there are not her family, that we left her there.  For a peace of mind, I like to think she is too young to realize all of the above.

Waking her up in the the morning is quite sad.  Taking her out of her peaceful slumber and plop her into a carseat is heartbreaking for me.  The second day when we arrived at daycare she was still sleeping so I put her the carseat with sleeping baby on the ground and went about getting her bed ready, when I looked down, O's eyes are filled with tears and her little arms raised as if wanting to be held.  I almost bursted into tears.  There is nothing like the love you feel for your baby....

While O was in daycare, my mom and I had a blast.  We shopped till we dropped on day one and had brunch together on day two.  It's different from our other outings because we didn't worry about S taking care of baby alone at home.  We missed her and thought about her constantly, but had a good time despite of it.  

Next week, she will (try) to go to daycare all five days.  It will be exhausting for her and us.  I try to think of all the other good toddlers that survived daycare beginning at an even younger age than her, and take solace in knowing we picked the best place we could find.  It makes it a little easier to drop off my baby.

Olivia on day 1.  They sent us this picture of her playing.  Is it me or are her eyes a little red?  When we picked her up from daycare she was howling on the chaining table.  I try not to think how much she might have cried that day.

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