Day Care

Owen started day care on Monday, January 30th. I desperately tried to start him later in the week so that I could adjust to him being left with strangers for a short week, but we couldn't make it work. I was so distraught getting him ready the very first morning. We decided to take Owen to a Bright Horizons directly across the street from my office. In fact, the company I work for actually manages the day care facility, so I feel VERY safe about it not burning to the ground. Haha. I can literally see the day care from a window in my building. I chose this particular day care despite the higher tuition because it would be easy to leave work and go and nurse him throughout the day. It was a priceless option in our eyes and gave me more time with Owen. Owen's main teacher is Miss Carol. She is sweet woman who absolutely adores Owen. She told me he is such an easy baby and rarely ever cries. Some of the toddler teachers come in throughout the day to help in the infant classrooms and there is one teacher that adores Owen. In fact, Miss Carol says she loves him so much she never puts Owen down when she is helping out in their classroom. She told me one day when I was picking him up that I was going to have a spoiled baby because everyone fought to hold him and play with him. Here I thought he was going to be neglected in day care because he was the chill baby, but it is the complete opposite! Every teacher adores him because he is so good natured. The only problem with him in day care so far is he doesn't sleep! He's a bad napper to begin with (although we had solved that issue before day care with the nap nanny), but with all the crying babies and odd noises throughout the day, he just never catches a break. His first week of day care resulted in him napping no more than one hour TOTAL the ENTIRE day. Needless to say, he was EXHAUSTED by the time I picked him up. Oddly enough, he was never cranky. I could just tell by the sad and dark bags under his eyes how sleepy he was. Every day after day care, he usually falls asleep on our short drive home. He literally dozes off the second I put him into the car! I immediately give him a bath the second we come home. No matter how great the day care is, you wind up with a germy baby when you bring him home! I strip him down, throw his clothes in the washing machine and give him a warm bath. Owen still LOVES his bath time and smiles the entire time. After his bath, he naps again for 2-3 hours, wakes up to eat and then goes down for the night. Sadly, Owen has gotten 2 colds that have made him quite grouchy since being in day care. I try to give him extra kisses so that I get the germs and build up the immunity to help him kick them, so of course I'm stuck with the nasty cold as well. It's a vicious cycle that I don't know we'll ever get used to. Luckily, Tommy has an immune system of steel and has yet to be affected by any of it. Despite the sleepy baby we get at the end of the day and the germs, we absolutely LOVE Bright Horizons. The staff is unbelievable supportive and friendly and I can just see how much they love each individual baby that is brought in. I visited SEVERAL day cares really early on in my pregnancy and always kept going back to this specific one because I just knew it was special, and I was definitely right!

Sleepy Owen in day care!

Owen's scowl to tell me his dislike of me leaving him!