After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

We have a shelf filled with backup diapers, backup wipes, we have extra binkies throughout the house. We even have an official process for the daycare drop-off and pickup. We have contingencies for everything.... or so I thought.

Before I get into what we've overlooked, let me tell you how I discovered it and let you in on a small secret. Sometimes when I write a new post, it is based upon a recent event or thought. Often times, I start a post and then put it aside for days and days until I can get back to it. The latter describes my last post on teething and it seems that I jinxed myself. When I started the teeting post, Macy was suffering, so I found myself busy and unable to complete it. Over a week passed and the teething problem ceased. I finally found some free time and I finished writing it and posted it. Sure enough, right after a posting about teething, the symptoms returned.

They didn't just return, they returned with a vengance. Over the past three nights I think Annie and I have a combined 12 hours of sleep. I do appreciate all this bonus time with Macy, but it is really starting to be draining. This morning we finally got her to settle back down around 3:30 am, only to have to wake her at 6 am to start the mornings proceedings. When she woke up we were greeted to a cranky baby who also had a half-closed left eye with a great big blog of mucus. As if the teeting symptoms weren't enough, we now had what appeared to be an infected eye to boot. After a quick cleanup and some time, the eye looked normal again...so maybe we jumped the gun on our layman's diagnosis.

Today was my day to drop off Macy and moments before I walked out the door, my client emailed pushing back our meeting by 3 hours. Time to put Contingency Plan 2.6 SubSection A into effect. Annie called the daycare to let them know that Macy would be arriving late and then continued onto work. I was pleased to get the extra time with my daughter and would just drop her off on my way to the client later in the morning.

With the extra time I got to feed Macy breakfast and put her down for the morning nap. As she awoke (on her own accord this time) I discovered her again with a nasty looking eye that wasn't going to get better. I checked my contingency manual and called the doctor for an emergency appointment. Luckily enough they had an opening in an hour, just enough time to get Macy cleaned up, clean myself up, grab the diaper bag and head out. The diaper bag....which was curerntly sitting in the backseat of Annie's car in her school parking lot. Right where its supposed to be...since Annie does the pickups. How could we not have a backup diaper bag? Time to scramble a bit and find one of those cute bags Macy got when she was born; as the clock was flying by and the appointment was getting closer and closer.

Succes...down in the bottom of the closet was a little green and purple polka-dotted tote bag with Macy's name stitched on the side. Perfect. (Good thing I'm pretty secure in my manhood and have no issue walking around town with a baby on one shoulder and a green and purple polka-dotted bag on the other). My amazing and organized wife always keeps the "real" diaper bag loaded and ready for any occassion, so when I'm watching Macy I just grab the bag and go. This morning I was home alone, pleased with myself for finding the emergency daddy diaper bag...but only one problem remained. It seemed that neither Macy nor Zoe (the dog) could tell me what actually went INTO my new-found bag.

I think I did an admirable job loading it up (with some assistance from Annie who who also has perfect timing and happened to call to check in at just the right moment) and rushed out the door to meet up with the doctor. In my haste I then overlooked something else. I was so focused on having the right supplies in my diaper bag that I forgot to put Macy's pants back on. So I have now taken her on two solo trips to the doctor and inexplicably, both times I took her sans-pants. I think I could hear them snickering at me as I headed out the door. What a day....

As you already know, schools in Florida are back in session and that means Macy has started her time in daycare. We tried to put her in the best possible place we could find. Even so, the first week was still pretty challenging. I always thought mornings in our house were a bit hurried, but that was nothing compared to the hectic nature going on now.

It seems that no matter how much preparation is done the night before, we are still leaving 5-10 minutes past our "must-leave by" time. If you can get out by that time, the commute to daycare is significantly improved. Miss the time by just a few minutes and now instead of shooting in, you are waiting in line, being herded around the building, so traffic only flows in one direction and competing with the traffic for the University and the two neighboring private schools.

Macy's first week coincided with Annie's first week at school, which is the planning week. This worked out to be a nice adjustment period, since Annie was able to go over and see Macy at lunch and spend some "bonus" time with her. The week ended without any really notable events other than the fact that I went home for the weekend with a cold. (This will be important information in just a moment). Macy's second week at daycare didn’t go so smoothly. When it was all said and done, she only spent 1 ½ days there her second week.

Monday of week two went without issue but then Macy woke up Tuesday morning and then the fun really began. The daycare has a very stringent “sick” child policy, and it was pretty clear to us that Macy was in no condition to go anywhere. Her nose was a little red and mucus was just pouring out of her nose, not to mention the very disturbing cough she was sporting. For the record, my cold was nothing like this, so there is no proof that I actually gave her my cold, as opposed to her picking up something from daycare.

Being responsible parents, I "worked from home" and spent the day with Macy, hoping the next day would be better. It wasn't. Macy woke up Wednesday with all of the same problems...running nose, green mucus, and just a miserable little infant. So for the second day in a row, Macy had to stay home. I called into work and told them that I would be working from home again. This time I learned my lesson and just took 3 hours of sick time, to make up for all the time feeding and changing her. (It is really time consuming and draining to stay home with a baby.)

After two days, the next day had to be better. It wasn't, but this time we called in the babysitter to watch our little one. I hadn't really thought about it before, but 10 hours of babysitting is EXPENSIVE. Luckily she woke up much better on Friday and was able to go to school..which meant I could finally go to the office and get some rest. To be honest, we knew she wasn't completely healed, but we felt she was well enough to be back in public. Too bad the school had other thoughts. Around 11am my cell rang and the caller ID displayed "Baby Elephants", the name of Macy's class. They were very polite, but made it quite clear that she had to go home. Annie couldn't afford to take off this early in the school year and I was stuck in Boca, so Aunt Bobbi did us a huge favor and jumped in and picked up our little Macy. (Even though we were imposing upon her, I think she loved every moment of it!!!)

By the next Monday, Macy was officially healthy and truly able to return to work....quite a hectic start to this whole daycare thing. (I'm drained just writing about it)