Smidgen updates

[jethrien]

We took yesterday off to look at All The Daycares. Oof. Yes, yes, we should have done this two months ago. I've got a clear favorite; they've got a year waitlist. Sorry, Smidge--just put it in the inevitably long line of ways we'll screw things up for you. Anyway, we'll apply to a couple, and probably try to start him at one (which is ok, he'll be fine, just not as nice) and transfer him over if we ever get de-wait-listed.

Other fun things--I'm apparently putting on weight too fast. I'm supposed to be eating more protein but fewer calories overall. Which is not easy when half the time, I'm famished. Also, ordering lunch out has become almost impossible. With all the food restrictions (lunch meats, sushi, sprouts, soft cheese including goat and feta, restrictions on the type and serving size of fish, salad bars) and then calorie restrictions on top of that, I usually can't eat 90-95% of what's on any given lunch menu. And I'd thought I was doing so well there.

Oh, and I forget if I mentioned--Smidgen learned a new game about two weeks back. It's called "Kick Mommy in the Bladder". It's his new favorite game. (To be fair, kid doesn't have a lot of entertainment options at the moment.) He plays it a lot.

Comments

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

Why can't you eat goat cheese and feta?
Is Smidge on a waitlist for infant day care, or when he is older? And, how do you pick these places?! And what do people who can't afford (who presumably can't stay home) daycare do?!!

[fairest.livejournal.com]

Soft cheese and lunchmeats sometimes have listeria monocytogenes bacteria in them. Listeria's bad for mom and fetus, and it's one of the big meningitis-causers in newborns.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

They get trapped in a crushing cycle of poverty. This is deliberate.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I think "deliberate" is overstating it--I don't think there's a vast conspiracy devoted to specifically keeping people poor on purpose because reasons. I think it's more a combination of callousness/victim blaming/Calvinist belief that people who are poor did something to deserve it. Richer people think "she chose to not go to college/take a low paying job/have sex/keep a baby, why should my taxes/business pay for her convenience". I don't think it's deliberate evil so much as self-absorption and short-sightedness that's set up the system we have.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

No soft cheeses--risk of listeria. (Along with no raw meats, fish, or eggs; unpasteurized milk or things made with it; large fish like bluefin tuna, shark, or swordfish; more than 6 oz of albacore a week; lunch meats; sprouts; salad bars; pretty much all medications; alcohol; more than a cup of coffee worth of caffeine a day; nail polish...)

Smidge is on a waitlist for infant care. In this area, apparently you need to apply by the beginning of the second trimester or earlier. I basically did a search through Google, recommendations from other moms, and forums for all of the day cares in our area that offered infant day care and went through their websites. Chuckro then called them all and set up appointments. We took a full day off from work and visited the top candidates (most won't let you apply unless you've visited).

A lot of my former coworkers got nannies or nanny-shares instead.

I think what less well-off people do is probably park infants with relatves/friends/neighbors, or fly-by-night daycares run underground out of people's homes.

It's a terrible system, really. You don't even want to know what it costs a year. The fancy ones in Manhattan (which we'd never even consider) can apparently be as much as $40k a year--college-level pricing.