Kaleidoscope: Day Two

Ethan started daycare yesterday for the first time. We had put him on the wait list for infants (0-12months) back in February, and his spot came up just in time. Kaleidoscope is a popular and well-run daycare and learning center in Blue Ridge, and they have wait lists for all of their age groups (1yr old, 2, etc..). The infants group is especially hard to find spots for, so we are glad that we had put Ethan's name early.

But Ethan did not enjoy his first day so much. He cried when I dropped him off. I did not stay too long or else I would have made things worse for him. I stopped by once, around lunch time, to see how he was doing. The caregiver had just put Ethan to sleep for his nap and while placing him in his crib, Ethan woke, and started to cry again. Good thing I was there, though, since he was glad to see me, and I played with him some, to try and get him used to his new surroundings.

I stayed for about 30 minutes and left to run some errands and to not have Ethan then get used to me always being there in the daycare with him. He cried when I left.

So his first day at daycare, a day that started around 9:30 am and ended when Kelly and I picked him up at 4:45pm or so, did not really go so well (as expected). He ate nothing, slept but 30 minutes, and cried for hours probably.

Today was day two. He cried almost immediately when we got there, though I am not sure it was because he recognized I was soon going to leave him there, or that other babies were crying around him. I did not stay long and just left. Poor Noomz was crying.

I will check on him again soon. I hope he eats something today. It is quite a challenge even for Kelly and I these days to get Ethan to eat anything, so I am not expecting miracles here, and I know it will take a long time before he will trust a stranger to feed him. It is unfortunate that Noomz will have to lose weight before he starts eating in daycare, with all our worries about his weight not increasing since around his 6 month doctor's visit. But there is some hope. Just last night, after not eating all day at K, we fed him his usual dinner and then some yoghurt. He ate a little bit of his solids, but not enough I thought, since he should have been starving. So we tried feeding him yoghurt and to our surprise, Ethan loved it! Needless to say we packed him a yoghurt to go along with his milk and solids in his meal bag.

Just heart-wrenching.

As if moving and re-establishing one's life is not difficult enough.