Daycare Day #2

Yesterday was Day #2 at daycare and I went into the day a lot more relaxed after Monday's positive experience.  Shep reported that when he dropped Emily off this morning, she immediately started playing with the toys.  Unfortunately that made it hurt a bit worse when I showed up at daycare to see her sitting in one of the teacher's laps drinking from a bottle (yay!) with what looked like red/teary eyes (boo!).  I stood there for a minute or so watching her, wondering if she had indeed been crying but hopeful that her bottle-drinking was improving.  She finished the bottle and sat up on the teacher's lap, saw me standing there, and immediately started to wimper cry and reach for me.  Which hurt.  A lot.  I could tell right away that she didn't have as happy of a day as she did yesterday, and I felt guilty and stupid for leaving her there for such a large part of the day, totally oblivious to her struggles.  I knew it was a possibility that Day #1 might be easier than the following days due to the novelty and excitement, but I still felt bad that I was at home clueless.

Emily was at daycare for 5.5 hours today, and only drank a grand total of 3.5 oz milk.  Yes, that's better than yesterday!  But definitely not enough considering she hadn't been nursed for almost 2 hours upon arriving to daycare in the morning... so in nearly 8 hours she only consumed less than 4 oz of milk.  No bueno.

Her little daily report said she took 2 x 30 minute naps, which is actually what she's been doing at home these days in the same timeframe.  So while the teacher seemed disappointed in this area, I was neutral.  I was far more concerned with the lack of drinking milk, and obviously the crying.  I feel like they didn't really tell me straight how upset she was during the day or how much she cried (though it's hard to quantify, and obviously subjective).

I asked what happened and they said she started the day fine, but that things sort of went downhill in the afternoon.  The lead teacher said she got woken up from both of her naps from the noise of the room (apparently it was a lot noisier today than yesterday), so I can understand how that might have made her a little bit cranky.  She also got her flu shot Monday afternoon, so that could've definitely contributed to a bad day too (though she seemed fine in the morning before she left).

She was definitely starving and exhausted when we got home.  I fed her and after getting a bit of her excitement energy out to be back home with Mommy, she promptly passed out in my arms.  This daycare stuff is exhausting!

I guess maybe 5.5 hours was too long of a time to leave her there so soon?  But on the other hand, beginning next week she's going to be there for 8 hours per day, and I want her to be ready for that.  Now I'm torn as to what I should do for the next 2 days.... increase the time, or decrease it again.  I want her to be as prepared as possible for next week, but also don't want to make her miserable during our last week at home together.  I think I am going to see how today goes and then take it from there.  Ugh, this mom stuff is hard!  :(