Daycare during maternity (and paternity!) leave

After five months back at work, my maternity leave seems like a distant memory. But Noob is still at home with family! When I returned to work in late June, my mother-in-law came out to watch Noob for most of the summer. My mother also watched him for two weeks in there, in late July/early August.

Then, at the beginning of October, Hubby's paternity leave started. We're lucky enough to work for a company that gives up to 12 weeks of leave to new dads, including 4 weeks fully paid. So Hubby will be off work until early January, when Noob will be 11 months old.

We did choose to leave Littles in preschool for this entire time. It wasn't required; she wouldn't have lost her spot if we had pulled her out for all or part of this 11-month period. But we thought that was a long time for her to be out of school. She loves her friends there, she always has fun, and she learns a lot. We didn't want to deprive her of that for nearly a year.

It also gave each of us more time to bond with Noob one-on-one. And I know that in the early weeks, I appreciated having some Littles-free time to catch up on sleep, or to get things done around the house so that I could sleep later!

What we did do was cut back on Littles' preschool hours. Prior to Noob's birth, she went to preschool full time, roughly 9 AM to 6 PM, Monday through Friday. The preschool day itself went from 9 AM to 2 PM, and then in the afternoon, she went to extended care, where she could take a nap and play until pickup time.

As soon as Noob was born, we cut her back to just school days, 9 AM to 2 PM. Then, in the beginning of April, as Noob started sleeping more and I felt like I could take on a little more, we cut her back further to just four days a week. So now, she goes to preschool only 20 hours a week, compared to 40-45 hours previously.

It's a really nice balance. She still gets plenty of preschool time, but she also gets that extra day at home to do something fun or just hang out and play. These days, she's skipping her nap more and more, so it's great to have some extra time with her in the late afternoon, rather than having her stay at school until 5 or 6 PM. It's also a little cheaper, about 75% of the full-time rate, so that works out well, too.