First Day Of Childcare and Work

Today Josiah had his first day with his caretaker, Cindy, and I had my first official day of work.  Both went fabulously and were relatively uneventful – in a good way. 

After making our childcare decision initially, I was feeling quite confident and hopeful about it all.  That feeling was reinforced when we arrived this morning and I took him out of the car.  He was delighted to find their cat in the driveway and was squealing and happy.  As soon as we walked inside, their 2 other cats came up to greet him and one let him love on her.  He was in heaven, as he LOVES our cat.  He played contentedly while I briefed Cindy about a few basics.  I hugged him and he realized something was up, so he held onto my leg.  We had an easy separation, Cindy picked him up, I walked out, and he let out a little squeal.  That was  it.  It was very simple and lacked drama.

As I was leaving and thinking about the day that awaited me, I suddenly realized that according to other stories I had heard, I was supposed to cry, or at least want to, but I didn’t.  I had the urge to cry over “Wheel of Fortune” (see previous post), but not over someone else watching my son.  I felt a little guilty about that, but chalked it up to having a whole new venture in front of me to distract my mind.  At least that was my excuse.  Oh well, I naturally tend to focus on logic rather than emotion anyway.  I knew he was in good hands and had been happy there at our two previous “interviews”.  Plus I was 3 minutes down the road, if needed.

Anyway, I called once during the day and he had taken a beautiful nap in the morning, eaten his entire lunch, and had played nonstop with the other two kids there – one 6 months younger, one 6 months older.  Oh, and Cindy said he was a real sweetie, but I already knew that.  I was happy.  When I picked him up, he was watching her older kids do homework and was completely content.  Usually at this point, he cries hysterically when he sees my or Jacob’s face after a separation, but he simply pooched his lip, breathed quickly for a second…I waited for it…and he decided all was well.  SUCCESS!

When we came home he was wildly energetic.  Unfortunately I was a little too tired to fully enjoy it and Jacob was still working, so the evening took the last of my energy, but overall I am happy and satisfied about how things seem to be working out.  I’m just looking forward to that second trimester rush of energy!

As a side note….some of you have asked what we are doing for childcare and how I found it.  Here it is: After visiting several preschools and only finding two that could match my schedule needs (both of which were acceptable, but still made me nervous), I asked the vet whom I am replacing at my new job what she did for childcare.  She gave me a name that I recognized from my own church and said she loved the arrangement.  I hadn’t realized this person did childcare, but she lives less than five minutes from my job and is very reasonable financially.  Plus, it looks like it will be a good fit for the new baby as well.