First Day Back at Work....First Day at Sitter

Well, I was up bright and early this morning to make sure I was ready before Evvy got up and that everything was in the car and ready to go. I had plenty of time and we ended up being early. Evvy woke up right before I went into her room. I was glad that I didn't have to wake her up.

When we got to the sitter's house, she went happily to Miss J and snuggled right into her while I explained her scheduled, gave her my contact info and showed her the food I brought. She didn't cry or reach for me when I left. It made me a little sad but happy that she didn't feel distressed.

I had a VERY busy day at work. I think they are very glad that I am back. We had a HUGE implementation of new computer system last week and it didn't go too smoothly. Things seemed a little better today but there are still a lot of issues to be worked through. My backup person that handled things (and very well she did) while I was gone came up and bowed down to me and said, "Thank Goodness you are back." I got that a lot today. I guess it made me feel good but I missed my baby all day and thought about her all day. Since I was so busy, the day went pretty quickly.

When I went to pickup Evvy, Miss J said that she had a pretty tough day. She only drank 1 1/2 bottles and not a full bottle at one sitting like she normally does before a nap. She didn't eat much breakfast or lunch. She napped in the car a little while they ran a couple of errands in the morning and then cried and cried in the afternoon when it was time for nap. She didn't want to be held or put down. It broke my heart when she told me (I am crying just thinking about it now). My poor baby thought that I had abandoned her. She just went through separation 2 short months ago and she had to go through it again today. When I came, Miss J said that she had been sitting on the floor playing and just saying "mamamamama." When she brought her to the door when I knocked, my sweet baby's face lit up and she reached out and was so happy to see me. She just kept patting my on the chest and face. I could feel the relief she felt.

I don't know how she will do tomorrow when I drop her off since she knows what is coming. I hope she does OK. I hope that after a couple of days of her seeing that I come back every night, she feels secure and settles down into a routine.

We came home and I just let her sit with me on the floor. She was so happy to play with her toys. I will have to bring a few more to leave at Miss J's tomorrow. Then we ate dinner together tonight. She ate very well and drank about 6 oz of milk out of her sippy cup. Then we went for a walk. She babbled a lot and kept looking back to make sure I was still there. When we came home, we sat and read some books and then went to take a bath. She was soooo tired, she didn't even want to stay in the tub. She cried to get out. She didn't want to read our night time books (I read them but skipped the pages that she flipped past). She really just wanted her bottle and to go to sleep. The poor little thing was just exhausted. She drank her whole bottle and was fast asleep. She hadn't moved when I went in to check on her a little bit ago (blanket still on her).

She is really starting to understand one to one correlations with names and things. She got two balloons for her birthday. In the book we read before bedtime (Goodnight Moon/Buenos Noche Luna) it says "buenos noche globo rojo" (good night red balloon). When I read that the other night, she looked up at her balloon and clapped. She is really grasping words. I like to think that I am helping her language skills by speaking to her in Spanish which builds on the language skills that she has already built during this first year of her life in Guatemala.

Anyway, long day, I am so tired (emotionally and physically).

Thank you to all my friends and families who called and sent me well wishes and checked up on me tonight after our first day back to work/at the sitter.

We will get through this as we learn our new routine together.

Susan