First Week at Daycare

This is my last week of maternity leave, so we decided to start Isabel in daycare this week. To ease the transition, we only did half-days this week. Our goals were to get her used to her new environment, get the new morning routine down pat, and give me an opportunity to get fixed up (haircut, oil change, new clothes, etc.) before returning to work.

So on Monday, Kyle scheduled a half day of vacation and we leisurely took our time getting her ready for daycare. When we arrived, they walked us through the checking in and out procedures and showed us where her crib and cubby were. We laid her down in one of the play gyms... and I started crying. We left and then sat in the car in the parking lot for a while. We were so depressed. We finally drove home, where we sat around some more, getting even more depressed. It was so hard to leave her with complete strangers. We missed her so much that Kyle called into work to tell them he would be taking the whole day off so he could spend the afternoon with Isabel. It was like we didn't know what to do without her!

After lunch, we went back to pick her up. She was totally fine (of course)! She gave us some big smiles, and when we got her home, we covered her with kisses and played with her all afternoon.

For some reason, it's been a lot easier since that first day. Maybe it's because we could tell that she seemed content every day when we pick her up. The staff at the daycare seem very competent and sweet, and Kyle and I enjoy reading the little progress reports they write up about her every day. Nevertheless, I wish we didn't have to choose between working and caring for our daughter. We often talk about starting our own home business so we could do both. If only we could decide what this home business would be!