After losing our babysitter to a full-time job, we've started a search for day care. I would like to find a place we can take Iris part time so that I can actually make some progress on my dissertation. Evan is starting to come home early twice a week so I can leave and work on it, but that's not going to be enough. And all the potential sitters I find have full-time jobs and want to come in the evenings. So we're considering day care. Also, Iris is starting to get bored during the day and I just don't have it in me to sit and play with her all day long, especially when the house still needs to be cleaned and unpacked.
Our first visit to a local day care was this morning at 10:30am. As we left after the tour, Evan said something like, "The idea of leaving her at day care made my stomach sink." Like a vague, sinking dread. We didn't love this day care. Evan was particularly dismayed at the food offered at the day care...chicken nuggets...fruit cocktail in syrup. If Evan and I could have our way we'd take her to a day care where they served fresh cooked organic food, but I highly doubt we'll find something like that. And in any case, she's not even eating anything yet. Well, I did seem to find a rice cereal that works, but otherwise, nothing. [I'm not wild about giving her rice cereal and plan to give her avocado as her next food. I tried oats today and she didn't seem to love those.]
Evan took a mini stay-cation this week --- two and a half days off of [office] work. He has done an incredible amount of work on the house and has involved himself in Iris's bedtime routine. She is mesmerized by the guitar every time he plays it. Tonight she snuggled in to Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, and Evan's standby -- JS Bach. He plans to continue the much needed break by not working over the weekend, too. Tomorrow we'll probably go out for breakfast as long as Iris is up for it and then he plans to go back to the Brazilian jiu-jitsu training center. He went tonight for the first time in a very long time.
Iris had a rough week. Monday night we had another freaky (but shorter) maybe-SVT episode. I had forgotten to give her her Prevacid [for reflux] on Sunday so I decided to try her off it for a few days to see how she did. She still needs it, it seems. She is also teething and has been in some pain because of that. I started her back on the Prevacid and have been giving her Tylenol for the teeth so today was a pretty good day.
Back to day care. It is controversial [like most things related to parenting, and, well, mothering, specifically]. A recent Slate piece sums it up nicely. Even though Evan and I did not love this day care we visited, Iris did like it. That is, she liked the toys and the nice employees and it seemed that there was a lot of potential for stimulation and social interaction -- two things she lacks at home. Some days I am the only person she sees and even though I do think that the parent-child bond is absolutely essential to her healthy development, I do not think that it is enough for her to see only me. And it's certainly not healthy for me to be "on duty" 24/7. Here's a Forbes article summing up the link between 'intense' parenting and depression in women.
I am coping fairly well but it is very definitely time for me to get a bit more of a break than I've had. I lost my wallet and I had a mini meltdown when I realized it. This was the morning after Iris had been up several times in the night and I was sleep deprived and too tired to exercise. A bad mix. The good news is that my wallet was in the lost & found at Ikea [fully in tact]. And now I'm off to nurse Iris one more time before I fall in to bed and I hope to stay there until 4:45am when I have to give her a dose of Sildenafil.
Our first visit to a local day care was this morning at 10:30am. As we left after the tour, Evan said something like, "The idea of leaving her at day care made my stomach sink." Like a vague, sinking dread. We didn't love this day care. Evan was particularly dismayed at the food offered at the day care...chicken nuggets...fruit cocktail in syrup. If Evan and I could have our way we'd take her to a day care where they served fresh cooked organic food, but I highly doubt we'll find something like that. And in any case, she's not even eating anything yet. Well, I did seem to find a rice cereal that works, but otherwise, nothing. [I'm not wild about giving her rice cereal and plan to give her avocado as her next food. I tried oats today and she didn't seem to love those.]
Evan took a mini stay-cation this week --- two and a half days off of [office] work. He has done an incredible amount of work on the house and has involved himself in Iris's bedtime routine. She is mesmerized by the guitar every time he plays it. Tonight she snuggled in to Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, and Evan's standby -- JS Bach. He plans to continue the much needed break by not working over the weekend, too. Tomorrow we'll probably go out for breakfast as long as Iris is up for it and then he plans to go back to the Brazilian jiu-jitsu training center. He went tonight for the first time in a very long time.
Iris had a rough week. Monday night we had another freaky (but shorter) maybe-SVT episode. I had forgotten to give her her Prevacid [for reflux] on Sunday so I decided to try her off it for a few days to see how she did. She still needs it, it seems. She is also teething and has been in some pain because of that. I started her back on the Prevacid and have been giving her Tylenol for the teeth so today was a pretty good day.
Back to day care. It is controversial [like most things related to parenting, and, well, mothering, specifically]. A recent Slate piece sums it up nicely. Even though Evan and I did not love this day care we visited, Iris did like it. That is, she liked the toys and the nice employees and it seemed that there was a lot of potential for stimulation and social interaction -- two things she lacks at home. Some days I am the only person she sees and even though I do think that the parent-child bond is absolutely essential to her healthy development, I do not think that it is enough for her to see only me. And it's certainly not healthy for me to be "on duty" 24/7. Here's a Forbes article summing up the link between 'intense' parenting and depression in women.
I am coping fairly well but it is very definitely time for me to get a bit more of a break than I've had. I lost my wallet and I had a mini meltdown when I realized it. This was the morning after Iris had been up several times in the night and I was sleep deprived and too tired to exercise. A bad mix. The good news is that my wallet was in the lost & found at Ikea [fully in tact]. And now I'm off to nurse Iris one more time before I fall in to bed and I hope to stay there until 4:45am when I have to give her a dose of Sildenafil.
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