She did GREAT!

That's the short version of the story. The longer version goes like this:

SHE DID GREAT!!!! LOL!

Seriously, yesterday was a fabulous day all around. I think it was little more stressful for Kelly than it was for Bailey and I, but that stands to reason. The morning went smoothly, except that Bailey wouldn't eat for me. I was up and showered by 5 AM and then got Bailey up at around 6:30 AM. I wanted to leave lots of time at the center in case I had questions or anything. Bailey was still sleeping and needed to be woken, which I did slowly. We played for a few minutes and then I dressed her and got her ready for the day. I tried to feed her a bottle, but she seemed to play with it.

ASIDE: Bailey seems to be going through this weird stage of eating. She plays with her bottle, drinking a couple of ounces and then spitting out the rest until you take the bottle away. Rather than force feed her, we let her spit it out and then come back to it. The problem, though, is that she seems to want to come back to it after 10 or 15 minutes, and at her daycare, they don't seem to do that. Yesterday, they fed her 8 AM and she took 3 ounces (she usually eats 6 in a setting). The didn't feed her again until 11 AM (which is the appropriate three hours), and again she only took 3.5 ounces. They fed her again at 11:30, another 2 ounces. That interval seems appropriate, but I am worried about her only taking 3 ounces in three hours. Seems like she was probably hungry. Then again, Bailey is incredibly efficient about getting her needs met (screaming generally does the trick), so if she was hungry, she would have been screaming. So...hmmm...

Anyway - I took her to child care, and it was great. They were immediately comforting to me and Bailey didn't react negatively. She seemed fine. In fact, she seemed interested in all the new colors, sounds, and people. When I left, she was on a playmat, laughing and talking to the mirror above her. They were getting ready to feed her. When I called the first time, she was napping (it only lasted 30 minutes, but still...). When I called the second time, she was having her 11 AM feeding and had pooped and everything was fine. When Kelly picked her up, she was sitting in a bouncy chair just hanging out and looking at everything around her.

So, it went well. When she got home, she was exhausted and Kelly put her down for a nap. She slept for 2 1/2 hours!!! She got back up and played for a couple of hours and then went down for the night at 7 PM. She slept until 2:30 this morning, ate and then went back down until 6 AM.

When she is doing full days (Kelly got her early yesterday at 12:45), she is going to be absolutely exhausted by the time we get there to pick her up. It is likely that she will come home and crash out for a while. I wonder if our nighttime will change a bit - if she'll end up napping when we get home at 4 PM and then staying up a bit later. We'll see.

They said that she was fine during the day. They commented many times that she was incredibly advanced for her age. She did her sleeping thing, where she pulls the covers over her face to try and block out the light. She will eventually figure out rolling over and will learn that she can bury her face in her arms when she's on her belly...she'll probably start sleeping better when she figures this out.

I was fine yesterday. I rushed home from work and was able to get there just in time to jump into the bath with her. I was able to take a short bath with her and then do the nighttime bottle feeding (lots of cooing and snuggling). It was nice to have this unexpected time with her. I missed her like crazy yesterday, but wasn't worried about her. I wasn't upset to not be with her, and I knew that she would be alright at childcare. What I did miss was holding her close to me. It felt weird to be seperated from her, and I physically ached for the closeness. Her smells, her ways of moving...that stuff.

Kelly struggled with knowing that she wasn't with me. That part of it is harder for her, because she has been working for a couple of months now and leaving Bailey all day...but with the comfort of knowing that she was with me. Now, it's a different story and that was tough for her.
But, all told, it went well. I am very encouraged. We have had nothing that would indicate that we won't be perfectly happy with this arrangement and Bailey seems like she is going to be just fine. In fact, I suspect with all the other kids around, that Miss. Bailey will talk sooner, walk sooner and generally develop faster than she would if she were at home. After all, there's so much to do and see and be a part of...and right now, she can't get to it on her own. I bet that will change quickly...LOL!