One day while driving along with the kiddos, we passed two women running together on the sidewalk. Evelyn was all excited and yelled, "Look mommy, cool runner girls like you!!" :)



Tuesday, November 6, 2007

daycare woes --- already?

So -- Evelyn started the new daycare last week. Everything seems to be going okay so far. I stayed with her for an hour or so the first morning so that she was comfortable with the new place, kids, etc. She immediately started crawling around and playing with the new toys. Jim and Gay (the daycare providers) said that she is doing great --- taking good naps, only fussing when she is tired, she is eating normally, etc. I am happy so far with the new location and Evelyn seems to be adapting okay.

Here is where things start to go wrong... On Friday Travis picks her up (which I had been doing all week). When he got there, Evelyn had a new bruise on her forehead, she was missing a sock, and her eyes were red and watery like she had just been crying. The sock isn't a big deal (Gay found the missing sock over the weekend and gave it to me on Monday morning). The bruise isn't too big of a deal -- Evelyn had given herself a bruise a few weeks earlier in the same exact spot. She waves her arms like crazy with a toy in her hand, and bonks herself on the head once in a while. I realize she is going to have many more bumps and bruises in the future -- some of them we will witness, and some of them will happen at daycare.

The red eyes was a tiny bit of a concern though... Travis didn't ask them if she had been crying, so we don't know if she was crying or just rubbing her eyes. I always ask them at the end of the day how she did. Especially the first few days, I wanted to know if she was crying at all -- because crying and fussing is really out of character for her unless she is extremely tired (we are lucky, I know). I just want to be sure that Gay and Jim are being open about her behavior during the day -- if Evelyn isn't happy, I want to know.

To top that all off, she came home from daycare on Monday with a runny nose. She then proceeded to vomit up her dinner (all over herself and her high chair -- that was fun to clean up after she went to bed). She slept okay last night -- but when I got her up in the morning, she had a ton of dried snot under her nose and she was extremely congested. It is that time of year --- so I can't really complain... But still -- Evelyn hasn't really been sick or had a cold yet -- and now one week into the new daycare she has a pretty bad cold.

I am not giving up yet --- Evelyn does seem happy in the mornings when we go there, and she is always playing with the other kids in the afternoon when I pick her up --- I guess we just had a short series of unfortunate events that are starting to put a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully these events will stop soon!

3 comments:

Kara said...

I am so sorry to hear about the daycare concerns. I know what you mean about the hubby not asking questions. I always ask questions, how did they eat, how were they, what did they eat, etc.

I would also ask them if they are sanitizing their toys every night. I am sure they are, but that could be why she caught a cold so quickly. I hope she feels better soon. Also, glad to hear that she is playing with the other kiddos and having a good time. My girls squeal when they get in the door to daycare. They love seeing Ms. Melody!!!

AJ said...

I know it's a tough situation. You want them to receive care as similar to what you could give them as possible while you're gone.

Here's what I've discovered: Noah sometimes cries at day care because there are 6 kids and he can not always get what he wants. There were a couple of times before he was mobile that I came in and he was safely in the swing, but he was screaming his head off because he wanted to be held. My day care lady was helping one of the other kids in the bathroom, or making snack, etc, so she couldn't hold him. Even though it's a totally rational reason for her not to be holding him, and the only way to teach him he can't be held 24/7, it still upset me to hear him screaming like that. I knew it happened while I was at work too. But I console myself with the fact that I sometimes can't give in to his every whim either. There are times when I am doing laundry or in the bathroom, or something, and I have to just let him cry for a few minutes.

Ava was a more independent/happy go lucky baby. She didn't cry at home much, but she had 100% of my attention because there weren't any other children. At day care, she was quicker to cry. I think whenever there are more kids together, even the happiest babies have more of a tendency to cry because they are sharing the attention of the provider, as opposed to getting 100% attention from parents.

All this aside, trust your gut. If these things blow over and you start to feel better, that's great. If not, and you continue to not feel comfortable, don't hesitate to switch. You know what's best!

The Kirkwood Family said...

Diddo to the comments above. I am really lucky to have such an awesome daycare. Josh is the only boy in a room of 8 infants... and his two teachers are always excited when he arrives. They have been great at letting me know when things aren't normal for him, but it took a good 2-3 weeks for them to get to know him.

About the bruise - that would concern me too. Josh has been bonking himself in the head lately with various toys so I am gonna have to watch for them!

Last - I wanna see preggo pics!