Daycare Day 2

Apparently Maeve is more able to adapt to change than her mother is!

Today was day 2 at daycare--Maeve is going Tuesdays and Thursdays in September, then full time in October. I decided to hang out there in the morning and then LEAVE her for the afternoon--until about 3. She was pretty good in the morning. Started interacting with the other kids a bit more and with the caregivers. Still, I was quite dubious about when to leave and how things would go once I was gone.

I got her started with lunch, which was chicken burgers and salad. I wanted to make sure the pieces were cut small enough that she wouldn't choke. Despite my efforts, she did cough a little bit on something. But I think that was because she was shovelling it in so fast. She's not used to getting breaded chicken and thought this was the greatest thing since I let her try sliced bread! (Whole grain bread of course!) Any how, she got through one serving and was starting into more when I announced that I was leaving and would be back later. Her entire face went cherry red and she started to bawl. I thought I was going to have a breakdown! I gave her a big hug and a kiss and left the room.

My heart shattered into a million pieces as I listened at the door and heard her crying out for me. I didn't think I was going to be able to leave. But one of the caregivers picked her up and soothed her. She seemedd to calm down a little bit, so I left.

I called Pat from the car and raced home so that we could get on the daycare's webwatch to see how she was doing. Unfortunately for the webcam, nap time is right after lunch. They pull the blinds down and it is a bit difficult to make out which child is which. We only went for the Ultralight high speed, so the video is a bit choppy too. And, I'm still working out the bugs with our wireless network. We're pretty sure we were watching Maeve being cuddled and soothed by Shannon during nap time. "I knew she wouldn't sleep" we exclaimed. "Poor baby. What have we done to her. "

I cried for about half an hour as we discussed child care alternatives. I just didn't think we could get through this! Maybe a nanny; or a home daycare where there are less kids; what if I work 3 days a week and you work the other 2 and weekends... etc. All the stuff we had agonized about before.

At 2:30, when nap time was over, the blinds were opened and it was much easier to see. We spotted Maeve standing at a table, just looking around. She had her back to the camera, so we couldn't see her face. Was she crying? Was she just zoned out? We couldn't tell. She stayed in that spot for about 20 minutes (well it may have only been 5, but it seemed like a long, long time to us). Then she seemed to just wander into a corner for a while. That was it! We're going to get her. She's probably so traumatized that she's curled up in a corner whimpering.

I made a bottle to help sooth her and off we went. Luckily, the daycare is only 5 minutes away.

We went in and there she was sitting at the table having her snack. Calm as could be. She cried when she saw us. But after a 1 minute cuddle and kiss from Baba, she wanted to go back to her snack. After all, how could we compete with a rice crispy square and pure apple juice? She never gets sweet snacks like that at home. And we always water down the juice. Now she knows what she's been missing. SUGAR!!!

So we hung out with her for another 15 minutes as she finished her snack. During that time, every little boy in the room wanted to play with Pat. They kept bringing him toys and where crawling all over each other to get his attention. I've never seen anything like it. The girls were either a bit afraid of Pat or just ignored him. But the boys... you couldn't get them away from him. Maeve watched from her seat at the snack table. Kind of confused as to why Baba was playing with all these other kids, but apparently not disturbed by it. She just kept eating her snack as I sat beside her.

After that we left and she was perfectly fine for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

The caregivers said that she didn't eat anymore after I left. She cried for about 20 minutes and had a hard time falling asleep. She only slept for about 45 minutes. When she woke up, she cried for a few minutes, but stayed on her cot and was quiet for the rest of nap time. Then she was just quiet and observing what was happening around her until snack time.

You mean she didn't have a complete melt down? Didn't she miss us? Really? She was ok? Geez, you'd think we were disappointed that she adjusted better than we expected. What strange parents!

So, in the end she seemed to handle the afternoon reasonably well. I, however need therapy...