The Thrash Three: To Greener Pastures

I mentioned in my last post Will was sick. That was the theme for about six straight weeks. He had strep (which I got too for the first time in probably more than 20 years), sinus/upper respiratory infections, and a urinary tract infection. That last one really threw us. No one could figure out why his fever wouldn't break. It kept going up actually. I feared the worst - pneumonia or meningitis. Thank God our pediatrician thought to test his urine because he had no symptoms of a UTI. One trip to the ER, 2 pounds lost, 4 prescriptions, and many sleepless nights later, we finally had an answer. The bad news is that UTI's are cause for concern in pre-potty trained males because the likelihood of contamination causing the infection is so small. They always worry about an anatomical issue - blockages, twisted tubes, urinary reflux. If it is any of these things we'll find out quickly because he will get recurring infections. We went ahead and took him for a bladder/kidney sono to check things out (which he was surprisingly really good for!). We have not gotten the results from the pedi yet. I would say he's healthy and we're over the worst, but I don't want to jinx it!

The other issue we've had to contend with is daycare. It sucks to put your kid in the care of a stranger. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone. It's hard to feel comfortable with the level of care he's getting at daycare when teachers are swapped out all the time. We no sooner learn one's name and she's gone. Will is too young to not have a primary caregiver to attach to. I wish I'd known that before. But we've lived and learned and we're moving him to an in home care provider. The last straw for me was when he missed an entire week at Primrose without notice and no one bothered to contact us to find out why and if he was okay. Actually, they did finally call. On the day payment was due. Yeah, buh-bye.

Finding new care for him wasn't as stressful as I thought it was going to be. I started with the Texas Dept of Family and Protective Services database to find licensed people nearby. All their state inspections and the results are posted there which makes it pretty easy to narrow it down. We interviewed three - one sounded great on paper, not so great in person; one was just bad (basically everything I didn't want); one was perfect. She lives about four miles from our house. She's married with four kids. She wanted to be a teacher but could never get to school to do it and when her husband got laid off three years ago taking care of kids was the answer for them. She spent a lot of time telling us all about her curriculum and activities. Her passion for what she does was obvious and really made her appealing to me. We talked about all the issues around disciplining and potty training and feeding to make sure her philosophies were in line with mine. Her house was nice and clean and spacious. Her husband is mostly home to help out with the kids when he's not substitute teaching or coaching. She has a group of 8 kids right now, including her own, and two of which are after-schoolers. Will will be one of the youngest. There's another one his age and the rest are between 2 and 5. I met the kids before we closed the deal and they all seemed great. Every one looked healthy and happy. I think we covered and checked out as much as we possible could (yes, I've stalked them on Facebook). He starts in home daycare in exactly two weeks. I pray all the time that it's the right decision but I really feel at peace about moving him. I'm looking to forward to having him in a more stable, nurturing environment. The fancy curriculums and private school tuition will come again soon enough...