20 Weeks & 4 Days!

Well... work has been more than a little crazy the past week so I'm a little late with this post. I worked on a new business pitch a few months ago and just found out that we won the account (!!!) but the client wants to be on the air in just a few weeks which has upped my deadlines. Then on Thursday I was pulled in for a Cayman Islands buy (how ironic). All this on top of my usual client work-load. But it's all good. I'll be out from August until basically December and my yearly review is in January so it's good to know I'll have some extra points to add in.

20 weeks and 1 day- 4/3/13

One thing I was able to do this week was drop off the daycare deposit! We're basically all set for December which is a big weight off. As I mentioned in previous posts this daycare thing took a lot of thought. For one thing we live in Manhattan, where anything baby is expensive. Secondly, the one thing I'd read to get started on in the 1st trimester because Manhattan was just so crazy competitive was daycare selections. Well... we got it done in month 4 and it all worked out.

NYC daycares range from $1650-2800- we looked at most that were along our commute route, from the LES to Midtown West, and didn't look at anything over $2250 because... yes it's our child but let's not be ridiculous. Still the one we decided on was great. We both had a good feeling from start to finish, and since it was the first one we saw we weren't sure if that was the standard or not until we went to others. The director ran a buttoned up program, but was warm, knew the kids names, and had her own 2 little ones there as well- which we felt was a vote of confidence.

Progress there is based on the baby's personal development, and not on age, which ended up being unique compared to the other places. Since our little one will be an August baby, we don't want him or her held behind or pushed ahead simply based on when they're born. I also loved the preschool program, they teach Mandarin and Spanish, do yoga and have a strong focus on programs I love like music and art. For the older kids they'll focus on an artist every month or week (depending on their age group), learn all about their life and then make art projects based on it. Even the infants contribute with finger painting, crumpling paper, or hand/foot prints. This is also one of those weird Manhattan Mama things, but their outdoor play area was within the school, with a high fence surrounding it. Unless there's a fire drill they don't take the children outside the complex which I actually appreciate. The facility is a block away from Times Square and in a busy area so the director said this policy made her feel more comfortable too. But they do have an inside play area for when the weather's bad as well.

And while the monthly prices we're going to be paying are on par with Nanny prices too, from the start I didn't think that was the right path for us. I really liked the socialization aspect that daycares provided. I was a shy child and not sure what B's personality will be like but figured this would get them out and about with other kiddos at an early age. The child/Nanny/parent relationship can be a delicate one as well and I've heard some sad stories about when parents had to let Nanny's go, be it firing, moving, wages, etc. And of course there are the absolute horror stories that have happened recently too, to such a degree that no matter how much I loved our Nanny, there'd always be that seed of doubt. Finally, we just don't want to deal with the headache of having someone work for us. So daycare was the right decision for our family from the beginning.

Another thing I managed to do this week is meet up with another Mama from my HRP Mama's group! We got together for lunch on Wednesday and had a blast. She is great, very sweet, a FTM (first time Mom) too as well as English, a former model, a stage actress (actually in a play right now playing the mother of a 20 year old!) but still very down to earth. Since we were the first Mama's from the 3Q'13 baby group to meet up we decided to take the role of organizers so I'm organizing the next meet-up in 2 weeks. It's amazing and wonderfully refreshing how supportive these Mama's I've met have been. Maybe it's a mothering thing, or that the Mama friends I make now are future play date friends for B, or that it's such an anomaly to have a baby in lower Manhattan that the Mom's that do really band together. Regardless, I'm psyched to start building my Mama circle.

Later today or tomorrow I'll post about the anatomy scan from last Thursday and all my adorable photos of the Mango (B) but I figured this post was long enough for now. It's going to be 50 and beautiful today in NYC so I'm getting out for a friends birthday brunch and wearing some of my cute new maternity clothes! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!