So I've been thinking about how many books there are regarding child rearing......"how to best soothe your baby", "how to get your baby to sleep through the night", "how to best introduce solid foods".....etc, etc, etc. But how exactly do you teach a mom to leave her child for the first time in someones care or be okay that you will not be answering her every cry? How do you teach a mom to broaden her life's focus to include professional work and mom work? How do you raise a mom?
Last week we had somewhat of a traumatic first parting on Wednesday when I left Maddie with Joy for a few hours to "practice." Maddie cried a lot and didn't go back to sleep, which made for a rough morning for Joy. In addition, I think the other kids and general chaos around the house was hard for her to adjust to. Because I felt a bit of a personality disconnect, I decided to try another babysitter. Our experience with Miss Estella has been wonderful! Estella cares for two 4 year old little girls and her own son who is 4 months. She was a CNA (certified nurse assistant) in an OB-GYN office prior to staying home once her son was born. She has a great structure with the kids including meals at a certain time, nap time, reading time morning and afternoon, and lots of good manners! Oh yeah, no TV during the week - 1 movie on Friday that the girls bring from home to share. She is so sweet and we connected right away!! She has a real passion for kids and just loved Maddie. She also "gets" that newborns need to be held and cuddled a lot, which I LIKE! Anyway, Madison stayed for 1/2 day on Friday and I also did a dry run of my morning routine this am and she stayed from 7:30 until about 11. She slept took a bottle beautifully. Estella even had her almost back asleep in her car seat when I arrived to pick her up. Beautiful.....
So, all that to say that I'm feeling better each day with the idea of returning to work tomorrow. I know it will take me all week to get caught up on emails and catch up with what is happening, but hopefully I will be able to focus more and more each day knowing Maddie is in good hands.
I'm growing up as a mom, one day at a time! :)
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