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kgb1411
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daycare while on maternity leave?
kgb1411
member
in Working Moms
I am currently pregnant with my second child, my first will be about a year old when the second is born. I am debating on whether or not to take our oldest out of daycare while I am home on maternity leave. We can afford it, I just feel guilty about having him in daycare while I am home all day. On the other hand, I know how exhausting it was to take care of him when he was first born.
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Re: daycare while on maternity leave?
I am currently on maternity leave with my 2nd, and have a 19 month old. I would HIGHLY recommend you keep paying for daycare so you have the option to send your older DD as much or as little as you want. This is what we are doing and I honestly don't know what I would do without this option. My newborn hardly sleeps at night, sometimes I'm up until 5:30 am with her, and my older DD wakes up around 6:30, so I have DH take her to daycare in the morning so I can take a nap! It's a handful dealing with a newborn and a toddler and it would be hell on one hour of sleep. I definitely don't send my older DD full-time, or even every day, but she likes seeing her friends there (and I swear she gets sick of staying here with me) and it is so helpful to have a few hours to spend with just my newborn. Again, if you can afford it I would highly recommend it!
For a one year old, I see no advantage to daycare, personally. If you have to pay to keep your spot then maybe but otherwise I woudln't.
My kids are 3 years apart. Ethan was in the nursery at 3 years old and they had a lot of activities, spent time outside and he had a lot of friends, so he continued going full time.
DS2 was/still is a very difficult baby. He hardly napped without my boob in his mouth and nursed around the clock. Ethan would've been ignored a lot at home... I planned on keeping him in daycare full time, but picking him up early. Unfortunately, I rarely ever made it to the center before 5 pm.
Is it something you can re-arrange at the last moment, or will you have to pay anything? I would definitely count on your DC 1 going at least part time. I would not feel bad about it. They have their own routine at dc too and if he's happy there, why not leave him there at least part time? You'll have some time to bond with the baby and spend some time with your older one when he comes home.