Thursday, September 1, 2011

Pregnancy hormones and preschool

Depending on how you calculate it, I am entering the third trimester of this pregnancy. Goodness, time sure does fly when you are....busy. Honestly, I cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going, but that is not what this post is about.

This post is about the eleventh hour preschool change that I made for both the Rosebuds last week. Let me take you back to January this year when we first found out that we would be moving here. I immediately began researching preschools and trying to discern where to enroll my girls. I found a school that I thought would be a good match, where they could both attend, and where I thought would be around the area where we would be living.

When we came here to find a house, we stopped by the preschool to drop off our registration forms. Mr. Rose made a comment as we were driving along the lines of "how much further did you say it was?"

Once we moved here, I drove down to the school at one point over the summer. As I was driving I thought about how long it was taking. It was about 20 minutes one way. Now, 20 minutes may not seem like a long time to you, but along the way I passed no less than six preschools within a mile and a half of my home. This was not going to do.

When I got home I immediately began calling schools closer to our house, but could not find a program that could take both girls. They could take one or the other, but not both. It weighed heavy on my heart for awhile, but in the end I resigned myself to the drive.

Last Wednesday, I found myself driving down to the preschool for Parent Orientation. During the thirty minutes that it took me to get there, my stress level gradually increased as I calculated how many minutes and hours and dollars-in-gas I would spend shuttling Miss H back and forth to school every week.

I could barely listen during the meeting and I found myself entering freak out mode. What if this baby screams the entire time I have her in the car? When will I be able to get her nap in? There isn't even enough time for me to go to the grocery store, go home, and then go back to pick up the girls from school.

The whole way home I debated the pros and cons of the school and thought about my options. I appeared that I had only one choice, to either suck it up and keep the girls where they were, or to put them in separate schools.

When I walked in the house, I could feel the pressure building just beneath the surface. When Mr. Rose casually asked, "So, how did it go?" I couldn't hold it in any longer. The tears came and I exploded into a pregnancy-induced, five alarm, total meltdown.

After I managed to tell him all of my concerns, not just including the drive, we decided to get more information about the other schools. In the end, I managed between Thursday and Friday of last week to register and enroll the Rosebuds at two new schools, one for each of them. It takes me all of 5 minutes to get to Miss H's school and then 5 more minutes to get to Lil' B's.

It is just over a week after our decision to change schools and everything is finally settled. The paperwork is done, the school supplies have been purchased, and Miss H even started school yesterday.

CIMG3525

And now, I can breathe.

Erin

3 comments:

Liz Mays said...

I think I would have done the same thing you did, especially with the new baby coming. Good call, Erin.

And look at the cuteness of those two girls!

KLZ said...

Best decision ever. Those hormones will kick your butt but sometimes they also help save your sanity.

Liz said...

Miss H looks SO happy!

I did the 2 kids at 2 different preschools last year, and now that K is in Kindy, I'm doing it again.

With the drive time being so minimal, it sounds like this is a pretty good scenario. :)