A few months before Noah was born, my husband and I did what we thought was the norm – i.e. shopping for daycares to enroll our newborn in once my maternity leave was up. Unfortunately, our top choice had a 1 year waitlist for newborns. We learned that daycare for newborns can be competitive because the newborn group typically requires more supervision and has a smaller staff to infant ratio. We still put Noah on the waitlist, hoping he would get in the daycare before the year was up, but he didn’t. We ended up sending him to another daycare conveniently located about 5 minutes from where we were living at the time. 

Adjusting to daycare

Once I returned to work, we sent Noah to daycare and our new family schedule was as follows:

5:45 am – Mom and Dad wake up.

6:15 am – Mom pumps for about 30-45 minutes while eating a cold breakfast.

6:15 to 7 am – Dad wakes Noah up, feeds him milk, and gets dressed.

8 am to 4 pm – Work with pumping during lunch.

7 am – We all leave the house.

7:15 am – Drop Noah off at daycare.

5 pm to 7:30 pm – pick Noah up from daycare, bath, milk, and bed for him.

10 pm – Mom pumps, sleeps, and repeats.

On a typical weekday, Noah would be at daycare for 9-10 hours a day, and we would spend a measly 2.5 hours with him in the evening. The actual time with him was unpleasant because he was usually tired and cranky by then. He had trouble sleeping, eating, and drinking at daycare. Every day, as soon as we got home, we headed straight to bath, dinner, milk, and sleep for Noah, leaving us with little time to cuddle and play with our precious baby. By the end of the day, I always felt tired and disappointed
because we had zero time to relax and just be with each other. 

Daycare woes + sickness

My husband and I quickly realized that our new lifestyle was not what we wanted for our family. Aside from the daily grind of our schedule, it bothered me that Noah was spending the majority of his waking hours with strangers; and, I would have loved to take care of him. Noah started getting sick a few weeks after he started daycare, thus adding on another layer of stress for us.  He repeatedly got ear infections with each cold, and it culminated in pneumonia that winter. I was so worried because he was on multiple antibiotics at the same time.

The lowest point was when the whole family was sick, and all 3 of us were on antibiotics. I struggled to keep up with my job as I juggled a kid who got sick on and off frequently. I left work early or missed days all together when he got sick.  I knew it was common for kids to get sick when they first go daycare but didn’t foresee the impact it would have on my work performance. Due to the nature of our jobs at the time, my husband could not leave work, so my day was typically interrupted every time Noah got sick.