Daycare

I'm not sure if I've written about our daycare options before. If I give birth around my due date, I'll be taking the first month of school off and going back sometime in October which means we need childcare for our very tiny infant. It's not ideal but next school year is my tenure year and while I don't totally believe in tenure (a story for a different day) I do believe in doing what I can to keep my job! They can't deny me tenure because I had a baby but they can push back my tenure date if I stay out too long.

So anyway, we had a couple of options for daycare.

1. A friend of the family sits for kids out of her house. Pros: Least expensive, someone we trust because we really know them. Cons: I love this woman but she's a liver and pancreas transplant survivor and because of that, gets sick and needs to go to the doctor quite often. I worry about her being able to take care of the baby regularly enough. We don't have a backup, one of us would have to call in if she couldn't take the baby and Bill doesn't have sick time, he doesn't get paid if he doesn't go in.
   
2. A daycare center by my work. Pros: Highly recommended by several coworkers, close to work, clean and the staff seemed very competent. Cons: Most expensive option (both in weekly cost and we would have to pay for the summer even though I'd be home), long wait list, close to work but not home.
3. A daycare center for employees of my school district. Pros: Recommended by my cousin who takes his kids there, clean and the staff seemed very competent, more inexpensive than option 2 (same weekly cost but because it's for school district employees it's not open when school is not so we only pay for the days we're in session), small - the director knows all of the children and parents by name, very close to our house and convenient for us, my parents, and Bill's mom if they ever needed to pick up the baby for us. Cons: Only take 8 infants a year, somewhat long wait list that only lets kids in at the beginning of the school year.

So as you can probably see, option #3 is our top choice. I applied back in February and the director told us that she wasn't sure about the availability because parents who currently have children enrolled get top priority and she knew that at least one family was expecting and possibly one other. She said she'd get back to me in April or May. In the meantime, we applied to the other center as well as a couple of other centers that I didn't list because they would only be temporary until one of the top 3 options opened up.

Yesterday I got the call from the director, WE GOT IN!!! I'm still pretty hesitant about putting my 6-8 week old infant in the care of anyone other than myself or my mom but we knew when we got pregnant that this was going to happen. We knew that we couldn't really afford for either of us to stop working and our young parents all still work. The next best option would be to find a center that really works for us and I think this is it! We go to sign paperwork and tour again on Tuesday. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted!