Journey to and Through Motherhood: Lily's Seventh Week of Life (4/13/09

This week was full of smiles, coos, and lots of vocalizations! It was also full of heartache for me as I spent the week looking for a daycare for Lily. Monday and Tuesday I spent calling around and making appointments. Wednesday I visited three daycares and Thursday I visited two. I was feeling horribly disappointed. Nothing felt like a good fit and nothing felt good enough for my baby. I know I have impossible standards. I wouldn't like one place because they had too many kids, the next place had too few, the next place had too young of kids, the next place too old, and the two that felt somewhat okay were too far away. Then I looked up some providers on the State website and found some serious violations on their records that scared the crap out of me! I was getting pretty frustrated when I received an email from an old friend of Paul's who heard that I was looking for daycare and was looking to take care of a child in her home. I visited her on Friday as well as another daycare and both felt like really good fits for Lily. I am so relieved. Now Paul and I have to decide which is the better option for us.
We had a really busy weekend. Rachel had a sleepover at Katelyn's again on Friday night so Paul and I drove her out there. Saturday was a beautiful day that we spent running errands. We had to take the truck in for a new exhaust system in the morning and while we were waiting to pick it up at 3pm, we went to a mom to mom sale and got some cute clothes for Lily and ran a bunch of other errands. I wanted to find a swing at the sale but they didn't have any. We never registered for a swing for Lily but she sat in one at two of the daycares we visited and loved it. We originally didn't want to get one since they take up so much space but then my mom told me about the portable swings they sell which are lower to the ground so the bases are much smaller. Since we couldn't find a used one, we used some gift cards we had received and purchased a new one at Target. Lily absolutely loves it. It calms her down and is a great place to put her during her naps. The motion keeps her from waking up which is the usual problem I have when I try to set her down when she falls asleep. We have only had it a short time and it is already a godsend. On Sunday, we had lunch at our coworker Pat's house. We were originally going there to talk to his wife about providing care for Lily but since we found some good options, we were going to talk to her about providing backup care instead. She was not interested but her daughter was so I am glad that we now have local backup for when our daycare provider is either sick or on vacation. We came back home and were visited by another coworker, Lois, who missed Lily last time her and I visited the hospital.
Lily's cries are getting easier to tell apart and this week she started rubbing her eyes when she is tired. Either her cues are getting more obvious or I am finally able to pick up on them!
Here are some pictures from the week.
napping in her crib: