Time has flown by...

So, I cannot believe how fast my weeks are flying by...I think it is going be even faster than they did when I was pregnant! Andrew is about 15 weeks old (3.5 months in my head), and I swear he looks more like a little boy each and every day!!! I am not sure if I have shared the fact that he is in daycare full time, and ladies, if you have reservations about it, believe me it is going to be really beneficial. I think pretty much since the first week of being there, we have been there for about a month; he has been sleeping through the night. And I am not just talking about 6 hours, I mean sometimes close to 12 hours straight! Man that sold me right there :) Had I known, I would have started daycare earlier and just hung out there with him until I was ready to go back to work.

I do miss him a lot, but I know this decision was the best one for me and my family. Our time might be limited with him, but we get good quality time. And he always saves his best laughs and smiles with us first thing in the morning when we sneak in there to wake him up...yes ladies you heard that right, we are waking him up! Not to mention he is learning to be more social not only with children, but also with other adults. I love that he recognizes me, and knows my voice now, but I want to teach him that mommy isn't the only person he can trust. I heard that around 3 months old they go through a period where they become very clingy, and I hope by introducing him to daycare a couple of weeks before he was three months old kind of eliminates that issue.

I do have some advice to those of you that do daycare...What I would recommend is that on your first day, make it a "trial" day (if they don't offer one) and try dropping off around 10ish. I made the mistake of going around 8 and that is right smack when everybody is just arriving and there was a lot of crying babies. The next time I dropped off later and it was much easier on both of us. I had two days that I hung out there before my first real day at work. I was able to hang out with him for a couple of hours and just get used to all the new sounds and activities.

My second piece of advice is try looking for a daycare close to your work vs being close to your home. There is definitely a benefit for being close to home, because the responsibility is equal among parents for drop off and pick up...but I have found in my situation it is much better the opposite. True Joey doesn't have to worry about if he works late who is going to pick up Andrew, which is a good thing since he has a job that it could become a problem. And I have to always leave the house first and it adds more time exclusively on me for travel. But since I am only about two miles away from daycare, I have the opportunity to drop by during lunch daily if I choose to. I usually will work through lunch at my desk, and then go visit him for about half an hour. Sometimes I get to feed him, other times we get to play and other times we just snuggle. Plus since it is close to my work, if we have a problem, and we run out of diapers or clothes during the day, I can run and pick something up during lunch, drop it off and say a quick hello and make it back to work on time...Just some things to think about.

I will leave you with a picture I captured during lunch one day of Andrew ACTUALLY enjoying tummy time!

mel