Just Making It Through

We survived last week, barely. Joe was out of town on business for much of the Great Daycare Experiment, and I was very fortunate to have the assistance of the boys' Chicago grandparents every morning with packing up for daycare and loading the boys into the van. Here is a brief summary:

Day 1: Wake the boys up early for "school" and get them packed in the car with little fussing. AJ is excited to wheel out to the car the new Elmo backpack that his Grandma Julie picked up for him. I nearly broke my back carrying David and all of the gear that he needed from the car to into the day care center--bottles, baby food, diapers, wipes, extra clothes, sunscreen, jacket, hat, etc. etc. At the end of the day, AJ's teacher told me he was a great addition to the class, which was nice to hear. The one down point was that he did not like having a stranger change his diaper and had refused a diaper change for a while, so he had an awful diaper rash. David's teacher said he was unable to nap in the crib by himself. The day care does not allow any blankets in the crib for liability reasons, and David needs his blanket near his face to fall asleep.
Day 2: AJ had a complete meltdown in the morning and wanted nothing to do with "going to school." I think it was a combination of the new routine, waking him up early in the morning and his utter exhaustion from the previous day. He normally gets to watch his half hour of tv in the morning while he lounges around the house in his PJs and leisurely eats his breakfast. The hurry! hurry! rush! rush! morning routine did not appeal to him. That night when we got home, he was screaming and sobbing as he wandered around the house, refusing to eat dinner and not wanting to be held or helped by anyone. It was a complete meltdown. He was obviously just exhausted, which made me think of my mom saying to me when I was a kid that I was just tired and would feel better after I had slept.
Day 3: We got stuck in bad traffic on the way to work and it took us an hour and 20 minutes to get to the day care center. I am so done with listening to AJ's Thomas the Train DVDs and miss my morning dose of NPR. Halfway there, AJ protested that he wanted to go back home and managed to wiggle out of one of his car seat straps, so I had to exit the tollway to get him secured again. On the plus side, David is napping for at least 20 minutes now in the crib at dayare and AJ has developed enough trust with one of his teachers to let her change his diaper.
Day 4: We had to get up extra early because I had a big conference call at 8:30 that I wanted to take from my desk. At 7:15 as we were cruising up the tollway, I heard the telltale sounds of stomach flu from the backseat. It was David, who had gotten sick all over himself, his blanket and his carseat. So much for that new minivan smell. Did I mention we bought a minivan a month ago? The daycare doesn't take sick kids. Conference call is cancelled. With our nanny out and Joe in New York, I have no other backup and have to call in sick.
Day 5: As I am waiting for the temp nanny from the agency to arrive, I check my cell phone and see she texted me the night before to ask if I still wanted her to come. Um...yes! I call her and she makes it to our place in 30 minutes, but I still have to cancel my first meeting of the day.

Lessons learned...packing up kids for daycare takes planning and lots of preparation the night before...work is more stressful when you are thinking about your kids and how they are functioning...always confirm the temp nanny the night before...and never let Joe go out of town again! (unless I get to go with him...)