Charlie and Mommy first day back at work.
Charlie and Mommy first day at daycare.
So I've been back at work for a few weeks now. It's actually been going quite well. He is doing great at daycare and my parent's house. His first day at daycare he took a 2 1/2 hour nap in the swing. Now..this child has never napped for that long let alone in the swing! However, the next day of daycare..he only took a 45 morning nap. That was it! I was freaking out a bit of course because of all the stuff you read about sleep etc. By the next week of daycare, that little baby of mine was taking naps in his cribby. They would start him out in the swing and move him to the crib. They also send home little sheets each day of what they do. On the first day they did things like: learn the sign for more, try to roll over, look at artwork by Jackson Pollock and listen to music and make rain with their hands. However, my favorite thing by far is a phone call I had with the daycare. I check in on him once a day. I called and the head teacher says, "He is doing well. He is actually finger painting right now.". What? haha. They finger painted and his artwork is hanging up in their room. The next day they pained with corn chips. Hilarious. He was sick this last week and his daycare head teacher called to check in on him. They really are a wonderful group of people.
There are two things about going back to work that I have found to be the hardest. They are leaving him in the morning and the guilt of not being with him throughout the day. I've really struggled with the idea of having other people watch my son while I am working. I have this internal feeling that he is my responsibility and I should be the one watching him. Now...I have to work. I also am not passing judgement on working moms (i mean..i am one). There is a daily dose, even though small most of the times, of guilt that I feel. But I know he is with my parents, who adore him, and in a great daycare.
Okay...onto his first cold. Not this past weekend, but the weekend before Charlie started to develop his first cold. He had some congestion and a low grade fever. No big deal and it didn't really affect him. This past Sunday night he had a fever again and had a horrible night sleep wise. I took him to the doctor on Monday morning and they didn't see anything in his ears so they just chalked it up to a cold and teething. Monday night was horrific. He had a 103.4 fever which scared the hell out of me. He was lethargic and felt like he was on fire. I called hte doctor who sounded concerned and she began to ask me if he had a rash etc. I stayed up with him for an hour to make sure the fever went down. It went down to 101 but I took him in the next day. It turned out that he had a double ear infection. Poor baby!! They put him on amoxicillan. He continued to have his fever every night and finally I called on Thursday asking how long a fever should last. They told me to call back Friday morning if his fever continued as the amoxicillan may not be working. So, he woke up with a fever of 100.3 (not really a fever) on Friday but it was enough to make me feel the need to call. They then prescribed him Augmentin. Due to the poopy side effects of Augmentin, they also told me to get a pro biotic for his intestines. So...I do all of that. The rest of the day on Friday (I took off) he was happy and no fever. By bedtime Friday night, he had no fever. I called the doctor because now I'm wondering if I should go back to the Amoxicillan. The doctor says yes...maybe it just took an extra day for the Amoxicillan to kick in. That brings us to today. He is feeling better, but super congested. He sounds like a pug or a little piglet. Plus, he cant really suck his thumb because he can't breathe. I haven't had a full night's sleep since two Wednesdays ago. He has been in my bed for a week. I'm a bit sleepy:) Hopefully tonight will be a good night!!
As for nursing...I think it may be officially over. I had been nursing him day and night only for the past three weeks or so. The last week I had been giving him a bottle in the morning first thing because I nursed him alot overnight. I wanted to make sure that he was getting enough fluids. I wasn't even paying attention to the fact that it's basically been a week since he has had a morning feeding. So, I'm just doing the nigh time feeding. I don't think that I'm producing enough for him. I know that some of you moms out there will say I am...but I don't want to chance it. Plus, I think I'm ready to be finished with nursing. If I wasn't working, I would have definitely done it longer. I really can say that I enjoyed it though. It was such a nice bonding expedience for us both and I am proud of the fact that I could feed him in that way:)
He will be 6 months on Monday...what! I'll write more about his development and last month on that blog.
