We pulled Keira from daycare. I know - I had just decided that MCCDC was the right decision, that it was a good place for Keira, that I was being a good parent by not dragging my poor exhausted and grumpy baby to work every day.
Well, we changed our mind.
I suspect that this is the heart of parenting. Choices and decisions that are set in stone one minute are immediately ripped up the next...and something else gets laid in concrete instead. Isn't that what happens when you're always trying to give your child the best? Doing things that you KNOW are right, and when you realize - OOPS - you're actually wrong, you immediately flip-flop and KNOW that the alternative was right all along.
As a four-going-on-five month old, Keira is still an extraordinarily mellow and sleep-loving baby. That girl loves, I mean adores, her naps. And as it turns out, it's incredibly hard to get a good day's rest when you're in a room with eleven other laughing, cooing, screaming, crying infants. A month of sleepless days at daycare meant that my only quality time with Keira was over her morning bottle and nighttime bath. I'd have to immediately pack her up after breakfast to get her out the door, and she was always snoozing by the time I came home from work, waking only to drowsily take a bath and final bottle before bedtime.
I love my baby way too much and am way too selfish to be satisfied with that.
Working six or seven days a week, fifty plus hours a week, I find there are few things I can look forward to. A good laugh with Felix. A late dinner with friends or family. And a smile and play-cuddle time with my daughter. Hard to do when she's zonked, exhausted after two small naps at daycare.
So I tackled the monumental task of searching for a nanny. Why didn't we just get one to begin with? HELLO? Does anyone have any idea how outrageously priced everything is in the Silicon Valley??? Nannies are no exception. Most turned out to cost more than our mortgage, and since we can't even afford a house with a yard, we certainly can't afford a nanny.
Fortunately, a family friend of Felix's had recently moved up to the Bay Area, and although she doesn't have formal training, she is loving, kind, and affordable. I'm nervous and terrified...but I KNOW this is the right decision. (Right? I think I know...yes, I know.) We've been training her these last few days, and I'll keep you posted on how things go.
Most importantly, my sweetheart is back to her smiley mellow self again. She's already left her 45-minute restless naps behind and is back up to the usual 2-3 hour snoozes. And when I get home from work, she's awake, waving her arms, grinning and cooing, and ready to be scooped up by her mom who's been waiting all day to see her.
Well, we changed our mind.
I suspect that this is the heart of parenting. Choices and decisions that are set in stone one minute are immediately ripped up the next...and something else gets laid in concrete instead. Isn't that what happens when you're always trying to give your child the best? Doing things that you KNOW are right, and when you realize - OOPS - you're actually wrong, you immediately flip-flop and KNOW that the alternative was right all along.
As a four-going-on-five month old, Keira is still an extraordinarily mellow and sleep-loving baby. That girl loves, I mean adores, her naps. And as it turns out, it's incredibly hard to get a good day's rest when you're in a room with eleven other laughing, cooing, screaming, crying infants. A month of sleepless days at daycare meant that my only quality time with Keira was over her morning bottle and nighttime bath. I'd have to immediately pack her up after breakfast to get her out the door, and she was always snoozing by the time I came home from work, waking only to drowsily take a bath and final bottle before bedtime.
I love my baby way too much and am way too selfish to be satisfied with that.
Working six or seven days a week, fifty plus hours a week, I find there are few things I can look forward to. A good laugh with Felix. A late dinner with friends or family. And a smile and play-cuddle time with my daughter. Hard to do when she's zonked, exhausted after two small naps at daycare.
So I tackled the monumental task of searching for a nanny. Why didn't we just get one to begin with? HELLO? Does anyone have any idea how outrageously priced everything is in the Silicon Valley??? Nannies are no exception. Most turned out to cost more than our mortgage, and since we can't even afford a house with a yard, we certainly can't afford a nanny.
Fortunately, a family friend of Felix's had recently moved up to the Bay Area, and although she doesn't have formal training, she is loving, kind, and affordable. I'm nervous and terrified...but I KNOW this is the right decision. (Right? I think I know...yes, I know.) We've been training her these last few days, and I'll keep you posted on how things go.
Most importantly, my sweetheart is back to her smiley mellow self again. She's already left her 45-minute restless naps behind and is back up to the usual 2-3 hour snoozes. And when I get home from work, she's awake, waving her arms, grinning and cooing, and ready to be scooped up by her mom who's been waiting all day to see her.
