Rachel started her first day of real daycare on Monday. She is attending a place in Boulder, close to the house we are renting, so both Jason and I have access to pick her up or drop her off without needing the car. She will attend Mon, Wed, Thurs, and Fri full days until the middle of March when she can also go on Tuesdays.
Monday happened to be President's Day... one of those holidays that half the people celebrate and half do not. Jason had the day off but daycare was open. So we decided to take advantage of this rare opportunity and drop Rachel off and then go skiing together at Keystone. Rachel did fine and we enjoyed skiing in the new snow and cold wind.
On Monday I also officially accepted a job at Altitude Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine. We are still negotiating a start date, but I will start sometime in March with 20 hours a week and work up to about 32-35 hours per week as I build up my caseload. I'm very excited and cannot wait to get going.
Rachel has been quite clingy lately again and wanting lots of extra snuggle time. She is done with breast milk, although she keeps trying to ask for it and is frustrated with me when she is offered whole milk instead. She has not had a nap in her crib at home in the last 2 weeks. I'm not sure what is going on there. She will nap in the car, in her stroller, in the backpack, at daycare... but at home in the crib she cries 'mamma mamma mamma' over and over again. I've let her do this for up to an hour at a time several times and she won't give in and go to sleep.
This morning Rachel was not happy to go to daycare, which we call 'school' for her. She knew I would be leaving her and clung to me and cried and cried when I left. It was tough. I have the morning to myself and had a fantastic workout at the gym and will run errands before picking her up at lunch. I hope to have a daycare routine in place nicely and have Rachel used to these new routines before I start work.
One of our goals in weaning Rachel was to hope for a longer sleep in. Rachel used to wake at 4:30am every morning, nurse, and go back to bed until about 6am. I would say weaning has not changed the picture too much. She usually stirs at about 4:45am and we let her cry until 5:20am when Jason wakes for work anyway, and then we start our day. Occasionally she has put herself back to sleep for an extra 20 min or so. So it seems we are resolved to sleep from 9:30pm until 5am and hope that Rachel sleeps from 7:30pm until 5am.
One last story. On Tuesday a group of moms organized a child sharing set up where 4 babies and 2 moms gathered at one house so 2 other moms could go ski. We carted all our things to the house, got the kids settled, and my friend Maggie and I left to go ski at our local mountain Eldora. It was cold and windy and we haven't had much snow lately, but a morning without kids must be taken advantage of. However, the wind was so bad at the hill that the chairs were closed, so Maggie and I had a cup of tea and a chat and then drove back to the kids. Next week, Maggie and I will babysit the 4 kids so the other 2 moms can take a turn. Let's hope they have more luck! Here is Rachel with her other 3 friends and one of the moms.
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