On Monday I dropped him off bright and early so we could practice our new morning routine. Here he is all dressed up for his first day of "school".
Can't you just see the excitement in his eyes?
He still wears mostly newborn-sized clothes, but I put him in a 0-3 month size outfit so he would look bigger and the older kids wouldn't pick on him. When I got to daycare the teachers told me I could hang out as long as I wanted. So Chad and I walked around the room for a bit. The kids all stared at him and he stared back. Eventually I felt silly just standing around getting stared at by babies. We spied an empty vibrating bouncy chair and I plopped him in it and left to go shopping. After a few hours I went back, expecting him to be crying hysterically because he missed me so much. But he was perfectly happy, and the teachers said he didn't cry at all. Really, all Chad needs in life is a vibrating bouncy chair. Plus, daycare has a SWING which he doesn't have at home, so his life is complete while he's there.
His room has a bulletin board with lists of baby milestones and once a baby reaches them they get their name written on a star hung under it. If the milestones were "I'm the cutest baby in the room!" or "I can jam out to Cee Lo Green!" then Chad would be dominating that board. Alas, they are more along the lines of "I can sit up by myself!" and "I eat solid food now!" and Chad isn't quite there yet, so he has no stars. But it's OK, it will give him some goals to strive for. Once babies can sit up they have many more activities to choose from, including a giant turtle pit filled with toys. I think that's the equivalent of the cool kids table in the cafeteria. There are always babies in the turtle pit, babbling at each other and playing with the toys, while poor Chad, unable to sit up by himself, has to watch from the sidelines.
Because Monday was such a success, I was certain Tuesday, everyone's first full day at work/daycare, would be fine. I got him there bright and early, and again the other babies stared at him, but the vibrating bouncy chair was free so when I left he was happily bouncing away, watching the cool kids in the turtle pit.
And then... at 3:30 they called me at work to inform me that Chad had a fever over 100F, and I needed to come get him immediately. :( We knew he would be coming down with all sorts of colds and bugs after he started hanging around those other germy babies, but I kind of thought he would at least make it through the first day!
So I sped off through Durham and raced into the room, where Chad was chilling in the swing, looking kind of sheepish. The teacher told me that he was acting fine, and drank his whole bottle after they called me, but he was definitely warm when he woke up from his nap. I asked her to take his temperature again before I left, so when I called the pediatrician like a hysterical first-time mom should, I would be able to give them an update on his temp. They stuck the thermometer in his ear, and it came up normal. They took it again and it was normal again. So either Chad was faking being sick because he missed us and wanted to get out of school early, or this is the way they haze new babies' parents. If he did have a fever, I'm blaming a baby named John. He had the sniffles and was looking guilty when I came in. Normally, the policy is that kids need to be fever-free for 24 hours before they can return, but since he didn't even have a fever anymore I asked if I really had to keep him home on Wednesday, and they said we should just take his temperature that night and the next morning and if he was normal he would be allowed back.
Unfortunately for Chad, while daycare has the fancy ear thermometer, the only baby thermometer we have at home is of the rectal variety.
We had to google how to use it, and it turned out to require two of us. (Actually, three of us, if you count Chad.) And a PSA for anyone who ever takes Chad's temp via this route- sticking something IN that region guarantees that something else will come OUT, so that was a fun surprise.
Luckily, his temp was normal every time we took it and he seemed fine all night. He even learned the baby version of the Cha Cha Slide. (He likes the criss cross part best.) Thus, he went off to daycare this morning, and we didn't get any phone calls about mysterious fevers. Tomorrow he goes in for his two-month check-up and a variety of vaccinations, so that should protect him from some of the diseases those other kids are trying to pass off on him. And of course, another weigh in. He feels like he weighs a little more than Mariah, so I don't think we need to worry about being in the single digit percentiles this time. He should be nice and plump!
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