Moms of 2 or more...or those expecting number 2
I'm planning for my maternity leave. I don't want to pull DD out of daycare while I'm on leave, but I'd like to save some of the cost since we'll soon be paying double the rate for 2 in full time care.
I spoke to my daycare and we can drop from 4 days (we pay for 5) to 2 days and it would save us about $85 a week. I'm thinking this will be a good bet. Ideally I could send her Tuesday/Thursday, and the she would be with me Monday and Weds. My mom has her Fridays so they could continue that or we could (most likely) all spend some Fridays together.
This way she would still get her time out with her friends and stay in the swing of things at daycare, and I would get some one-on-one time with the new baby. But we would also get more time together than we do now, and she wouldn't feel "left out" and like she's being shipped off everyday.
What do you think? Looking for some feedback from those who have been there before!
Re: Moms of 2 or more...or those expecting number 2
We kept DD in daycare 3 days a week when DS was born, it was wonderful. She got to run around and burn off energy and stay in her 'normal' routine, and I got time with DS alone. But we also had more time together.
I would definitely do it.
They kept their 3-day a week schedule at daycare. Having days with the baby alone was great....and their schedule was not disrupted. Then we would all get out on the days all the children were together (good experience for me to take all three out without DH)
I say go for it.
Our DCP has offered to let us go part-time while I'm on mat leave. I plan to take DS to daycare 2.5 - 3 days a week so he still is used to the routine and can play with other kids, etc., but so he's home more than usual so he doesn't feel left out. Plus we'll save a little money. My parents are retired and will be available to come help out (as needed) the other 2 days of the week (they already come once a week to do daycare).
My mom will be staying with us for at least two weeks when this LO is born, so DD will not be in day care at all during that time. Even after my mom leaves, I doubt we'll send DD to day care. It's really hard to say now, though. With DD having just turned 1 when this LO is born, I think I'll always have someone there helping during the first month or so.
I'm still unsure what I'm going to do after my maternity leave is up...as far as work goes.
Our daycare only offers part time if you can find a match. But you risk losing your full time spot.....which I cannot even fathom not having a full time slot for him so I will continue to foot the bill for monthly tuition. I do it in the summer even though I'm off 6 weeks. I usually keep him home 3 days a week then though.
During mat leave I'll send him in to keep the normalcy but probably keep him home a day or 2 a week so we can spend time together just the 2 of us when the baby is sleeping.
Same here. If my family is in town, I may pull out kiddo #1 while they are here, but I still pay for daycare regardless.
DS will be almost three when # 2 arrives. I haven't worked out specifics with daycare yet but he will keep going at least three days a week or possibly still enroll him for five but they have a shorter day option of 9-3:30 which we might try instead. I don't want to disrupt his routine entirely only to have to re-condition him when I go back to work and I also want some one on one time with baby.
We are dropping from 5 days to 3 while I am on leave. The last part of my leave I will go back to work 2.5 days/week for 4 weeks so I will use the days I'm planning on working anyway and then get LO#2 on the same schedule before going back to 5 days.
From everyone I've talked with it's the best solution - especially for those who don't have much help available at home.
We kept DD1 home for the week DH stayed home. When he went back to work, she went back to DC 4 days/week (normally in DC 5 days, but DH took Fridays off all through my maternity leave). However, I'm a teacher and I ended my previous DC situation when school ended for the summer.
I'm so glad we kept her in DC as long as we could. She needed the stability and normalcy, I needed the bonding time with DD2. I still had 2.5 months to spend with both of my girls before school started in August.
We kept my oldest in day care full time when #2 came. A few reasons: Mainly, it was really confusing for him to stay home some days and go some days; it got him out of his routine and made all days difficult for getting ready in the AM, especially days we had to drop him off at school. It felt terrible leaving him at school crying because he didn't understand. Other reasons were I found I needed to be at my infants constantly changing schedule; it was hard to be flexible for him when my oldest was home.
What I did instead is just picked up my oldest early most days. But this way, he still got ready in the morning, did his whole routine and then the days I got him early, we still got to hang out and do stuff together.
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