Starting Nursery...

Written by Hannah Sanderson for her blog, Play On.

All of the emotions! Oh my goodness. My BABY starts nursery TOMORROW! I just can’t believe it! I’m sad, excited, happy, worried, nervous and everything in between.

I was really, really nervous when Daisy started nursery as she was so very shy and had never ever been left anywhere other than with my mum.

Ted is a different kettle of fish entirely. He is outgoing, brave and confident. He has been with an amazing childminder lots of times before and also left with very helpful friends (when mum and dad have been on holiday) and he has been to a few sports clubs where I leave him (and he cries when I pick him up!). So I’m not THAT nervous for him (apart from that he says he doesn’t want to go to nursery tomorrow!). I just can’t imagine what it is going to feel like, waving off all of my children and getting back into my little mini without either of my sidekicks!

I felt a lot better about it all two weeks ago, as I was 6 weeks pregnant with our third baby. I felt that at least I still had the baby in my tummy with me. Sadly we lost the little poppet and suffered a miscarriage, so at the moment its the four of us, who knows whats to come? Bit scared if I look too far forwards, so I’m not going to. So tomorrow after I drop them both off I’ll have empty hands, an empty car and an empty tummy.

Oh crikey I think I need to change the subject. Tears!

So as you can imagine it’s been a very emotional few weeks at the Play On Residence. But we have lots of support around us with heaps of lovely friends and family and we are getting there.

I am looking forward to Ted starting nursery I think he’s going to benefit from it so much! He already knows one or two of the others in his class. I think he’s ready to be challenged and to have some boundaries and consequences. He is such an amazing young man he is so mischievous and absolutely hilarious. Everyone that meets him falls in love with him. But my days he is so exhausting! So it will be nice for him to be entertained and to mix with children his age and learn to share!

He is going to do 5 mornings to start with and then I think I’ll just book him in for full days as and when I need them. I’m not setting anything in stone yet, luckily for me, the nursery is amazing and very flexible.

The nursery we have chosen is a school nursery and its part of the school that Daisy goes to. So drop offs are super easy. We are super lucky because all of the classes in the school and nursery have weekly timetabled slots in the Wildlife Area which Ted will adore and thrive on. He loves to be outside. He is at one with the elements “ohmmmm”. Not really he is just an energetic little chap who needs to burn off energy.

So who knows what will come tomorrow…tears? wobbly bottom lips? a shaky voice? Whatever happens, I’ll give him a great big hug and kiss, try to blink back my tears and say “Bye bye Ted, mummy will come back soon”. I wont hang around any longer than I need to because that will most likely make him feel unsure and want to leave. If he does cry I know that the teachers will look after him and talk to him about why he feels sad and remind him that I’ll be back soon. Then in no time he’ll be soooo busy that he’ll have forgotten all about me and will no doubt cry when I pick him up because he has to leave and I’ll wonder what I was so worried about!

Good luck to anybody else who has little ones starting nursery/school/college/uni anytime soon (I expect that the emotions I’m going to go through tomorrow will just keep reappearing at different intervals in my life!). I’m sure they’ll all be fab and have a great time.

Is anyone else praying that nursery will just wipe them out and they’ll sleep later in the mornings, especially as it’s dark in the mornings now? Or is it just me?