Operation Childcare: Solved! Hopefully.

I want to thank you all for your kind words, texts, calls, e-mails, comments, etc. of encouragement after my first day back yesterday.  It meant more than you know and truly made today that much easier!  Today was slightly better than yesterday, at least in terms of tears - there were less today.  I honestly think having Dan stay with Lilly yesterday and Mom with her today and most of tomorrow made the transition so much easier.  While this week is kind of crazy in terms of childcare, knowing she's with someone familiar probably lessened my anxiety a little.  Now if I could just figure out some sort of groove for the mornings, we'd be set!  More on that later.


Quite a few of you have been asking me what we decided to do about childcare, so I thought I'd use this post to update you.  I have blogged on this topic a few times before (here and here in my typical long-winded great detail), and the last time I blogged we had researched daycares, gone for visits and been put on several waiting lists.  While we liked the idea of a nanny, we didn't feel like we could justify the cost, as it looked like it was going to be quite a bit more expensive.  We did not originally anticipate needing childcare until the beginning of July.  If Lilly had been born on or around her due date, my 16 weeks of leave would have gotten me into mid June, and then our Moms were going to help out for two more weeks.  All of the daycares told us that this greatly increased our chances of getting in, as that is apparently the time of year when kids move up classes and things get rearranged.  Because she wanted to make her grand entrance earlier than anticipated, in true Diva fashion, it's put us in a little bit of a childcare bind.  Dan has been calling each of the daycares where we are on waiting lists every day for the past few weeks to see where we stand.  What you have to understand is that we tried to be VERY prepared about this - we knew the best daycares were extremely hard to get into - and we have been on some of the lists for almost a year.  As of last week, we had moved up to third on the list at our top choice.  They told us this could mean two weeks or two months, there was no way to tell and we'd have to just wait it out. Great.  


Luckily for us, my Mom said she would be able to help us until we worked something out.  However, she thought my return to work was next week, and unfortunately this week she couldn't help us out the whole week.  What that meant for us this week is: Dan took vacation on Monday and took care of L, Mom came this morning and kept her today and is keeping her part of the day tomorrow.  I'm working from home after lunch tomorrow afternoon and Thursday to take care of her, and I have PTO on Friday for my cousin's wedding.  


Sometime last week, a friend of ours got in touch with us and told us that someone he worked with who happened to live in our neighborhood currently has a nanny and was looking for a way to defer the cost/a possible nanny share.  This news came at an excellent time, because we still hadn't figured out what we were going to do.  In the interest of time/lengthiness, the short of it is this: this couple just so happens to live directly behind us.  They have an 18-month old, Callie, whom this nanny has cared for since her mother had to go back to work 8 weeks postpartum.  The nanny was hoping for a few more hours, and the couple was hoping for less of a financial burden.  Callie is in a preschool (actually it's more of a mothers morning out program) at a local church three days per week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:30a - 1:00p).  The nanny keeps her the rest of the time.


We went to meet this couple last week and really hit it off, and we are really excited about this opportunity.  The Lord truly does answer prayers, because the situation we've come up with is the best of both worlds for Dan and I (he wanted daycare, I wanted a nanny), and it literally fell into our laps at the perfect time since we were in a bit of a childcare bind.  We've called and Lilly is first on the waiting list for the preschool, which runs the same as the school year: September - May.  I have the best boss in the world, who generously agreed to let me work from home two days per week, on Mondays and Fridays (honestly, best boss I've ever had or will ever have, hands down).  So, if this works out, for there rest of the summer, L will stay with Callie and the nanny Tuesday - Thursday, and I'll get to be at home with her on Monday and Friday.  In September, she'll go to preschool for half a day M, W and F, so the nanny will have her for 2.5 days/week - all day Tuesday and Thursday, and Wednesday afternoon.  This will also give me a little bit of a break if there's anything pressing that I need to do for work on Monday and Friday mornings while she's at school.  She will have plenty of one-on-one attention from both the nanny and I, and will also be socialized with other children at daycare.  It also doesn't hurt that this is going to save us a TON of money - as in at least a car payment - per month.  Thank you, Jesus.  We are going to meet with the nanny tomorrow afternoon, and pending anything crazy happening, we're doing a trial run on Thursday morning.  I have to be in the office for a meeting, anyway, so we'll leave Lilly with the  nanny (and Callie) until around lunch time on Thursday.  If all goes well, we'll start her with the nanny next week.


I must mention here that Mom spoiled me today with REALLY cute picture text updates.  I may have to ask the nanny to do the same.  :-)  Here are the photo updates I got, along with the messages my Mom sent with them:

Making a present for Grandmommy (her words not mine)

Nap time Mommy

Baby no. 1

Talking to Grandmommy after my 2.5 hour nap!

While the following pictures are unrelated, I thought they were too funny not to share:

After work walk with Mommy, Daddy and big sis Layla

Dan "teaching Lilly how to crawl."  Fool.

Leaving Lilly has been one of the hardest things I've had to do so far, but I can't tell you how wonderful it is to know that she is in excellent hands and to come home to her sweet smiling face.  It gives me something to look forward to, and I think it even maybe makes my days pass a little more quickly because I count down the  minutes until I get to see her again.


Hope your Tuesday was fantastic!  Have you voted today (both in the primaries here in NC and for our blog?!)?  ;-)


Sarah