Ongoing Mission. 3-2-12

So, I need to get my act together about daycare. I wish I could just go to work with Boop attached, but I know it is not realistic. I called the daycare that I like again, hoping that we had made some movement from my last call. The last time I spoke with them, they said we were 27. This time, we were 34?? I think what happened is that they have 2 numbers: siblings and ‘waitlist’. When they say ‘waitlist,’ that’s not the real number. It doesn’t include the siblings of children that currently attend; they have priority. There are currently 15 siblings that have priority. So, I’m guessing we went from 27 to 19…maybe. I’m not sure what the 27 included. It would be hard to believe the number went down by 8 with that many siblings and considering that the number hardly moved for so long. Anyway it’s unlikely that we’ll get in within 2 weeks.

My friend, A, gave me the name of a friend of hers and her babysitter. Hopefully, that will work out. I went and met with her on Thursday. Boy, it’s really a bit of a trek. I made the trip in 15 min., but if there is any traffic at all, the commute could triple. She was certainly experienced with 4 children of her own; 1 is about a year old who she keeps during the day. She nursed her children but has given one of them formula, doesn’t use pacifiers, had two of her own children who liked to be cuddled, and uses cloth diapers. She sits about 6 children but some days she has none, with 4 on a day or two.

Beneath this quiet facade a storm is brewing.

In some ways, it may be a better situation than daycare, as Boop could get more personal attention. When I was there, her niece and nephew came over while their mother was running errands. Her niece might have been 5 or 6 and was talking to me as the woman took her year-old son to his crib. The niece informed me that the woman let her son “cry it out” to go to sleep. That worried me, as I didn’t get that impression from what she was saying before. At the beginning of the visit, I explained that Boop really doesn’t cry it out, she just takes a breath and keeps crying, she will turn purple, and we discussed strategies to calm Boop. My next step is to talk to A’s friend to discuss some of my impressions, figure out a way to broach the ‘crying it out’ issue again, and then, if all goes well, figure out a day next week to take Boop there.