Samuel's First Day of Daycare

Today was Samuel's first day of Daycare at the Union Pacific Child Development Center. 

He slept all night and woke up at 6:05, which was a pretty good time that fit into our planned morning routine! (All 5 of us slept in our room last night, too. No kennel for Millie or anything!! New year - new normal, I guess!)

Trent had gotten up around 5:20 to work out, so after Samuel work up I fed him and then handed him off to Trent when he was done working out. I finished getting ready and while Trent got Samuel dressed and gave him a pep talk (Samuel really didn't want to get dressed - he just wanted to keep playing!)

We had gotten everything ready to go the night before, which was huge, so we just had to plop Samuel into his carseat after everyone was ready to go and we were out the door at 7:03.

We pulled into the parking lot a little after 7:30. Samuel slept during the ride downtown and was pretty content in his car seat while I got him and all his stuff inside. There was quite a lot of stuff for us to get inside since it was his first day, so from here on out, unless we need to stock up on something, I should hopefully only have to bring him and his milk for the day inside.

I felt a little lost/unorganized trying to get everything in its place just because I didn't know for sure where everything should go, but I know we'll get our routine down as I figure it all out. 

Samuel had lots of smiles for Angie, one of his teachers, and stuck his tongue out at her in true Samuel style, so that made me pretty happy that he was in a good mood and not mad at me for leaving him (yet, anyway).

As I was leaving the room, I wasn't really sad, but I definitely felt strange. I had left him with other people when I went to work for a few months already, but I just didn't want him to realize at some point in the day that he was with strangers and a bunch of other babies and think that we had abandoned him... I'm not even sure his brain is capable of those thoughts yet... 

The infant rooms at the daycare line the parking lot, so, after I got in my car, I waited until a spot was empty outside his room and moved my car down and sat there and watched him for a while. First he was sitting in Angie's lap by some other babies and then she laid him by a baby and talked to them. He just kicked and looked around for a while. He looked perfectly content, so I made myself leave.

That's him laying there with the navy socks on :)

I called to check on him for the first time at 11:00. I had noticed that he hadn't slept yet (we get notifications on our phones as he does things throughout the day like get his diaper changed, eat, sleep, etc., as well as get pictures and videos of him) so I was mainly curious of what he was acting like since he hadn't taken a nap yet.

I talked with Connie, his primary teacher, and she said that he was doing great but he just hadn't slept. They had rocked him to sleep a few times and he had dozed off but he'd wake up when they put him in his crib. That's not surprising at all because that's the way it goes at home, too! She said they let him lay in his crib for a while after they put him down hoping that he would fall asleep, but she said he just laid there quietly and looked around for a while but never did fall asleep.

Finally, at 11:17, we got a notification that he did fall asleep, but it was only for a short 24 minutes. Then, around 1:00, he did take a great nap and slept for a whole hour in the afternoon!! I found out later that they swaddled him for the afternoon nap, so the baby straight jacket seemed to help!

By the end of the work day, I was getting anxious to go see him and hold him, so I took off as close to 5 as I could! When I walked in to pick him up this afternoon he was giving smiles to his teacher, Angie, and had plenty of smiles for me as well when he saw me! It was so great to hug him and give him lots of kisses!

Almost as soon as we started driving home he started moaning to himself as if he was finally relaxed and then shortly after that he was asleep until we got home. He also had some big smiles for his dad when we got in the house, so that made me happy.

We got home at about 6 and Trent had supper made (a scrumptious one at that) so we ate while Samuel sat on my lap. He was happy for a little bit, but before long, he was getting fussy, so Trent took him up to get ready for bed, I fed him, and then he was asleep right before 7.

Hopefully he gets caught up on his sleep tonight so we can do it all over again tomorrow!

This is the picture we got this afternoon of Samuel while he was playing at daycare.
I found myself looking at this picture on numerous occasions this afternoon. I love him so much and it makes me smile!! He just looks like such a big boy!