Returning to Daycare After Maternity Leave, Share Your Experience!

[Miss A]

I am due in 3 weeks, and am experiencing "End of Pregnancy Fu** it's". I run a non-registered home daycare in Iowa, so I care for less than 5 children. I currently have 3 full time kiddos, ages 16 months, 8 months, and 6 months.

My days are super scheduled, and everyone follows the same schedule. As they are all quite young, most of our learning activities come through free play, reading books together, and me narrating their play, counting the toys they hand me, etc.

I am closing completely for 2 weeks, and then will have my mom here for 2-3 weeks after that to help me with daycare. I have had this plan in place since announcing my pregnancy. I think it is because of the mood I am in, but I am just not optimistic about returning to daycare. I just want to snuggle my baby, which I can still do since I work from home.

So, I am looking for your words of wisdom and experience on returning to home daycare after adding a new baby to your family. I reached out to a daycare community on another forum that I am less fond of, and no one was too optimistic about my upcoming experience.

[childcaremom]

I am due in 3 weeks, and am experiencing "End of Pregnancy Fu** it's". I run a non-registered home daycare in Iowa, so I care for less than 5 children. I currently have 3 full time kiddos, ages 16 months, 8 months, and 6 months.

My days are super scheduled, and everyone follows the same schedule. As they are all quite young, most of our learning activities come through free play, reading books together, and me narrating their play, counting the toys they hand me, etc.

I am closing completely for 2 weeks, and then will have my mom here for 2-3 weeks after that to help me with daycare. I have had this plan in place since announcing my pregnancy. I think it is because of the mood I am in, but I am just not optimistic about returning to daycare. I just want to snuggle my baby, which I can still do since I work from home.

So, I am looking for your words of wisdom and experience on returning to home daycare after adding a new baby to your family. I reached out to a daycare community on another forum that I am less fond of, and no one was too optimistic about my upcoming experience.

:hug:

I think you have a good plan in place and are lucky that your mom will be there to help out initially.

I haven't done daycare with mine when they were infants, but have a large family of my own and my last 2 were quite close together. For the first few months, I just made sure we had a good routine of snacks, lunch, naps and the rest was free play. I tried to get as much rest as possible myself, too. There were some hairy days, sometimes a few in a row, but we got through them. Way more good days, though. Once we hit the 3/4 month mark, things seemed to have settled into a new 'normal'.


Things that I can think of off the top of my head:
*meal prep, freezer meals, etc were a blessing for me
*if you can afford to splurge on a housecleaner here and there, do it! Never had it but I dreamt about it.
*the dcks don't 'need' a super schedule for the first few months back. They will take their cue from you and adapt Good food, good play and good rest!

Enjoy the baby snuggles! That time goes by way too quickly. lovethis

[Indoorvoice]

I had my baby in May and also took 2 weeks off. I did not have my mom here every day to help, but she was available if I needed her a couple times a week for a few hours.

I have 2 other of my own kids plus the baby and I only had one child coming back after my maternity leave. I didn't do well. Even with just that one child coming, I still had to wake up early to greet her after not getting good sleep, get meals together, supervise activities and felt like I couldn't just lay around with my kids and be lazy like I wanted to. It was also a nightmare trying to plan breastfeeding around pick up and drop off. I was feeling pretty resentful about not taking more time off. Even now, that I have more daycare kids back, I really don't get to hold and snuggle my baby. Too busy! The bright side is she is learning to be very independent.

If your mom will be there every day to do the daycare stuff and you can lock yourself away, then you will be fine. I was much better by the 5 week mark. But if you are going to have to do anything daycare related, just be prepared to feel pretty tired until about 5 or 6 weeks post partum.

[Miss A]

I had my baby in May and also took 2 weeks off. I did not have my mom here every day to help, but she was available if I needed her a couple times a week for a few hours.

I have 2 other of my own kids plus the baby and I only had one child coming back after my maternity leave. I didn't do well. Even with just that one child coming, I still had to wake up early to greet her after not getting good sleep, get meals together, supervise activities and felt like I couldn't just lay around with my kids and be lazy like I wanted to. It was also a nightmare trying to plan breastfeeding around pick up and drop off. I was feeling pretty resentful about not taking more time off. Even now, that I have more daycare kids back, I really don't get to hold and snuggle my baby. Too busy! The bright side is she is learning to be very independent.

If your mom will be there every day to do the daycare stuff and you can lock yourself away, then you will be fine. I was much better by the 5 week mark. But if you are going to have to do anything daycare related, just be prepared to feel pretty tired until about 5 or 6 weeks post partum.

She will be doing the majority of the daycare stuff for me. I will do some, but she will bear the brunt of the workload so I can ease back into it. I am hoping it all goes well, fingers crossed!

[JackandJill]

I took 2 weeks off after my son was born and honestly it was fine. And he was a terrible sleeper. I don't know it you have older children, but my older son was so happy to have other kids back to play with, it took a lot of pressure off me keeping him entertained.

All the daycare parents knew that we would be taking a break from our usual routine, it would be a lot of free play and some movies, which I never allow during daycare. And they were fine with it, I have a really great group of families. I wore yoga pants everyday, I had meal prepped for daycare in my last month of pregnancy, and I rearranged my daycare space so that I could be on the couch and still see everyone on the days I was still sore.

Before opening my daycare, I had to go back to work when my older son was only 6 weeks, it was so heart breaking to leave him. So it might just be the comparison with the two situations, but going back to work in my own home at 2 weeks was much, much easier. I was still able to hold him anytime I wanted, I nursed much longer than with my older son, I was not as stressed throughout the day, because I was still with him. I was really tired, but what mom isn't?

I think you will be great, especially with an extra set of hands to help out with daycare.

[Miss A]

I took 2 weeks off after my son was born and honestly it was fine. And he was a terrible sleeper. I don't know it you have older children, but my older son was so happy to have other kids back to play with, it took a lot of pressure off me keeping him entertained.

All the daycare parents knew that we would be taking a break from our usual routine, it would be a lot of free play and some movies, which I never allow during daycare. And they were fine with it, I have a really great group of families. I wore yoga pants everyday, I had meal prepped for daycare in my last month of pregnancy, and I rearranged my daycare space so that I could be on the couch and still see everyone on the days I was still sore.

Before opening my daycare, I had to go back to work when my older son was only 6 weeks, it was so heart breaking to leave him. So it might just be the comparison with the two situations, but going back to work in my own home at 2 weeks was much, much easier. I was still able to hold him anytime I wanted, I nursed much longer than with my older son, I was not as stressed throughout the day, because I was still with him. I was really tired, but what mom isn't?

I think you will be great, especially with an extra set of hands to help out with daycare.

Thank you! I love hearing success stories, so far most people I know are telling me I will regret this decision, and I do not want to go into it thinking I will.

Only one of my 3 is on table food, so each night when I cook for my DF and I, I set a meal aside for her to eat for lunch the next day. Breakfast and snack are usually simple things.

I have been meal planning for a while now, and have tons of fast Crock-Pot meals ready to go. I also plan to be able to cook a bit, since my Momma will be here to help, I won't be exerting myself as much.

I didn't think of rearranging my DC space, but I should be doing that now!

[MarinaVanessa]

I never even took any time off during any of my pregnancies. I had 3 out of 4 kids born into my daycare. I worked up until the day that I gave birth and closed no more than 2 days while I was in the hospital. We worked it out that my husband would take a week off from work for the first week after I delivered and take half days the 2nd week and that worked well for me.

I was able to recover with minimum issues to my daycare having DH help me out with the kids. He did a lot though. He'd prepare and serve meals, change diapers and help supervise the kids while I rested and cuddled on the couch with the baby. Daycare days were less structured and simple.

By the 3rd week he was back to work and had a good reminder that my days weren't as "easy" as he thought ::. I wore my baby in a carrier so snuggling was easy. For the first couple of weeks after the baby arrived I made sure to go to sleep early so I wouldn't be too exhausted during the day and since we bed-share being able to stay in bed for night feedings also helped.

[JackandJill]

Thank you! I love hearing success stories, so far most people I know are telling me I will regret this decision, and I do not want to go into it thinking I will.

Only one of my 3 is on table food, so each night when I cook for my DF and I, I set a meal aside for her to eat for lunch the next day. Breakfast and snack are usually simple things.

I have been meal planning for a while now, and have tons of fast Crock-Pot meals ready to go. I also plan to be able to cook a bit, since my Momma will be here to help, I won't be exerting myself as much.

I didn't think of rearranging my DC space, but I should be doing that now!

I think every experience is what you make it. I had a TON of people saying I was going to regret such a short time off, but financially that's what we could afford. I told myself I was going to make the best of it and I did!

[Miss A]

I never even took any time off during any of my pregnancies. I had 3 out of 4 kids born into my daycare. I worked up until the day that I gave birth and closed no more than 2 days while I was in the hospital. We worked it out that my husband would take a week off from work for the first week after I delivered and take half days the 2nd week and that worked well for me.

I was able to recover with minimum issues to my daycare having DH help me out with the kids. He did a lot though. He'd prepare and serve meals, change diapers and help supervise the kids while I rested and cuddled on the couch with the baby. Daycare days were less structured and simple.

By the 3rd week he was back to work and had a good reminder that my days weren't as "easy" as he thought ::. I wore my baby in a carrier so snuggling was easy. For the first couple of weeks after the baby arrived I made sure to go to sleep early so I wouldn't be too exhausted during the day and since we bed-share being able to stay in bed for night feedings also helped.

I broke out my 7 sling today during nap and have been practicing with it using a stuffed pink bunny. Whatever it takes to be prepared!

[Indoorvoice]

Sorry to be the negative Nelly of the group. I should mention I had a touch of pp depression which didn't help anything. I didn't mean to make you feel discouraged. I'm sure you will do fine :hug:

[Controlled Chaos]

I took 4 weeks off after my 3rd, my older kids were so excited when their friends came back. I was glad to have taken more time but we could barely afford that much time. I was gentle with myself and lowered expectations for the first 6-8 weeks back. No prek, no art (other than paper and crayons available) and parents didn't mind. They were impressed with me doing the bare minimum with a newborn

[mommyneedsadayoff]

With my son, I went back to work after two weeks and it was great! I was on a mommy high, so I was suprisingly not as tired as I thought I would be. With my second, I had Post partum depression pretty bad, so after about 2 months of struggling, I shut down for over a year to focus on myself and getting better. It was tough, but I cam back to daycare after that and it was smooth sailing from there. The best thing is that we get to be home with our babies and trying to stay focused on that super huge positive aspect is what helps get through the tough days.

Things that helped me:
-letting my husband (or whoever you have) help in the evenings (he cooked, took care of the feedings, did dishes, ect.)
-planning meals ahead and keeping it simple...easy to cook, easy to clean up.
-I was able to stagger my kids nap when they were very little, so that when daycare kids went for nap, I got to sit and cuddle my baby and just spend one on one time for those 2 hours. Kids woke up from nap and by then, my baby would be ready for a snooze, so it helped me focus on the dc kids also.
-EATING AND DRINKING! It is so important to keep your energy levels and hydration up. Make sure you take time to eat and drink water through the day...don't forget about YOUR needs!
Good luck to you and congratulations!:hug:

[Miss A]

I worry about PPD, as I have suffered from depression and anxiety for almost 10 years now. With my OB's consent, I have continued to take Prozac throughout my pregnancy, at a lower dose. I am hoping that by doing that I will be able to go back to my full dose PP, and will ward off the possibility of PPD.

[mommyneedsadayoff]

I worry about PPD, as I have suffered from depression and anxiety for almost 10 years now. With my OB's consent, I have continued to take Prozac throughout my pregnancy, at a lower dose. I am hoping that by doing that I will be able to go back to my full dose PP, and will ward off the possibility of PPD.

I would just be aware of how you feel...don't push those feelings aside. It took me awhile to realize I was going through it, but the bet thing I ever did was call my husband and tell him to come home early from work because I needed him. I am very lucky he was able to be there for me and take the next few days off to just take care of me. I made the decision to close for awhile, as I was not at my best, so I feel so lucky that I was able to. Just listen to yourself and all will be okay!:hug:

[Miss A]

Thank you everyone! You are all so wonderful and supportive, I really don't know what I would do without this community of providers to fall back on!