Turning points: Temporary Daycare and Baby Food
My baby is now 6 months old and I’ve been experiencing some positive turning points including finding a temporary day care and starting to feed her baby food!
Temporary Daycare (一時保育)
Back when I was frustrated about not getting full time daycare, I had overlooked a temporary daycare spot thinking that the address was too far from my home.
But a peer mentioned it again recently and I realized that it’s actually not too far from where I live; in fact, it’s located right next to where I like to do grocery shopping and other errands!
There are a few things that are great about temporary daycare:
The cost is way lower than hiring an hourly babysitter (800 yen per hour as opposed to 2000+yen per hour)
There is no limit to how frequently you use it nor how many hours per day (between 7:30am-9pm)
Any parent can use it for any reason (so you don’t have to jump through hoops trying to prove that you have a legitimate reason for someone to watch your child, unlike full time day cares that require some sort of proof of work)
You don’t have to worry about last minute cancellations (like you would a babysitter who calls in sick) since there are multiple staff on site
There are a couple of cons about temporary daycare:
There is no guarantee to having care as there is a possibility that there is no availability. This is because there is a limit on how many children they can care for, so it’s best to book in advance
There comes a point where it may be cheaper to have full time daycare if you need to use it a lot (I think for me, if I use it for 25 hours per week or 100 total per month, it’s the same cost as full time day care, and I don’t think I’ll need to exceed that number)
Starting to transition to solids/Baby food
It’s been about 3 weeks since we started feeding her baby food and we have just reached a point where she is satisfied during the day without needing to be breastfed. Currently, I breastfeed in the morning and at night (and in the middle of the night if she wakes up), but during lunch time and late afternoon I feed her baby food.
Yesterday was the first time in months that I did a full day of corporate training without having to worry about breast feeding her. It felt quite liberating to know that someone else could feed her.
Overall, I’m starting to feel like more things in my schedule as far as work and meeting my personal needs can be met. I do enjoy continuing to breastfeed and am sad that it seems like the end is nearing, but I’m feeling a sense of inspiration in myself returning.