Mango at Daycare, Plus a Short Guide to Everything That's Made This Working Mama's Life Easier

So we're a full week now into daycare with Moira and Bill and I couldn't be more pleased. Every parent who needs care makes decisions on what works best for their families and I am even more convinced now that we're in it that daycare is the best option for us.

Our daily schedule goes a little like this: Bill drops her off in the morning and fills out a report sheet of everything that happened during the night, plus the last time she was fed and changed. This helps prepare the teachers for what to expect during the day. This morning he warned them that she'd had her 4 month shots (4 of them, poor sweetheart) on Friday and had slept badly last night. Throughout the day she'll do any number of things including tummy time, circle time with the other babies, music, one-on-one art, and story time. I'll pick her up around 5:30 and they'll have filled out the rest of her sheet, when she ate and how much, how long she napped, diaper changes, and just letting me know what she did during the day, so I'm prepared to feed, change or deal with a cranky baby once we get home.

We're operating far from a well-oiled machine but I am getting the routine down. Anything I can do the night before: prep her bottles, pack pumping supplies for myself, put together any necessary items in Bill's bag (clothes, bibs, crib sheets, etc) all helps to make getting out the door in the morning easier. I've also found some other things that have helped to maximize the quality time we spend together, even if they do add up a bit.

• Grocery Delivery- Freshdirect in NYC is by far the best grocery delivery, though it's not perfect and pretty pricey. I typically love to do my own shopping but the closest store has hit or miss produce and meat (2 things I really do not like to compromise on) so I found that I was always making 2 grocery trips to get produce and meat from the further away Whole Foods or Union Market, and staples from the neighborhood place. Now that I'm working I don't have time for that so Freshdirect makes my life so much easier. It's also nicer to have a rolling grocery list and be able to better plan ahead for meals.
• Amazon Prime- We now have diapers, wipes, Diaper Genie refills, plus a few other rolling household items (toothpaste, contact solution, etc) delivered via Amazon, plus diapers and wipes to Mango's daycare, and thanks to Subscribe and Save we're paying $0.20/diaper and $0.02/wipe- not too shabby. I also like how I can easily switch things, skip or change shipment dates as we figure out what schedule works best for us. For big bulk things we do Soap.com which is basically an online Costco... think paper towels, toilet paper, and also my favorite soap, Caldrea (seriously, these soaps are wonderful!).
• House Cleaner- While I'm not one to shy away from housework I found it was the more in-depth upkeep that got to be overwhelming, even when I was home all day. We love keeping a very tidy home and I figured if we could have one in-depth clean a month it would make me breathe easier the rest of the month and allow us to spend more time at home doing quality things. The first visit was last weekend and we were both quite pleased with the work, so this will be an ongoing monthly thing.
• Calendar Invites- I know it's sort of a "duh" thing but having daily calendar invites to leave to pick up Moira and also to pump every day help to really maximize my time. Obviously I have down time at work (hence the blog posts) but when it's busy, it's beyond insane. Making time every day to pump and also to remember to leave work so we don't get charged ($1 every minute past 6pm, and I've heard that's on the cheap side!) really help me to stay focused throughout the day so I'm never looking up at 6:15pm and realizing that not only have I not picked up my daughter but I also have 0 milk for her for tomorrow.