Archive for March, 2008
Second Day of School
The second day drop-off was a little rougher than the first day. The first day Natalie really didn’t know what she was in for, so she had nothing to cry about. The second day she wailed like a heartbroken little girl whose parents just abandoned her. It was really, really, really hard to walk away. Then I made the mistake of calling the school only 15 minutes later to check on her. The teacher explained that another teacher was holding her and they were trying their best to distract her and transition her as best they could. I could hear her crying in the background. I felt physically ill—as if my heart could break. All morning I had a big lump in my throat and an ache in my chest. I felt so, so awful, which led me to imagine how awful Natalie must have been feeling…small…frightened…confused…in an unfamiliar place with strangers…unable to communicate. Then I had to stop that line of thinking for my own sanity.
Thankfully, when we called at 1 pm, we heard a very positive report. The teacher told us that although Natalie had a rough start to the morning, she perked up a lot when they did an art project. She also had fun reading stories and singing songs, ate nearly all of her lunch and went down for a nap with no problem.
When we picked Natalie up in the afternoon, she looked to be in better spirits than she had when we picked her up on Monday. The teachers reported that Natalie got upset when other parents come to pick up their kids—their theory is that she gets scared of seeing new people.
I have to keep telling myself that Natalie knows we love her. The fact that she reacts strongly to us leaving her shows that she has a healthy attachment to us. I have to remind myself that going to daycare is a tough transition, but I really think Natalie will love it once she’s adjusted. But I think tomorrow I’ll wait until the afternoon before I call to check on her.
First Day of School
Our plan was to get Natalie to bed early yesterday so she’d be well-rested for her first day. Natalie gets cranky if she hasn’t slept enough, a trait she gets from me. She had slept in on Sunday morning, so we tried to prevent her from napping to force an early bedtime. The plan completely backfired. Natalie fell asleep in the car at 4pm, took a 1 hour nap, and then (despite several tries beforehand) didn’t get to bed until midnight!!!! So we were all a little tired and groggy this morning—not the best way to start the first day of school. Quite to my surprise, however, Natalie was in good spirits as we headed to the Goddard School.
Here she is eating Cheerios (Organic Morning O’s actually) on the way to school:
When we got to Natalie’s classroom, we stowed all her stuff (sleeping bag, two changes of clothes, blanket, and mousy) in her cubby, hung her coat (2 coats actually—one for the car and one for going outside) on the hook, and put her lunch (peas, grapes, veggie burger, and yogurt, plus a cup of water, 2 cups of milk and 2 bottles) away in the refrigerator. We let Natalie loose to play with some toys while we gave the head teacher the “Natalie Information Sheet” we wrote up:
At this point, Chris and I both started to feel a little panicked, but I think Natalie was too confused and too busy looking at all the kids and teachers and toys to realize what was happening. When we left, she was sitting at the table getting ready for snack and barely looked up when we kissed her good-bye. I only shed a few tears as we walked away from the classroom. Whew—not at all the tear-fest I was expecting!
We called the school around 1 pm to see how Natalie was and were shocked to hear that she was taking a nap! The teacher reported that unfortunately Natalie’s good mood didn’t last very long after we left. She was clingy with the teachers, reluctant to get down even during outside play time, cried during lunch and didn’t eat much. As we predicted, with little sleep the night before, she was tired and cranky and probably ready for nap-time well before noon. We resisted the urge to pick her up early.
When we arrived at school at 4:15, we peeked through the window before going in. Natalie was sitting on a teacher’s lap watching the other kids play. When we went in, it was clear that she had been crying—the teachers explained that she started getting upset when a few other kids got picked up by their parents. The funny thing is, when we greeted her, she seemed more interested in my car keys than in either of us. Thankfully, the teachers reported that Natalie slept for almost two hours and woke up in good spirits! She ate some yogurt for snack, drank a bottle, and enjoyed playing outside. All in all, she did very well on her first day!
Natalie was happy and giggly in the car, and wasn’t even desperate to nurse as I expected she would be when we got home. We had a nice time playing and eating dinner. Around 7 pm, Natalie started saying “night-night” and was asleep by 7:20!!! By 7:45 all the dishes were done and Chris and I were sitting on the couch with our laptops and our feet up. If we can stick to this schedule, we’ll be golden. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that she doesn’t wake up soon and think she’s had a nap…
Getting Ready for School
Natalie starts going to day care this Monday. That’s just two days away!! I’m not sure it’s hit me yet…either that or I have no anxiety about it, which I can’t imagine is true. I think I’m just not allowing myself to get nervous about it. We’ve been busy preparing and gathering all the supplies we need. Part of the reason we picked the Goddard School was that we supply all the diapers, wipes, and food. While it might be easier to send her to a school where we don’t have to worry about packing lunches or diapers, we felt better being able to provide the diapers that we know work for Natalie and food we know she likes. Everything that goes into school must be labeled with her first and last name, so we’ve fired up the label-maker!
The other thing we are required to supply is a toddler-size sleeping bag for Natalie to take naps on. When I explained to the school director that Natalie has never fallen asleep without nursing or being in motion (stroller, car, walking, beco carrier, etc) she assured me that once Natalie sees all the other kids laying on their sleeping bags taking naps, she’ll follow suit. We hope she’s right! So we chose a cute fleece sleeping bag with airplanes on it. When I took it out of the package and laid it on the ground to see how big it was, Natalie immediately laid down on it. Maybe there’s hope that she’ll actually take a nap at school:
Since she’s going to have to learn to fall asleep without her usual comforts, we at least wanted her to have her lovey. But we didn’t want to risk losing her mouse by taking it back and forth to school. So we bought one just for school plus a few spares. We didn’t realize how worn her mouse had gotten until we saw the comparison:
We’re hoping for as smooth a transition as possible. We’ll keep you posted.