Daycare :(

Yesterday was my 1st day to visit daycares. I had already did some preliminary searching. I had called around to get prices (our area is about 720 - 1050 a month), looked on the Texas Department of Family & Protective Services website for their 2 year inspection summary, & asked friends/coworkers for referrals.

Well it started off horrible. At the 1st daycare it took them a long time to even notice I was there, they were caught off guard by my visit, didn’t have any information for me to take home, too small, not clean enough, & the care givers looked like they just rolled out of bed (yuck). The next one was much better! Very professional when I showed up. They gave me a packet of information, a tour, & explained details about the infant room, but……..the facility was HUGE. All together it could accommodate 250 kids (wow), & they didn’t know if there would be an opening. The 3rd daycare looked great, smelled clean, very bright & fresh, but no one was available to give me a tour. Plus this one was a tad more out of the way then Ryan & I preferred. The last one……was just right!!! It had the best location for both Ryan & I to pick up & drop off, it was a referral from a co-worker, inspection summary was good, great infant curriculum, price was right, & had a monitoring system (I can watch my baby all day long from my work desk). I liked that when I entered the building I couldn’t get into the daycare until someone buzzed me in (later was informed parents get the code to the door & it changes frequently). I was greeted by the director who asked me general questions (name, due date, how did u hear about us, etc) before we proceeded. Then she gave me a tour of the infant room which was clean/fresh, each baby had their own personal crib, all the babies looked happy, the care givers looked friendly & nurturing (playing with all the little ones), great amount of space, lots of toys/activities for the babies, & monitored all day. Ah………what a relief! So I know we have potentially found 1 daycare that would be suitable.

I still want to visit 2 or 3 more this month (just to know that I did my best looking for 1). Once I narrow it down to 2, Ryan & I will visit them together & decide where our little girl will go. It's kind of scary knowing one day we will leave her in the care of a stranger, but I know people do it all the time :(. I've also decided that Ryan will have to take her to daycare the 1st day because I will probably cry. I'm already considering working 1/2 days the 1st week I'm back….and don’t kid yourself, I will be watching that daycare monitor all day on 1 of my 3 computer screens at work (haha!)

So the search is still on………….