The Report

Today Lily had her first unofficial day of school. We were able to do a trial run before she officially starts on Monday. So here's the scoop: I woke Lily up at 7:30, and we arrived at the school by 8:15. We put away her things in her bin and on her shelf - her color in the room is purple so everything that is hers is marked with purple tape. Of course, I had to get her a purple crib sheet, a purple wipes holder, purple burp cloths, and we are currently on the hunt for a purple NUK pacifier. Lily hadn't eaten since 5:30 am so we warmed a bottle for her, and they began to feed her. After many years of working in Early Childhood Education, I knew better than to linger around for both her sake and mine. So I left around 8:35. Luckily, I had 2 appointments today (one at 9:00) to distract me. I felt the need for some additional reinforcements after I left, so I called Carl and my mom while I was in the car. The good news is that I didn't cry once. The bad news is that I was nauseous the entire time. I truly thought that I could vomit at any time. But, I didn't.

The report from Lily's teachers is that she was fussy the first time they gave her a bottle, but the second feeding went smoothly. She took a half hour nap and otherwise looked around pleasantly at her new surroundings. When I picked her up at 1:30, she had just dozed off again. Although her room will eventually have 6 babies, there is only one other child there so far (the rest will be filtering in this month and next). The other child there now is the other Lily, so it is currently the Lily Room.

It was such a relief to get past the first (half) day. I am feeling much more confident about Monday. I know that it won't be half as bad because I won't have to leave; I'll just be right down the hall in the office. And, the Director offered me the option to breastfeed Lily during the day, so I don't have to pump if I don't want to. That's great news, but I'm going to see how it goes. I don't want to take advantage of the situation.

The funniest thing about the whole experience is that by the time I returned, every teacher in the building had seen her cloth diapers and everyone wanted to know where to get them. Apparently, they had never seen diapers like hers before, and they loved them. I was very excited. I just wanted to do my part for the environment, but I certainly wouldn't mind being a catalyst for a cloth diaper revolution!