So as most of you know my 7 week premature daughter was diagnosed at one week old with Juvenile Diabetes. Recently I have thought a lot about next year and returning to work as I am a early elementary teacher. I took the rest of the year off to be with my girls. I had planned to have Levi in Kindergarten and Carly in pre-school and Brooke,and Ellie in day care. I know that Ellie is still not regulated in her blood glucose levels and that this will take a while. The thing is I don't know if I can trust someone with my daughter's life in this stage. That being said what would you do. I love teaching but in this case Ellie's health is 1st priority. So Do I return to work and find a diabetic trained day care worker. Find a full time nanny/au pair/babysitter or stay home until I am more comfortable with trusting someone. I just don't know if we can afford living off one income.
Thanks
Re: Need Some Input on Something
I think 3 days a weeks is a good idea. I know it must be so scary to have to trust someone with your daughter who has special needs but I think that a dedicated nanny will be better able to care for her than a day care.
Jess and Michael Married 10/2006
This
Plus, your babies are getting socialization also from the older siblings and each other. I wouldn't even worry about that until at least 18-24 months.
A lot might change by September. Maybe find a daycare as back up that you could send Brooke to, but hopefully Ellie will be more stable by then and you won't have to pay a nanny and daycare.
I hope things change by September. We have a day care that we send our 2 y/o to that we will send them to if need be. If we decided to do DC then the day care will have to test her multiple times a day and give her insulin based on her BGL. I hope we can do one or the other.
Honestly, my initial gut reaction is that your girls don't need to be in any kind of daycare environment because of their prematurity. The NICU told us to keep DD out of daycare until after she was 2 if at all possible; daycare is an environment where weaker immune systems are at higher risk.
I agree with PPs who have suggested a nanny if you are able to find someone you are comfortable with, but if you can't find someone who would agree to training for your daughter's health management - stay home. There are many ways to re-work a budget to live on one income.
I'd suggest also reaching out to a Diabetes support group to chat with other mom's that dealt with this. I'm not sure what city you're in, but you should probably reach out to the pediatric hospital or endocrinologist to find a support group, or perhaps you'd find something online. I can only imagine it seems very overwhelming right now, but it maybe it's more manageable than you think.
T&P for you as you face all these challenges.