Roller Coaster of a Day

Ok, so we survived Lukas' first day of daycare (having decided he was well enough to attend), which happens to have also been my first day back at my job after swallowing my manly pride and taking the past 6 weeks off during a busy time at work to take care of Luke while we waited for a spot to open at the facility across the street from my employer (I do wonder what my co-workers and subs actually think of my taking this time off that they don't want to, or are too polite to mention. They have all been very accomodating so far). It also happened to be Mrs. LIAYF's first day of her first jury trial as an attorney, although she has been practicing Law for the past several years. All that being said, it was a day that had a lot riding on it for the Austin clan!

Even after preparing everything we could think of (and then some) the night before, the morning was hectic and hurried and I was out of the house 15 minutes beyond my 'burn time', as in 'I need to leave now or possibly get burned'. It was ok, since I called in and warned the office that I would be a bit late because of 'formalities' associated with the first day drop off and the fact that I could not do a test drop off last Friday due to several vomiting babies waiting to be sent home.

The drop off did go well and Lukas, true to form, immediately began to socialize, giggle, and flirt with a cute 11 month old brunette beauty named Summer (Luke the Charmer). I proceeded to work, where unannounced to me, my office was having an impromptu meeting in front of the only entry door, and I had to walk to gauntlet of shame for being 20 minutes late on my first day, hearing smug comments like, 'so glad you could join us' and 'here take a name tag so we can all remember who you are', real funny stuff from normally lame humorless sorts. (Just kidding guys, cause I'm a kidder, you are all very funny, yes, uh (cough) very funny indeed!)

Things, however, did go well from there for the rest of the morning with no surprises, and at noon I went to check on Lukas to find that he was asleep and had done very swimmingly during the morning, eating, drinking, and sleeping like a champ. So, away I went without seeing him, my plan to try again at 2:00. But as I was walking along the sidewalk towards the facility at that time, I met his care provider taking Lukas and two other babies in a triple stroller out on a walk. I was excited to see him, but, frankly, he looked awful. He had been crying, his face was still wet, he was slumped over, and when I smiled at him he just looked straight through me with a blank look on his face. No smile or apparent recognition of me at all. That was extremely disconcerting, but since the other babies were protesting because they were not moving, I let her proceed while I went the block back to work feeling very uneasy.

Then, after an hour of not really concentrating on my work, I decided I had to go back and check on Luke again. I didn't know what to expect once I arrived, this being his first day and all and what I had experience the previous hour, but once I got there Lukas was all smiles and was playing happily like he didn't have a care in the world. So I gave him a big hug and went back to work. All is good, end of story right? Well, about an hour later, just before I was to leave work, I received a call from his provider who wanted to tell me that Lukas was now running a fever of 101.5, and that if that didn't get better by Thursday, I would not be able to bring him in! Strange days indeed! He had been fine all day long and especially just an hour and a half before.

Anyway, we went home, had a nice uneventful evening, with a normal temperature, and Lukas slept happily through the night without a peep. He does seem to be doing much better today, so I sure hope things go a bit smoother Thursday when we try this all once again. All of you with kids in daycare, is it always this dramatic??

Wish us all luck.