Saturday, February 26, 2011

Finding Day Care - A *SIGH* of Relief

Two days ago, we went to tour Action Day Care, on Hibiscus Ln.  I was sooo not excited about this since reading the yelp reviews on Action Day Care.  What I didn't realize, is that the worst reviews were for a different location of Action Day Care.




We showed up at 12 Noon, but the center had us scheduled for 12:30pm.  Go us!  Catching them off guard!  Well, they didn't seem to have any qualms about an impromptu tour.  After a brief explaination of their program, the woman giving us the tour took us the first room, which is for infants who can't crawl.  I was pleasantly surprised by what I was hearing and seeing. 

Here's some things we liked:

-Secure campus. Fenced all around, pin-pad entry through office door, not on a main road.

-Cleanliness. The rooms we saw smelled and looked clean.  I saw cleaning supplies and could smell that they were used.  Toys are cleaned after every child's use.  Each infant has their own crib.

-Infants are on their own schedule. They gave us a sample schedule, but emphasized that there is really no set schedule, as the babies have different needs at different times.

-Parents are welcomed to visit whenever they want without notice, moms can come in to breastfeed, participate in activities, or just stop by.

-The caretakers have been there for years - one had even been there for 13 years!  So employees aren't coming and going.

-Legit.  Since this is a widely known day care facility, they are probably more accountable to regulations than home care. {But we all know that doesn't always mean better}.

-Numbers. The teacher/student ratio is 1:4, but currently there are less than 6 kids, and two teachers.

-Cloth diapers. They'll do 'em, so long as you provide all the parts and a "dirty" container.

-Close to where we live

Some things we didn't like:

-Cost. Although less than we originally thought, this place is one of the most expensive options {besides a nanny}.  We do get a discount for being referred by a friend, and our friend gets a discount too.

-Numbers, While we liked the numbers we saw, they say they can take up to 16 infants! Yikes!

-Not close enough, I can't jog Rowan to the daycare {at least not until I'm in really good shape}, and it's south of where we are, so it's another 10 mins out of the way.

The pros definitely weighed out the cons.  We put down a $50 holding fee, to hold a spot for Rowan until we decide what we want to do.  I'm still hoping that our nice neighbor will stop looking for a job and open up a little Cherrystone day care.

;)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Two Months & Counting { and a Bedtime Routine}


Can you believe Rowan is two months old?! {Well actually, nine weeks, cuz I don't have time to keep up with posts}.

He is SO much fun right now!  He has little conversations with us {I'm pretty sure he thinks he's speaking perfectly clear English}, he smiles big smiles, and he looks all around...no doubt, planning all the things he's going to be getting into as soon as he can crawl!
We started a bedtime routine about a week ago and it's been working so well!  Here's how it goes, {more or less}

  • 8pm/8:30pm    Feed
  • 8:30pm/9pm    Warm Bath
  • 9pm/9:30pm    Dry Off, New Diaper, Sleepy Lotion {J&J}, New Jammies
  • 9:30pm/10pm  Lights Out, Sound Machine ON
  • 10pm/10pm     Bedtime Story


At this point he's either out cold, or content to lay by himself until he falls asleep.  AND, he'll sleep for about 5 hours! {After that, it goes back to 3 hrs}.  Seriously, this 5 hour block is like heaven!

New Dual-Paned Windows for the House

Working on the house has slowed down a LOT snce Rowan was born, but we're getting things done here & there.

We've been thinking about new windows for a while.  Our old windows were the originals, and while I liked them for their character, they were terribly inefficient.  Wtih winter upon us, and a little one to keep warm, we bit the bullet and got ALL windows replaced. 

The new windows are double paned, vinyl, with a UV barrier.  Ideally, I would've liked to have some more time and money to put larger windows in. However, retrofit windows go in super quickly and easily, AND, we didn't need a permit.

Ultimately, we think this update was a great decision.  The new windows look nice, and hopefully, our heating bill won't be as outrageous this month.





Monday, February 21, 2011

Cloth Diapers - A Hiatus

We've taken sort of a break from cloth diapers.  It's not entirely out of convenience though.  Rowan outgrew his x-small Thirsties diaper cover and I can't find the larger one that I already bought.  He still can wear the small Fuzzibuns {we have two of those}, so we use them when they're clean.  Unlike the Thirsties cover {which fits OVER a cloth diaper}, Fuzzibuns come with an insert and the entire all-in-one is meant to be washed every time the diaper is soiled.  It doesn't really work to use Fuzzibuns as a cloth diaper cover becasue the soft lining of the Fuzzibuns gets damp.

We're still on the cloth diaper boat, but I'm still undecided which brand cloth diaper I want to continue with.  So before we invest a bunch more money into them, Rogér and I are taking a class at Tiny Tots, in Campbell, CA.  Hopefully we'll learn about the different diapers available, so we know which ones we want to go forward with.  I'll keep you posted!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Somebody Give Me a Chill Pill!

I've come down with a serious case of First-Time-Mommy Syndrome.  I was never much of a hypochondriac before.  But now that I have a baby, I find myself turning the slightest sign into the most awful issue you can imagine.  The internet isn't exactly helping either.

Luckily, somebody or something is working in my favor. 

Yesterday, I scheduled a last minute doctor appointement, to have something totally ridiculous checked out.  {Right before I left, I had a little moment of sanity and realized that I was going to have a hard time explaining my concern to the doc, when there really wasn't anything to look at}.  I got us {Rowan an myself} all packed up in the car and was ready to go. 

Less than two minutes into our drive, I got a flat tire!  I had to pull into the Valley Fair parking lot and wait an hour and a half for AAA to come fix it.  I HATED every minute of waiting, especially since Rowan was in the back seat, pooping his pants every 15 minutes, AND I unfortuneately packed bottles {I pumped before} with a "rapid" flow nipple, so most of the milk I gave him ended up on his shirt.

Of course, I missed my Dr. appointment.

When the spare was finally on, I drove to Costco to get the flat tire fixed pronto, {I had just got new tires from Costco that morning}. 

Once the whole ordeal was over, I was so relieved to be done with it and back home.  And I was totally over worrying about the Dr. "issue".  Thank goodness that passed!

Does this get better?  I know that worrying comes with parenting, but I feel ridiculous!

In other news, Rowan is cute!



~Sarah

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always loved Valentine's Day!  {Seems odd for me, right?} But I really do.  Probably because it's so close to my birthday and my mom always made me a heart-shaped, ice cream birthday cake.  Plus, I have an insane sweet tooth and today is the best excuse for gorging on chocolates!

Rogér and I usually celebrate with a special dinner out {we don't do Valentine's Day gifts}.  But this year is a little different.  With a 7 week old baby, V-Day kinda crept up on us.  And to be honest, going out for dinner didn't sound that appealing.

How did we celebrate the holiday that honors LOVE?

We started a garden.


Made heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies {okay, I cheated, they were from a Betty Crocker mix.  You know, the ones where all you do is add an egg & water?}.


And ordered take-out from Krung Thai.


Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!


Monday, February 14, 2011

SLO {and Six Hours in the ER}

This Thursday, Rogér had some business in Santa Maria, so we made it into a little family trip to San Luis Obispo {SLO}.  For those of you who don't know, Rogér and I went to school at Cal Poly, and, that's were we met :)

It was a beautiful day, plus, it was Farmer's Market night!  SLO has the best Farmer's Market.  Every Thursday night, at 6 pm, a ton of fresh produce vendors, restaurants, crafters and musicans, set up out on Higuera St. 

In college, my roomies and I used to hit up the market whenever possible because EVERYBODY is out to enjoy it.  It's always a great place to get some grub. McClintocks offers delicious bbq'd steak. Buona Tavola has tasty Italian. You can also find Chinese food, Mediterranian dishes, as well as some lighter snacks, like corn on the cob and kettle corn. Besides that, the stores stay open later for the night {SLO is a quiet town and shops usually close up early}.

Rogér and I strolled Rowan up and down the streets, but ultimately chose to go to Tahoe Joe's for dinner. YUM!  And I ate waaay too much.

Aftewards, we retired to our hotel {America's Best Value} for the night.  That's when the you-know-what started to hit the fan.  Rowan woke up every.single.hour. throughout the night.  As if it's not hard enough to deal with a fussy baby, I felt bad for the people next to us, who were probably also getting Rowan's wake up call.  Not to mention, the bed sank so badly that I rolled into Rogér constantly.  It's a good thing neither of us are bed wetters! ;P

Friday morning, we were exhausted. We took a drive through Cal Poly, for old time's sake and then took off for home.

I also had something going on.  I thought it might be a yeast infection?, which I heard could spread to breastfeeding babies.  So as soon as I got home, I called Kaiser, figuring they could prescribe over the phone, {thats what they did w/ my bladder infection}.  Turns out, no.  I couldn't get an appointment 'til Monday, which seemed like FOR-EVER, so we went to the E.R.  Yes, we knew we'd be low priority, but we thought it was worth it.  Six hours and $200 later, I found out I probably had Bacterial infection which could be treated with Metronidazole (Flagyl).  As it turns out, Flagyl is also the treatment for all the possibilities based on my symptoms. So if the answer to all the possibilities is Flagyl, why couldn't they just give it over the phone?!  Anyway, on Flagyl, I can't breastfeed, so I have to pump-n-dump for 24 hours.  So sad to see all that milk go down the drain!

Well, that was Friday.  I'll have to write about Saturday another time.

~Sarah

Friday, February 4, 2011

All Guys Get Cranky When They Lose Their Hair

Rowan is 6 weeks and has been a little cranky lately, but as Rogér put it, "All guys get cranky when they lose their hair." 

Yeah, he's rockin' a little bit of a skullet...


And as if life wasn't hard enough for the little dude right now, today, he got his 6 week shots.  Let's see if I can remember what they're for...TDaP (Tetanus, Diptheria, and Pertussis), HIB, Rotovirus, Hepatitus B, um...that's all I can remember. Luckily, I don't have to.  All the info is right HERE.  A nurse came in to talk to us about giving Rowan a HIB vacc that was still in trial. I totally understand that they need to test the vaccs to get them to market, AND that it's probably fine. I mean, I work in medical devices....same deal. However, I'm already a little paranoid of vaccines (although I believe they're mostly good).  So that was a big HELLS NO for us.  

He's actually handling it better than I thought.  Poor kid.

In other news, Ronin (the horse) still has a bum leg.  We don't know what's causing it and it's been weeks now.  So, it's time to go to the vet.  Well, since it doesn't seem to be super urgent, we're waiting until a vet clinic at the ranch.  He also needs ALL his vaccs updated.  That's not going to be a cheap tab!  Honestly, I just hope his leg is going to be alright.  I barely feel like I have a horse anymore, except for the bills.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Three Strikes

Okay, so after finding the three top rated day cares in our area on Yelp, I called them all to see what the availability was.

First up, Peek-A-Boo Daycare.  FULL

Strike One!

Next, Angel Day Care.  No children under 6 mos.

Strike Two!

Last chance, Tammy's Day Care.  Left a message.  Next day, got a call back....FULL. She said to call back when it was time to go back to work to see if there were any openings, but mentioned that it wasn't likely.

Strike Three!

Since none of those panned out....what to do? 

My HR guy at work said he knew of some great places, so I contacted him.  Seems like a good resource, right?  Maybe if you have a good HR rep.  Not mine.  He only gave me one contact, Action Day Care.  It's an institution.  Maybe its not so bad, but the workers come and go and it didn't rate well on Yelp.  To top it off, HR Guy threw in that his child goes there and that if I said I was refferred by him, we might both get a discount....great. Thanks for nothing, HR Guy!



So I hit up Cragislist.

I've found a few promising candidates, but for some reason, I'm a little scared to contact them.  Is that weird?  I don't know.  It's uncomfortable.  We're going to put together a nanny add tonight.  I'm guessing it will go something like this:

Must love children, big dogs, and loud birds

Haha!  We'll see if we get any bites.  You never know!

I wish we knew more people who send their kids to day care.

Know of any great  day cares or nannies in the Santa Clara area?  Willing to quit your job to stay home with our baby?
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