As you may have noticed, I have taken a bit of a hiatus over the last couple of months getting used to working outside the home again. For the last few years, I was able to work from home in our own business, which was a true blessing given how much we had to go through with Alexandra. (At times, just getting her to all of her doctors appointments seemed like a full time job not to mention being away for weeks up to a month for surgeries!) However, for a number of reasons, I decided to look for employment and was lucky to have found a great place which allows me to experience all that I was missing by working at home but still allows me enough flexibility to spend time with my family and continue working in the business.
As Im sure many other mothers would agree, going back to work was not the hard part. Finding someone I trusted to care for Alexandra, however, was! We are fortunate enough to have mothers in the area who take care of her two days a week, but we had a real dilemma as to what to do the other three days. With the big H1N1 scare back in the Fall and in consultation with all of her doctors, we decided we really needed to have someone come to the house. We spent months looking for someone and found a terrific young woman to cover for a few weeks when I first started my job. We kept searching, knowing that she would be going back to school. Finally, we found someone who shows up on time each day, and Alexandra seems to really like her. Still, we wonder if we made the right decision. I guess youre never 100% sure.
Alexandra is certainly ready for preschool which brings us to our next hurdle finding the right environment for her and deciding when to start. Over the next couple of months, we will be looking at options and deciding whats best for her.
I would love to hear what other Moms have done and how they selected the best care for their children!