This past Sunday, Lily had her very first day care experience. The church my wife and I attend has a nursery for children ages three and under. Parents are welcome to leave their little ones there while they attend Mass. My wife and I thought this would be a good test for Lily before we tried dropping her off at a real day care for an entire day.
It actually went better than we thought it would. Neither my wife nor I have family in Atlanta, so Lily has never been watched by anyone but the two of us. In addition, because Lily had an NG tube up until last week, we had to smother her a little more than usual to make sure she didn’t yank out her tube. So we really had no idea how she was going to react when we left in the care of complete strangers.
When we arrived at the nursery, there were already several kids in there playing. Lily was hesitant at first, but eventually she made her way over to the kitchen play area. I was the first to exit the room. Then, after about five minutes, my wife managed to slip out without Lily seeing her… or so she thought.
Since we knew there was a chance Lily could cry at any moment, my wife and I waited in the hallway outside the door. Again to our surprise, it took 10 whole minutes before the tears commenced. We resisted the urge to immediately run back in and pick her up. Instead, we waited to see if Lily would soothe herself. However, after four straight minutes of crying, we decided it was time to give the caregivers a break.
The lady in charge told us that Lily was doing fine until she (Lily) tried to walk out of the room, and she didn’t start crying until the lady put up the gate to contain her. She also told us that Lily had actually turned and watched my wife out the door. Maybe Lily’s more ready for day care than we thought?
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