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?s about daycare for other kids while on maternity leave
Right now A goes to daycare FT since I'm working FT. I'm debating on having him go full or part time while I'm on leave and am weighing the pros & cons. Monetary wise we would save a little, but there isn't too big of difference.
Sooo...if your other child(ren) was in daycare prior to you going out on maternity leave, did you keep him/her in daycare while you were on leave?
If so, did you put them in daycare FT or PT?
Any other tidbits to add?
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Re: ?s about daycare for other kids while on maternity leave
Best decision I think we made when I was on maternity leave with Riley was leaving Peyton in daycare.
We did keep him home for the first 2 weeks after she was born because my DH was off work also, but then he went right back to his regular schedule. It was great because it gave me time with just Riley and kept Peyton on his schedule so there was no major issues when I went back to work. If there was something special going on, we kept him home, but for the most part he was at daycare.
Well I've always been a SAHM so it didn't actually apply to me when I had number 2 but oh boy in retrospect I know exactly what I would have done. I would have sent #1 to daycare hands down! If it's not a decent saving to have him part-time then I'd go full time and you can keep him home if you have activities you want to do.
There are going to be a lot of changes going on, for all of you, and I think that keeping A's routine is a big positive for him. Think about this, right now he's entertained all day long by other kids, has teacher's that do hands on activities and when he's at home he's got mama and daddy all to himself. You keep him home and you're crazy busy with an infant, you're sleep deprived (remember that feeling) and you've got BFing to figure out ( I think you did, if not forgive me and still bottles take their own time to get a groove) and a baby to get down for naps, so think about juggling all that and how much time and attention is A going to get compared to what he gets in daycare? Not so much right. His world stay more "normal" if he stays in daycare.
Keeping him in daycare is a major benefit for the baby too. That daycare time is the only chance your new one is ever going to have one on one attention all from mama. Remember those early days of snuggling with a squishy little A, your entire focus on him. You'll never have that with a toddler running around wanting your attention.
You are going to be a better mama all the way around with him in daycare. Personally, I did a lot of sleep when the baby sleeps with #1 and there was none of that with 2 around.
With 2 at home my day was get up with #1 and get him something to eat, then #2 was up and needed to BF, a little playtime with both then get #2 down for nap, 1-1 play with #1 while #2 sleeps, lunch for #2 and then his nap, #2 wakes up again and eats, plays a tad and then #2 is awake again, #2 is back down for a nap.
Crazy right, I was always either feeding or getting someone to sleep and I had an infant that thought everytime he woke up at night he'd party for 2 hours instead of eating and going back to sleep.
DS1 continues to go to daycare full time. I wanted to keep his schedule the same (as much as I could) and I feel that DS2 deserves the same one on one time that DS1 had when he was born. Plus, I have no idea how I would have made it through the first month or so if DS1 was home. I have no idea how SAHMs with older children do it!
I was also worried that if I took DS1 out of daycare for 3-4 months, that there would be problems with him going back. At 4 months old he had no clue what was going on when we dropped him off that first day and since then he's never had a problem going. I was afraid we'd have a huge meltdown/some sort of separation anxiety when it was time to go back after being out for so long.
I completely ditto R on this. Sending Natalie to daycare was the best decision for us while I was on Mat leave. I was able to get things done and feel a little more rested, plus Addi got my undivided attention (like Natalie was afforded when she was an infant) for a good chunk of time rather than always being pulled in two directions.
I took kept N home for a week, then took her back to daycare pretty much full time T-Th . She was happier being able to play and run around with her friends.