Much to my chagrin, our little dude spends some of his hours in daycare. If I could have it my way, I'd be a full time stay at home mom, and I'd work full time too. I just flat love both my jobs, there are no two ways about it... Since my wish for double the hours in a day is yet to be granted, the hubs and I have worked out *the best possible schedule* to minimize little dude's time in the arms of other caregivers while still allowing both of us to work full time.
He's been at daycare a few weeks now (I've been back at work that long too), and during the first couple weeks, I would drop him off and promptly cry my way to the office, which is a 2 minute drive << it's so close I could throw a stone and hit the daycare>>. One word: MISERY. After the initial 2 weeks I think it sunk in to a certain degree that this is our new normal, and I find myself feeling better about the setup.
There are 2 women who care for the babies in the room where our little dude stays, and I like them both very much. They're great with the babies, and I trust them with my son << those are HUGE words coming from the mouth of a new mother, FYI >>.
Here's a recap of a recent happening:
I arrive at 1:30 to pick up the munchkin, and Miss L tells me they made an executive decision not to give him his second bottle because he had *just* started asking for it and they thought I'd prefer to feed him << our little dude is breastfed exclusively, whether it comes from the boob or the bottle >>. Little did they know I had *just* finished pumping at work before I went to pick him up. Effectively he had an empty tummy and I had empty milk jugs <<that's actually a myth- when nursing, the "girls" are never actually empty >>. So I pop the little dude into his car seat thinking it'll be a quick drive home and I can feed him a bottle from the comfort of his rocker.
WRONG.
Two minutes into the 10 - 12 minute car ride home he is fired up, and I mean FIRED UP. The poor kid was wailing. Now don't get me wrong- baby crying in the car is not uncommon, but when I know he's crying because he's starving or sitting in a lake of pooh or some other discomfort that I can remedy, it's heart wrenching. And I knew for a fact he was hungry.
Arriving to a loooong red light intersection just as it turns red, a brilliant idea also arrived to my mind. I grab the bottle that he did eat from at daycare << that I know for a fact Miss L rinses but doesn't wash >> and I put in exactly 4 oz of my still warm, recently pumped milk. I reassemble the bottle, push the front passenger seat as far forward as it will go, and I pull the little dude's seat as far forward as it will go too << our compact SUV has a back row of seats that can be moved forward or back just like the front seats >>. I flip his sun cover and pop the bottle into his mouth. He's not big enough or coordinated enough to hold the bottle on his own, so I drove home holding a bottle in baby's mouth with one hand while driving with the other.
To my credit, there was no music or phone to distract me, and I was entirely focused on safe driving skills while my little man sucked down his milk as if he hadn't eaten in days. The drive home consisted of a short stint on the interstate (I had to merge right once), a merge to the left off the interstate, followed by 3 left turns (2 of those at traffic lights), and 1 right turn. It was about 1:30 in the afternoon- not exactly a high traffic rush hour.
Baby was quiet and even a little bit sated by the time we got home, at which point I finished feeding him properly.
Does this one count as a New Parent Win or a New Parent Fail?
He's been at daycare a few weeks now (I've been back at work that long too), and during the first couple weeks, I would drop him off and promptly cry my way to the office, which is a 2 minute drive << it's so close I could throw a stone and hit the daycare>>. One word: MISERY. After the initial 2 weeks I think it sunk in to a certain degree that this is our new normal, and I find myself feeling better about the setup.
There are 2 women who care for the babies in the room where our little dude stays, and I like them both very much. They're great with the babies, and I trust them with my son << those are HUGE words coming from the mouth of a new mother, FYI >>.
Here's a recap of a recent happening:
I arrive at 1:30 to pick up the munchkin, and Miss L tells me they made an executive decision not to give him his second bottle because he had *just* started asking for it and they thought I'd prefer to feed him << our little dude is breastfed exclusively, whether it comes from the boob or the bottle >>. Little did they know I had *just* finished pumping at work before I went to pick him up. Effectively he had an empty tummy and I had empty milk jugs <<that's actually a myth- when nursing, the "girls" are never actually empty >>. So I pop the little dude into his car seat thinking it'll be a quick drive home and I can feed him a bottle from the comfort of his rocker.
WRONG.
Two minutes into the 10 - 12 minute car ride home he is fired up, and I mean FIRED UP. The poor kid was wailing. Now don't get me wrong- baby crying in the car is not uncommon, but when I know he's crying because he's starving or sitting in a lake of pooh or some other discomfort that I can remedy, it's heart wrenching. And I knew for a fact he was hungry.
Arriving to a loooong red light intersection just as it turns red, a brilliant idea also arrived to my mind. I grab the bottle that he did eat from at daycare << that I know for a fact Miss L rinses but doesn't wash >> and I put in exactly 4 oz of my still warm, recently pumped milk. I reassemble the bottle, push the front passenger seat as far forward as it will go, and I pull the little dude's seat as far forward as it will go too << our compact SUV has a back row of seats that can be moved forward or back just like the front seats >>. I flip his sun cover and pop the bottle into his mouth. He's not big enough or coordinated enough to hold the bottle on his own, so I drove home holding a bottle in baby's mouth with one hand while driving with the other.
To my credit, there was no music or phone to distract me, and I was entirely focused on safe driving skills while my little man sucked down his milk as if he hadn't eaten in days. The drive home consisted of a short stint on the interstate (I had to merge right once), a merge to the left off the interstate, followed by 3 left turns (2 of those at traffic lights), and 1 right turn. It was about 1:30 in the afternoon- not exactly a high traffic rush hour.Baby was quiet and even a little bit sated by the time we got home, at which point I finished feeding him properly.
Does this one count as a New Parent Win or a New Parent Fail?
