New daycare is so hard!

Poor Jocelyn is having a very tough time transitioning to her new daycare situation.  I don’t know what to do about it.  Donovan has transitioned fine – he hates drop off, but I know he is fine by the time I leave the building.  And they send pictures of him having fun.  Jocelyn, on the other hand, is not enjoying it as much.

I think part of the problem is her age.  She is old enough to really remember her last daycare, remember the routines, and remember her friends.  She was very comfortable there (but occasionally had the dramatic drop off), and felt empowered to ask for what she wanted.  And, quite honestly, she often got it. 

 This place is a bit more structured, at least for her room.  They do a lot more to prepare the kids for school, so there is a bit more of a curriculum.  Also, there is a choice board where you put your picture next to the play area you want to use.  They limit the number of spots per play area.  So sometimes she wants to go to housekeeping, but it’s already full, and she is stuck going somewhere else.  There is also an adjacent room, and she claims that they have better stuff over there.  So sometimes she wants to play with that.  And she doesn’t always get her way. 

I know she has fun while she is there.  They send pictures and updates, including a daily newsletter with the major activities that they did (so when you ask ‘what did you do in daycare today?’ you get more than ‘nothing’ or ‘I don’t know’).  I love those things.  And I know that Jocelyn does fun stuff, and has fun doing it.  They also go outside every day – as long as it’s between 10 and 90 degrees out, and it’s not raining hard (a light drizzle does not deter them).  So she has a lot of fun with that. 

 But I also know that there are things that she doesn’t like.  And she gets so sad when I leave in the morning.  They even started a system where Jocelyn gets a Disney Princess sticker on days when she doesn’t cry when I leave.  I feel like I have become a helicopter parent who is asking for special things for my baby.  I want to make the transition easy for my baby, but I don’t want to be the pain in the ass parent who asks for a million concessions.  It’s a hard balance to find. 

One compromise is that the neighboring room evidently has a whole collection of pretty dress-up dresses to play with.  Jocelyn likes them.  So she wants to play with them.  She does go into that room at the end of the day when they consolidate the kids, but the area where the dresses are is usually ‘closed’.  I have asked them to keep it open for her a few days a week, with the promise that she will clean it up when she is done.  So far that has been okay.  They also borrow a few dresses from that room for her room when they are not in use.  Now she is talking about animal toys that they have on the other side.  So that will be the next special request.  And today she complained that they don’t go to music class enough. 

 I’m just hoping she outgrows this soon and can start to enjoy her daycare.  It really is a cool place.  I mean, they have a sledding hill.  Sledding hill!   In the winter, when it’s snowy, they go sledding!  And they have at least 7 playgrounds surrounding the place, so there is always an open playground. 

 One terrible way this is manifesting is that she is wetting the bed almost nightly.  Good thing we invested in a few waterproof queen sized sheets for the temporary housing!  We put her in a diaper one night because it got so bad, but then she wanted to wear a diaper to daycare the next day.  So that is not the option.  Poor Mike does laundry daily now (ah, the joys of being a house hubby [for now]).  I am sure that all of this transitioning has gotten her back into wetting – she became night potty trained almost immediately upon becoming day potty trained.  I think it was about another week or two after getting rid of daytime diapers that we were able to get rid of night time diapers / pull ups.  But now, not so much.  Poor kid. 

 One good thing is that one of my coworkers has her kids there as well, and her daughter is Jocelyn’s age.  So she asked her daughter to be nice to Jocelyn and try to make friends with her.  So far it’s working, Jocelyn spends a lot of time with this girl (and one other one), and often comes home with stories about the things they did together.  That’s helping a bit. 

I hate that my poor little boo is sad.  I want to fix it for her so badly!  I have thought that maybe I should pull her out for now and let her stay home with Mike.  But he is only home temporarily, and will hopefully be working full time soon, so we will just be at it all over again.  So we need to get her used to it.