Back to work...and Lilly starts daycare

Unfortunatly, I had to go back to work on January 3 (along with everyone else who had taken time off for Christmas/New Year's) and Lilly had to start daycare. Overall, things have gone really well.

I jumped right back in at work, like I hadn't ever been gone. I had tons of work to catch up on even through I had been working a bit while out on maternity leave, so I had lots to keep me busy (and my mind of where Lilly was!)

Lilly has adjusted better than I had expected to daycare life. Perhaps it is because we had gone to the building just about every day to get Brayden so the building itself was not unfamiliar. We also made several "mini" visits to her class during the month of December. The 1st visit, we stayed for about an hour & just played in her class and chatted with her teachers. The next 2 visits, I left her in the class for 30-45 minutes so that they could try giving her a bottle. I *thought* Lilly was going to take to the bottle easily, but at the beginning of December, she decided that she wanted NOTHING to do with a bottle (she had taken one multiple times prior to this). She continued to fight it during the 2 visits, but at least these days gave both Lilly & her teachers time to get to know each other. I REALLY like both of her teachers. They are both very sweet, soft-spoken ladies who love the babies in their class. Their happiness and desire to be there is evident in the way they act with the babies and with how they run the classroom. I am very comfortable with where she is and the care Lilly is receiving while I am at work.

The 1st week was a little rough with the whole bottle thing, but by Friday, Lilly had decided that the bottle was her friend! Whew! I knew that eventually she would give in, but she is a STUBBORN little thing (hmmm...wonder where she gets that from?) and I didn't want the misery to last too much longer.

Lilly ready for her 1st day of school

I think it also helped that I was able to work 1/2 days the first two weeks that I was back (thanks to working some on maternity leave). Not only was it nice for me not to have to work 8+ hours from the start, but it was nice to slowly transition Lilly into a full day at daycare. It was also nice for me to transition back into the full-time working mom status...trying to figure out how to get everything done to keep the house somewhat clean, laundry done, food on the table, etc. I think we have about figured out a schedule, but it would be helpful if Lilly would actually sleep at night :) Oh well...one day she will, right?!?!