Daycare: A Tale of Survival

Luke started daycare this week. We took him for 6 hours on Tuesday and 6 hours on Thursday and survived to tell the tale! Tuesday was very difficult and sad for me. I took Luke to school (I find it easier to call it school...) at 8:30am and hung out with him in the classroom until 9:10am. The teachers were so very nice to let me stay until I felt comfortable leaving. Only, I never felt comfortable leaving because Luke was crying and wouldn't calm down. I can only imagine that my crying, which started literally from the moment I entered the building and did not stop for 2 hours, did not help the situation. I wanted to leave with him settled into his morning nap- or at least not crying- but 9:10 came quickly, and I either had to leave or miss my dentist appointment. So, as hard as it was to leave I headed to the dentist. I cried the entire time I was in the dentist's chair. I felt badly for the dental hygentist, who did not know what to do with me and kept asking if she could get me yet another tissue. (To add insult to injury, I found out that I had my first ever cavity. Not fair.) After the dentist I went back to the school to check on Luke and feed him. There was no way I could have just left him there for 6 hours on his first day without going back at least once! Again, the teachers were very accomodating. Thank goodness because yet again I was crying. The good news is that when I left an hour later Luke was not crying. That was a relief! And, when I picked him up at 2pm he was seemingly content. Ok. We made it! A silver lining with this daycare thing is that that night Luke slept from 9:30pm until 6am!! Guess he was all tuckered out.

On Thursday I had a better strategy: I brought reinforcement. I just couldn't go it alone again. So, at 8:30am David and I took Luke to daycare (see, I can call it that now) and dropped him off together. This time David went in the classroom with Luke to get him settled in (I just hung out by the door but could see everything and talk to the teachers.) I think we both needed to experience the setting before handing off our son. This time when we left Luke was not crying. Progress!! I did not go back to feed him that day instead leaving him there for a very long (and lonely... I missed my little man) 6 hours. When I picked him up at 2pm, he was in the arms of one of his teachers just watching her as if she was the most fascinating person on earth. It was very comforting to see. And, although it slightly hurt my feelings, I also did get comfort from the fact that when she put Luke in my arms he immediately started crying. I guess he was happy there, huh? The teachers said he was great all day and only cried when hungry. I was so relieved.

This week we will again take Luke on Tuesday and Thursday as a transition to next week when classes start back up. I feel a lot of relief because I now feel comfortable with his school. (Translation: when I drive by it I no longer feel like throwing up.) I am confident that he is in a loving, caring, and stimulating environment. I really do think that he is going to learn a lot and be well cared for. That being said, I am happy that it will only be 3 days a week!!

For Christmas Becky got us an AWESOME Flip video recorder. We love it and have snapped a bunch of little videos of Luke. However, I've been waiting for a really great one to put on the blog. However, as it turns out, at this age Luke just doesn't do anything that would make a really great video. (Let me clarify. We think everything he does is simply amazing. However, it just doesn't make for exciting video.) But, rather than just keep waiting, I decided to post one on the blog now. Here you go:

Finally, here are a couple of photos I snapped today of Luke enjoying some great quality time with his dad. Here's daddy reading to Luke:

And here they are watching football.