Handing My Heart To A Stranger...

Look at this 20 month old going on 5 years old, walking into daycare, running over to her friends and not even waving back at me. 😭 No one prepared me for that.

Here I am trying to plan the whole “drop and run” that mamas talk about and she dropped and ran on me! ME! 😂

She’s been so well taken care of by her Grandma. I knew it would be hard to hand my heart over to a stranger. It’s not easy to leave your perfect, tiny little human with other people—no matter how loving or qualified the daycare center may be.

But, it is good for her. I think her speech will grow having other kids to interact with, and she will learn so many new things.

She had a great first day! The daycare we go to uses an app to update parents throughout the day about meals, activities, diaper changes, etc. I feel a lot more at ease knowing what she’s doing and being able to ask her teachers how she’s feeling.

When I brought her back after her first day, she ran over to this group of girls. One of the girls screamed “WAYWIN IS HERE!” 😍 I stood in the doorway crying because she’s so grown and already has a little girl gang. 😂 There are also a lot of pictures of her playing with the boys more than the girls! #ohboy

Let me explain the picture above: I placed “smiley faces” on the kids in the picture because their privacy deserves to be protected. You might be wondering why one has a green face. Well, when I dropped Waylin off on her first day, that little precious petri dish was snotty as all hell, coughing, and looking really sick. I kept thinking in my head, “Please don’t get her sick. Please don’t get her sick!”

WELP, Waylin was sick after her first two days of daycare!

Honestly, taking care of a sick baby is actually not my strong suit. I never really know what I am doing or if I’m doing enough. When Waylin was a baby, I would check her temperature almost daily because WHAT IF she had a temperature? I’m horrible at knowing if someone feels like they have a fever; I almost always will tell you the answer is yes lol.

Oh my goodness! Speaking of checking here temperature all the time, she used to do this HILARIOUS laugh whenever we would check her temperature. It reminds me of the opener to the show “24” and I think she would make Jack Bauer proud!

I’m also someone who is super conscious about medicine. I don’t like giving anything unless it is necessary, but then again, it’s hard to determine that threshold. I learned from our ER night that a combination of Motrin and Tylenol really help with a lot of cold-like illnesses.

While taking care of her, it also hit me hard. I NEVER get sick, so I was surprised by how cruddy I felt. Thank goodness Way and I are over it now, but when we were going through it, I was really struggling. I think Ben was so terrified he was going to catch our bug, so I still had to take care of a sick baby while I was sick myself.

It is WAAAAAY WORSE than taking care of a baby with a hangover; although that is rough too! Luckily, I don’t really drink, but man! When you’re sick, the last thing you want to do is take care of everyone else, clean, cook dinner, etc. I made it out alive, but guess what? Ben is now sick!

Another FUN (read with extreme sarcasm) part of our daycare experience is Waylin getting ringworm right after healing from her bug! I mean…really? First of all, gross. Second of all, great timing…because I JUST inquired about being part of the PTA at the daycare. Soooo now I’m probably known as “ringworm mom.” When I called the director to notify them, she told me she had never had a case of ringworm in her facility since she opened that location. So much so, that she had to call DCS to find out what the protocol on when Way could come back to daycare after finding the ringworm! * slowly dies of embarrassment inside *

I know this was just a charming sneak peek at our mucus-filled life ahead.