We’ve had another interesting week – this time due to our day care situation. We’ve been very happy with our daycare at Brandi’s for the past 2 1/2 years ever since our original day care was shut down. I remember my mind racing with possibilities about a year and a half ago when she said she and her husband were hoping to add another child to go along with their 5 and 3 year old girls. So when she said she was pregnant in March we were only somewhat surprised. Brandi is due on October 1 and she had c-sections before so she said her birth was going to be scheduled for Sep 18. Then she’d take 3 weeks off after the baby came, so we’d take some time off work, take a little vacation, and ask our moms to help out and watch the kids for a few days.
Well, the best laid plans are made to be broken. Last Tuesday, July 17, Brandi started to have some contractions. She went to the hospital to get medicine to slow down the labor. Becky stayed home for the day and I worked from home so we covered that day. Brandi called later that night to say she needed to be on bed rest for the rest of the week. So Wednesday we had to take Amelia to the doctor in the morning for her latest MRI (which thankfully showed no structural inconsistencies in her brain) then we called in my mom to help out for the afternoon. On Thursday we tried something different – we called a babysitter (a 15 year old girl from town) to watch the girls from 9-12 while I stayed home and tried to work. That worked okay – she did fine, but the girls didn’t fall in love with her or anything. Then Friday I had to get into work for a customer meeting and the prep beforehand, so I called on my mom again to assist for the morning. I came home at 1 and we made it through the week. I called the local day care center that afternoon as a backup plan to see if they would have any room. They said they would have room from now until the start of school starting Tuesday.
Plan B needed to be used because Brandi called Friday night to say she was on strict bed rest until the baby comes. So far she’s doing okay, but they gave her a test that said she’s 98% likely to have her baby within two weeks. Based on that, we decided we’d try the local day care center.
Monday was another day for me to stay home and call on my mom again for the afternoon. I took the girls into the day care center in the morning to check it out and to pick up all the paperwork that I’d need to sign. The center has been renovated since we first visited three years ago and they’ve segregated the sections better now so it’s not quite as crazy as it used to be. Katie enjoyed her time there while Amelia and I walked through the whole facility. After our brief visit, we decided we would take the girls there for the next six weeks.
We arrived at the center on Tuesday morning with some trepidation, just nervious about how it was going to go. Katie and Amelia both did okay with the drop-off, they were clingy, but given what was thrust on them, I’m surprised they did as well as they did. We tried to come back a little early and when we got back, the girls were very happy to see us. They did OK though; they enjoyed the day and liked playing with all the toys and kids that were there. Today was about the same – they didn’t want us to go, but by the end of the day they had a good enough time.
I’m glad everything is going so well thus far, but I still have some concerns that (as Becky’s friend from town says), the center is where they take the kids that get kicked out of other day cares. I’m sure it will be a little rougher than they are used to, so I’m just hopeful that the rowdiness doesn’t affect the girls. This may be a case of where we’ll try to take some vacation in the next few weeks just to give them a little break, but we’ll see how it goes.
So we are hopeful of health for Brandi’s baby and hopeful this day care center situation can be positive for all of us.
Eric's space 