Daycare Meltdowns

Last Wed we started daycare again. L was with me since May, so with 3 months home with me, I knew it would be a challenging start. However, nothing prepared me for how difficult it was.

Wed morning, L was fine until he realized I had to go. I had prepped him for a while, telling him he was going to go to school soon, and since I had actually started the week before and he'd stayed with family, I figured he would be okay. Well, no. He was not okay. He cried, screamed, threw up the little breakfast he'd had, and spent the rest of the day between being semi-okay and bawling. I felt horrible. I didn't cry in front of him, but outside, I couldn't hold it in and my day sucked. When I went to pick him up, he had his paci on, and the moment he saw me he started crying and held on to me as if I were going to disappear. Talk about breaking a mother.

Thurs was a sort of repeat of Wed, only he'd woken up a little earlier so I fed him breakfast. He screamed, cried, turned red, threw himself on the floor so the teacher couldn't get him, but then he was better during the day. DH left early and showed up after naptime and waited for me to get there (long story, but he can't take L in his work car). L cried when he saw daddy, but was having a fun time in the playground when I got there.

Fri, cried the same in the morning. He had a bad night, waking up crying throughout the night, whimpering "no, no, no" and woke up at 5:45 am for the day. We had breakfast in the morning, but other than that, he didn't eat at school except for snacks (same on Wed and Thurs - he's not eating his meals at all!). His day, though, was better and he barely cried during the day, and when I went to pick him up, he didn't cry.

We spent the weekend up in Satellite Beach and although initially his nights were still interrupted with what seemed like nightmares, he eventually evened out and last night he slept wonderfully. I'm afraid, though, of him going back to daycare. Right now, he's going Wed-Fri since DH is off on Mon and Tues, but I'm considering taking him in on Tues, too. 

It gets better, right? I mean, when will he stop crying hysterically when I drop him off? Even though he's been in daycare since he was 8 months old, he's always had a hard time with drop off, just never THIS bad. Anywa words of encouragement or advice? Those of you off in the summer, are you going through the same thing?