Dusty and I both work full time; however, since my job allows me to work from home (which is awesome), many folks ask me, what do we do with Ollie? Can't he just stay home with me? As much as I would love this, the reality of conference calls and a screaming baby (or even a happy baby playing) is that they just do not mix. We searched high and low, interviewed a lot of daycares and other options, and ended up with an amazing lady who runs an in-home daycare.
When he first started going at 12 weeks, he was the only little one in the house. Since then, she has taken on two more kiddos and Ollie just loves playing and entertaining both of them. I love the fact that he is spending his days in home with a family that loves on him. I also get the luxury of keeping him home with me on Fridays. I try to keep most of my phone calls during the week on the days that he is at daycare and work a bit longer hours Monday - Thursday. I still work on Friday with him here; however, a lot of it is reserved to nap time and I am lucky enough to be able to make up some of the work in the evening and on weekends as well.
It is a balance. Having Ollie stay home with me on Fridays always looks different from week to week. Last week, I still managed to have a ton of calls and meetings on my Friday. So we went for a drive, he slept really well, and I chatted with my coworkers. This week will be a bit more traditional, and Ollie will play a bit in his playroom while I'm on a call or two that is scheduled outside of his nap time. This allows me to work a bit while he naps as well.
With that being said, I am so grateful for a daycare that is close to our home and always me to work my full time gig. Getting ready for daycare however can sometimes be stressful. I suddenly found myself with another "to-do" in the morning beyond my typical roll-out-of-bed, grab coffee, check email. I know loads of mothers out there have to get out of the house and goodness gracious, bless all of them. I am not a morning person and just the standard feeding a baby, packing a diaper bag, and changing clothes is about all I can handle before coffee. I am so thankful for my husband that does drop off every morning so I can start working as soon as they are out of the house. Time in the morning can go by so fast if you do not have a plan, so I am excited to share with you how we perfectly pack our daycare bag.
I know loads of folks have a separate bag for daycare on top of their traditional diaper bag; however, since Ollie is right around the corner and my days are so flexible, we did not really need the "what-if" bag up until recently. This is the bag that you keep extra things in for what-if scenarios. Extra outfits, burp cloths, diapers, etc. It stays at our daycare and we restock it when needed. For us, our daycare just tells us when she needs more diapers or wipes and we make sure there is one extra outfit in the diaper bag at all times as well. Any "extras" are just communicated on a daily basis. If he needs anything the day of, I typically just run it over and drop it off (which has only happened once).
So this is what is in our daycare bag:
- Diapers
- Wipes
- Diaper Rash Cream
- Sippy Cup
- Formula
- Blanket
- Sunscreen
- Bugspray
- Extra set of clothes
- Bib
- Extra Snacks
So what do you think? To all my other working mamas out there :: Did I forget anything? What tricks do you have to make packing for a day at daycare easier on you and your kiddos? Let me know in the comments.
