Daycare dilemma

I am fuming. I'm more upset than I have been in longer than I can remember. Yesterday, I picked Sophia up from daycare and she had a cut across the bridge of her nose. Her face looks terrible. Her left eye is a little black and blue from whatever happened, too.

Wait. What? "Whatever happened?" you ask.

Answer: No one knows.

Yup, that's right, no one has any idea how my daughter got a cut across the bridge of her nose during nap time.

Oh, I am indeed upset.

Here's the conversation between me and her teachers:

Me: Sophia, what happened to your face?

Sophia: Boo boo.

Me: Oh, I'm sorry honey. What happened (addressing the 3 teachers in the classroom)?

All teachers stop what they're doing and look my way.

Me: She didn't come to school with this, so what happened?

Teacher 1: We didn't see how it happened so we didn't write anything up, but now that we know it happened here we'll document it. (In their defense, these 3 teachers are not her regular classroom teachers, they are just with Sophia at the end of the day.)

Me: OK, so what happened?

Teacher 2 (Who IS one of Sophia's regular teachers): She must have gotten it during nap time while I was at lunch.

Me: So who was in the classroom?
(Teacher 2 names two teachers I've never heard before)

Me: No one saw anything?!

Teacher 2: It was during nap so the lights were off. I've said before that we need more people in this room.

Me: No one heard her cry? She must have had some reaction to getting hurt. Was the cut cleaned? Did anyone put ice on it? Did she get a hug or any kind of support while she was crying? You know, on Friday I found a bite mark on her back and I didn't get a report for that either. What is going on in this classroom? I'm going to have to talk to the director about this.

Teacher 2: Good, maybe you can get more people in here.

Argh!

This is my daughter's face we're talking about here. This is the place I bring my children every day. I do expect a certain amount of cuts and bruises. Kids will be kids. But I expect there to be documented reactions from the teachers when something happens. This incident was something that should have been noticed.

You can't even imagine how awful I feel at the thought that my daughter was suffering some kind of pain with no one there to comfort her.

It's just awful.

I tried to talk to the director last night, but she was on the phone and I couldn't wait around for her (which was probably a good thing since I was even more upset yesterday), so I talked to her first thing this morning. Her reaction was the same as mine. She said would be talk to the teachers. She then proceeded to tell me that in daycares, not just here, there is a high turn over rate for teachers in the young toddler rooms because the kids are such high maintenance that the teachers burn out quickly. This means little stability in the classroom.

But that is no excuse for no one noticing a cut on Sophia's face, I said. She agreed with me and said it is clear they aren't doing their job and they will be reprimanded.

You know, I drop my kids off at daycare every morning and go to work not because I need to get out of the house or because I don't want to take care of my own kids, but because I need to work. I need to contribute financially to my family. We, like millions of other families, need two incomes to keep the household running. I don't have the option to stay home, nor does my husband.

So what do I do? Do I change daycares or let it ride and see what happens? She's only in this classroom for another 2 months when she moves to the 2-year-old room where there is a teacher who's been there for a long time. What I'd really like to do is go down there right now and pull my kids out of daycare and put them both in a little bubble surrounding my house until I can find people worthy of taking care of my children.

But that's serious crazy mom talk.

A beautiful moment

Sophia wouldn't go down for a nap yesterday afternoon. She was exhausted and cranky. When I put her in the crib, she cried and cried and cried until we couldn't listen to the cry any longer. I went into her room and picked her up and she put her head on my shoulder, so I sat in the rocker and held her until she fell asleep. When I tried to lay her down, she woke up and started crying again. I tried three times to put her down before I gave up and figured I was going to have to hold her if she was going to sleep.

For an hour and a half I sat with Sophia sleeping soundly on my lap. She started with her head on my shoulder and then repositioned herself so that she was sleeping fetus style on my lap. I wrapped a blanket around the two of us and I also fell asleep.

My husband took Ryan with him and dropped my stepson off at soccer practice. When he came back, I had just woken up from my little nap. Sophia was still sleeping. I sat, holding my little girl, with a line of drool creeping down the inside of my arm. My legs were falling asleep and my back was stiff, but I held on to my daughter. I didn't mind the drool or the stiffness in my body because I enjoying the snuggle time.

Her head was right under my chin and I could smell her hair. I sat and listened to her breathe. She was so relaxed and I was in Mommy Heaven.

When she finally woke up, she was a little cranky, but her mood changed to pleasant pretty quick.

It is amazing how much love and trust children have in their parents and how a little thing like a nap can be so beautiful. Sometimes kids can be a little clingy and it can get annoying having to carry them around all the time. But it's moments like this remind me how wonderful it really is to hold your child.

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Update, update: Ryan's tooth finally came in on Friday, and he's been sleeping through the night since. Hooray! He also started crawling. He's not going any place fast because he's still figuring out his coordination, but he is officially mobile. Watch out world, Ryan is on his way!