Day Care Part 3

So in the last Day Care update I mentioned that a parent of a former student of mine might be interested in watching Miss A starting in mid-August.  (Remember a great girl is going to watch her at our house through the summer - Thank goodness!)  Today I went to meet with her and it went so well.  I am super excited to have Avery hang out with her.  The best part is that when the school has a break or holiday, I do not have to pay if I want to keep Avery at home.  She wants to be with HER children on those days, just like I WANT to be with MINE!  It is all working out better than I could have ever imagined.

I only have about 2 more weeks before I go back to work and am sad about it, but trying to enjoy the time I have left with her.  I just remind myself that I am only working 4 days a week, her dad will be with her on Mondays and I get home around 3:30.  I will have to let you know how the transition goes.  Cross your fingers for smoothly!

Day Care Part 2

I am so happy to report that Miss A will be in her own home until mid-August.  We found a great girl, the daughter of a co-worker, who is willing to come to our house and watch her.  She is super nice and is willing to do it for an amount we can afford.  I feel so much better knowing that she will be in her own home, with her things and her crib until she is about 8 months old!!  Yeah!!  And we worked it out so that the husband will take Monday off,  I will take Friday off, and this way she is only being watched Tuesday through Thursday from about 9am to 3pm.  I can live with that....for now!

And to top it all off a parent of a former student of mine (I teach 2nd grade) has possibly offered to watch Avery at her home starting mid/late August.  This is not set in stone, but sounds like a great option!  Her own children are some of the best behaved students at my school and loved by all their teachers.  Best of all I can just take Avery to work with me in the morning, the parent will drop her kids off and pick mine up.  And at the end of the school day she will drop Avery off to me and pick her kids up from school.

Someone once told me that somehow all finds a way of working out!  About a month ago I was feeling like that was not going to be the case.  But now look!  We have had great people come forward to offer to watch Avery so that she doesn't need to go to a day care facility anytime soon!  This makes mommy very happy (as I am not sure how much Miss A would have noticed or cared)!  Sometimes it comes down to what makes the parents comfortable!!

Day Care Part 1

So it is inevitable.  Avery will have to go to day care.  I had a good cry about it this morning.  I decided to start my research with a blanket "day care in sf" search on google.  I found one in my neighborhood that looked like it would be interesting.  After I clicked around on the site for a few minutes I noticed they had photos of their space.  As soon as I clicked and saw a room full of cheap looking playpen type cribs in rows I broke down in tears.  I called my husband hysterical, scared the daylights out of him (he thought something was wrong with Miss A) and told him about my findings.  He promptly told me to calm down and that we would not send Avery somewhere that made me cry just at the sight of it.  So went the start of my search for day care.

But, this afternoon I am feeling much different.  Why?  Because I got smart.  I sent out an email to friends, family and families at the school I teach at asking for recommendations.  Within an hour a parent emailed me back with a name and a number.  I immediately called and left a message with a woman named Elaine.  Within hours she called me back.  She did NOT have any openings for infants, but she was a wealth of information!!  She gave me names and numbers of small family childcare places, as well as of nannies.  She also said she would email me standard information I should be armed with as I start to look into day care for Avery.  When I hung up the phone, Avery, who was eating while I chatted with Elaine, was smiling at me and I finally felt like this will be doable.

So far my advice for researching day care, if you must, is to send out an email to people you know and trust, asking for their recommendations.  It makes sense right?  Next step is to make more phone calls with Elaine's recommendations and cross my fingers that we find someone we love!  To be continued...