He Loves Me!
January 30, 2007
Xander continues to do well at day care, and I continue to miss him every day. At the end of the day at day care, all of the kids are usually playing in one room. It’s usually pretty loud as the older children are full of energy, and parents are coming in and out. I often find Xander crying in one of the care provider’s arms. I think the noise and bustle is a little too much for him.
Yesterday I was later than usual picking him up, and by the time I got in the car to go get him, I was surprised at how much I missed my boy, and how excited I was to see him. When I got there, he was indeed crying while one of the women held him. As soon as Xander heard my voice, he turned towards me. Although I was still pretty cold from being outside, I picked him up and gave him a big hug. He immediately started to smile and giggle. I took him into another room to get him buckled into his car seat, and continued to kiss his face and talk to him, and the giggling continued. Even when I buckled him in (which he usually hates) he laughed at me.
I was pleasantly surprised by Xander’s reaction. This was the first day that he was clearly happy to see me. His good mood continued in the car and at home. We had a wonderful afternoon, and it just hit me that Xander actually loves me back – of course he knows who I am, and like to see me, but his reaction yesterday showed me that I’m more than just a care provider now, and what an amazing realization that was!
Well, it has taken me a while to warm up to the idea of day care – and I would still much prefer to stay home with Xander if I had the choice. However, there are some nice things about having Xander in day care. His routine is much easier for the care providers to set than it is for me (I’m assuming that’s because of the lengthy experience they have caring for kids…). When Xander needed his nose suctioned out every hour and before feedings while he had his cold, I got to drop him off at day care, and then they were the ones who had to make him cry with the suction, not me (yay!)
I don’t know how many other parents experience this, but Xander hates “tummy time”. Developmentally most places say he should be able to do a little baby push up, and maybe even roll over one way by now. But every time I put Xander onto his tummy, he just cries. He can lift his head, but mostly he just flails his arms, and cries, face down. I have tried everything I can think of – we’ve got different mats with interesting things on them – one even has water with some colorful animals in it. I’ve tried rolling up a receiving blanket and putting that under his chest so that his face isn’t planted into the ground. I’ve tried laying next to him so that he can see me, or putting him on a couch or chair and sitting underneath him so he can see me. I’ve tried flipping him over after diaper changes, but then the changing table that he used to love started to make him cry whenever I put him on it, so I stopped that. So, I’m out of ideas.
Xander came down with his first cold this week. It was awful. We dropped Xander off for his first full day of day care on Tuesday. When I picked him up Tuesday afternoon, he was completely congested. Of course he didn’t catch the cold and display symptoms all in the same day, it was just ironic timing. On Tuesday night we tried to get Xander to sleep in his bassinet, but he just cried, and cried. Eventually we brought him into bed with us – Zach and I had to work the next day, so we really needed to get some sleep. Unfortunately, Xander slept in 15 minute increments for the entire night. Needless to say, by the next morning all three of us were exhausted. Wednesday night brought the same sleeping arrangement. Zach and I agreed to take shifts – Zach slept in the nursery by himself for the first part of the night, and then he got up with Xander, and I slept in the nursery. Sometime around 1am, I discovered that by propping Xander into an almost sitting position, he slept much better! Of course, this seems like common sense now, and I kick myself for not figuring it out earlier. We all feel horribly congested when we’ve got a head cold, and the congestion eases some when we’re upright. When we lay down to sleep, the pressure in our heads gets worse, and we can’t breathe through our noses, etc. The same with babies (duh!) so when we started sitting Xander up to sleep, he began to sleep much better. By Thursday night we were able to get him to sleep for about a 5 hour stretch (what a relief!) He still isn’t sleeping great, and we haven’t been able to talk him into getting back into the bassinet, but I’m hopeful that once this cold passes we’ll be able to get back to normal. 
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