Daycare Woes

I know I am not the first, nor will I be the last new mom who has anxiety about letting strangers watch their children. I am one who has anxiety even letting family members watch her, but that is a little more easy to overcome. 

My husbands job changed where he was required to do more office hours and wouldn't be able to watch our daughter from home anymore. We took some time thinking about where we would send her and made a decision to take her to a in home daycare for the benefits of not having a whole lot of children around her at such a young age. 

She had a great first day at day care. She goes part-time and almost only half days because our schedule allows it and also because we are still just "cautious" since this is so new to us. I was so excited for Gracie's first day. We got all her supplies like the first day of school. They wanted to us to label each bottle with the date and how much water should go in it. I found these awesome labels called "My Bands" made by Dr. Browns. 

They are erasable rubber bands where I can use a permanent marker and at the end of the day, it comes right off by rubbing it off. 

She had a great first day at Daycare and the center gave written reports so that we can know what she did all day and how much she drank or ate. 

She played and was so stimulated that she only took cat naps. So of course when she came home she went to sleep for hours.

Well, here is where the woes come in... 

The next day, on Gracie's second day at Daycare, the owner told me that she has accepted a full time mom and that she no longer had space for my daughter to attend. Prior to that day, she said that she would give part time moms "first preference" if she ever had an interested parent in full time. I took that as she would contact me prior to taking enrollment fees. She took that as, as soon as she said it was her warning me apparently. 

That put a bad taste in my mouth with the business of Daycare. Its already hard enough to say ok, I will trust you with the care of my daughter. Now you hit me with the news that she can't come back because you have no space for her on the second day of Daycare. 

I felt so heartbroken and somewhat betrayed. I felt like our deal was not even considered. Especially since that afternoon I was coming to talk to her about going full time but I didn't want to be full time out the gate since I wanted to see how my daughter liked it. 

Well I scrambled for about an hour over that news looking for more options within our neighborhood. We even reconsidered day care centers with hopes that perhaps we would just take her there despite all of our previous reasons as to why we didn't want her there just out of necessity. But when we were quoted $275-$371 per week, we knew that it was not for us AT ALL! In the end, I called the woman who I considered taking her to before she was born. Thankfully, she was able to meet with us within a few hours of calling and was able to take Gracie. Otherwise, one of us would have to take leave to watch her until we found another sitter. I had to just say it was an answer to my prayer because in either case, I didn't want to have to pay more money at this time.

So tomorrow is Gracie's first day at Daycare ... AGAIN!

I will hopefully feel less anxiety once I pick her up.