Letting Go

Reality gave me a swift whack in the face on Friday morning...and my face is still stinging! Jordan spent her first morning in the "big D" (and I don't mean Dallas). I knew the day would come when I would have to trust total strangers to care for Jordan, but until now that day only loomed in the distance.

We planned ahead and put our names on a wait list for childcare (back in June) and a spot for Jordan finally opened beginning December 15th. While I am not returning to work until January 4th, we will be out of town from December 24th through January 1st, which would not afford us the opportunity for "trial runs" at daycare. So that we wouldn't be starting full time daycare "cold turkey," our only option was to bring her there while I am still on Family Leave from work.

On Thursday night we *sigh* set the alarm clock for 6:30 am so we would make it to daycare by 7:30. Careful preparations were made that night to have all of Jordan's essentials ready-to-go; a supply of diapers, wipes, spare clothes, blanket, pacifier, and her bottles, of course, were all packed.

Jordan was all packed and ready to go on Friday morning, the only problem was that mommy wasn't! I was playing all my stall cards and hoping that Jordan would be uncooperative so that we would have no choice but to call the daycare and let them know we would not be in that morning afterall. Unfortunately for me, it was a routine morning without hang-ups. We arrived at daycare on time and the moment I had hoped would never happen happened--we placed our baby in a stranger's arms and had to say good bye. I put up a galliant front while inside the facility, but once we left, the tears started flowing. I think I cried the whole way home. It was a tough morning for me, but fortunately Jordan did just fine.

She will spend a full day at daycare on Monday to see how that goes (and so I can feel confident in how much milk I will need to supply her with when I return to work). I guess I should face the fact that I haven't won the lottery yet and therefore can't stay at home with Jordan forever. It will be a difficult transition for all of us, but in the end Jordan will benefit from the interaction with other children, and we benefit from my continued income and health benefits.

Jordan likes her Jumperoo

Jordan gives us some smiles while playing in her new Jumperoo.

Jordan's First Birthday Party

Last Saturday Jordan attended her first party, a birthday celebration for her friend, Henry, who turned 1. Okay, so they had never met yet, but they might end up being great friends in the future. Jordan must not have been too excited about the party though, since she slept through the entire thing! There were kids there ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years all playing and running about having a grand 'ole time. And there was Jordan...sleeping...

We'll see if she is invited back, party pooper!

It's Bottle time!

After being on the list for about 6 months Jamie and I finally got the call that a spot has opened up at the Palouse Early Learning Center.  This was a big stress relief for both of us knowing we have a spot when we go back to work after New Years.  Then we realized that January will be here before we know it, and if Jordan wants to actually eat during the day we better see if she will take the breast milk out of a bottle.  Of course I have been waiting for this chance to finally feed our daughter, and over the past two days I kept hinting at Jamie to bring out the pump.  We decided tonight would be a good night to give it a shot.  I read up on the "proper" ways to bottle feed a baby, and read a lot of stories about babies refusing the bottle for a while before finally accepting it.  Luckily we have a few weeks before we need her to be able to bottle feed.  So with a full bottle in my hand and the little one sitting on my lap I gave it a shot.  After a few seconds of her going from why is there milk suddenly in my mouth to why is the milk coming out of this plastic thing, she latched on and away she went.  She seemed to get the hang of it pretty well and  drank about 3 oz.  With that success we will continue to giver her the bottle a couple of times a day so when she goes off to "school" she will be able to feed.  It feels good to be able to feed her, and give Jamie the ability to go out for longer than an hour or two before I am calling her to come home because Jordan is hungry.  Next week we might even take up Grandpa and Grandma Femreite on their offer to babysit for date night so we can go out for dinner.
Completely unrelated I finally brought out the sitting position guide we got.  Technically it is to be used when she gets a little older but she really likes to sit sometimes so I thought I would give it a shot.  Below is the picture I snapped while she was in it.  What a goof ball.