Xander Week 16 - Day Care Woes & Worries
January 11, 2007
First, I apologize for the delay in posts - I’ve been home with Xander for the past 2 weeks, and he has been rather demanding of my time, leaving very little time to do anything, and cleaning the house unfortunately took priority over blogging… This morning Xander is having a trial run at day care in preparation for next week when he starts full time.
I still love the day care that we found - they have an excellent set up, and have been doing this for years, so they’ve got their routines figured out. Xander is in a room with 3 other babies, and one staff member devoted to watching the four of them. She is great, and I know that Xander will get an adequate amount of attention there, but it won’t the be one-on-one attention that he gets at home. He’ll probably have times where he cries longer before someone meets his needs, and he won’t have someone to entertain him all day.
On the other hand, he’ll have lots of interaction with other children, and he’ll get some time with an experienced care-giver who can perhaps convince him that “tummy time” isn’t the end of the world. I’m sure he’ll have 20 colds before the season is over, but his immune system will be stronger eventually. There are lots of positives to day care to balance out the negatives, but it is still sad for me to have to send him there.
The huge thing we are struggling with now is sleep. Zach and I are both working next week. Though Xander has proven that he can sleep through the night, he has had absolutely no interest in doing so this week. This week has actually been worse than the past month. Xander has been waking up around 2 or 3am to eat, and then he wakes up every hour or two after that to snack some more. I’m hoping he’s just having a growth spurt, and he’ll be back to a more reasonable schedule soon. If not, then Zach and I are both going to be very tired starting next week.
I’m curious to hear from working parents how they resolved this issue - who sleeps and who doesn’t? Do you take turns? If so, what is that schedule like? Does someone get up with the baby for a whole week, and then the other parent the following week? Or do you swap every other night? Are there any other solutions out there? It seems silly for both Zach and me to loose the same amount of sleep every night, but it doesn’t seem fair for one of us to be put on permanent night duty. And what is best for Xander? Right now he’s sleeping in his bassinet in our room, but soon he will outgrow the bassinet and be upgraded to the crib in his room. I’m not sure how he will sleep in a room by himself, and getting up to tend to him in the night is a much bigger investment when you actually have to get out of bed… I guess these are all things that we will work out in time, but I’d love to hear suggestions from anyone who has any ideas on how we can resolve this particular issue. Thanks!
My daughter just started daycare last week. While she will sleep thru the night, she still sometimes gets up at 4am to eat. We are supposed to alternate nights, but that doesn’t really work out for us. I’m usually the one that gets up. My husband doesn’t hear her when she cries. Men! But lately she has been getting up almost around the time our alarm clock would be waking us up anyway, so I will go feed her while my husband gets ready for work. Then he will watch her and get her bottles ready to go while I get ready.
I understand how you feel about the daycare. I spent 11 weeks at home with my daughter before going back to work full-time and it was hard to leave her there. Especially when I read of the outbreaks of this or that illness going around. But I know she is in good hands and gets to develop social skills that she otherwise wouldn’t be able to if I was at home with her. Plus it gives me a break to socialize and do something other than just take care of her.
Hi Rayne - thanks for the comment - it certainly is a challenge figuring out who can sleep when. I’m a bit jealous of you that your daughter is sleeping about until your alarm goes off - I wish Xander would do that! Zach and I do usually take turns watching Xander in the morning so that each of us can get ready, and that’s been working out pretty well.
You are right about the benefits of day care, but sometimes it’s hard to remember the positives at the moment. I’m sure it’ll get easier as we get into the routine…
Thanks again!