Chaz Moms and Moms-to-Be Chat (everyone welcome)

Cost of child care is usually relevant to cost of living.

A good safe place who will treat your child right is priceless but, yes, I cant imagine its easy to be able to pay so much.

MM - if you are still planning on going back to school I would look at on campus daycare. Often (especially for single mothers) you can get free or greatly reduced prices.

The really nice place we looked at here was $280/week. Which is not really financially feasible for us. Luckily we can use the air force daycare (provided we get in off the waiting list) for $130/week.

Those ARE the prices for on-campus day care :yikes:. I can get "tuition assistance" for the daycare, but I'm still surprised it costs that much, especially for part time.

You may start talking (if you have not already) to other newish moms in your area to see about good in home options. There are good ones out there, and honestly most people I know with small kids who are not SAHMs use in home daycare.

Holy cow! That's pretty extreme. And I'm really surprised - I worked at the daycare in college and there were a lot of moms there that either didn't pay or paid almost nothing. Maybe it was subsidized somehow?

In-home daycares are pretty uncommon, here. None of the moms I know use them, their kids all go to either something like tutor-time, another daycare center, or stay with family.

In fact, I've never even seen an in-home daycare here where the owner spoke fluent english...it seems to only be a popular option with the spanish-speaking community.

There have been a number of horror stories happening in in-home day cares in this area...sexual abuse, shaken-baby syndrome, kids choking to death, etc....and these people were licensed with no criminal records and good references. I don't know if that has anything to do with their lack of popularity.

ANother option is finding a SAHM who needs to make a bit extra and can watch your child as well. Not sure the going rate for that but I know some around here who do it for not too much. Especially if you trade, offering to watch their child sometimes when you are available it could be an affordable option..

The college day cares here also cater to non-student families...anyone can sign up and pay for the day care there...mainly employees of the universities/affiliated hospitals use it, but anyone can. I'm assuming those high costs are what go to the "tuition assistance" for student/low-income moms?

That's interesting! We live a block away from one and DH has had a couple of co-workers whose wives had an in home daycare (here if it's over 5 or 6 outside kids you have to get licensed).

Thats crazy. Yeah, here the horror stories usually come from the centers.

My mom was a in home day care provider for years because she had to be. With a chronically ill child its not like she could work out of the home. I knew a lot of others as well.

Oh using one where the daycare provider speaks a different language primarily, great way to get a bilingual child There are immersion schools even for that.

My sister hasn't been able to find full time work since her maternity leave ended. I'm hoping she will still be available and willing to watch my kid in a year and a half when I go back to work.

You lucky Canadians with your normal maternity leaves

GreenMagick...I actually didn't think of that as a way to raise a bilingual child, I'm hoping my kid will be bilingual anyway as her Dad & Step-grandmother's family both speak fluent Spanish. If I did put her in a daycare like that, I'm sure I could manage to get the paperwork filled out or find a friend to help translate if her Dad couldn't do it. I'd just be worried it'd be hard for the caretaker to communicate with me about any issues, but if her Dad is around that might be ok, and I'm sure if I look around I can find one with English-speaking caretakers. I'll definitely not rule it out as an option just because of the language barrier.

Most likely my kid will end up in college campus daycare, as a student I won't pay full tuition...my parents already offered to babysit her in the evenings if I take night classes for the semester after her birth, but I'm hoping I can work a few hours in the evenings and take one or two morning classes - when the baby will go to daycare or her Dad will watch her before he goes to work/school.

It's a boy!!!

Ryland James. <3





Tests all looked normal. Put in another blood test just to be sure and will know in a few days, but my chance went from 1/138 to 1/300.

So it looks like I will be having a happy, healthy, bouncing baby boy!

Oh, Barbara, I'm so happy for you! I was thinking of you today and waiting for an update!

How does it feel to be the only one having a boy, on Chaz and out of the 10ish other ladies I know having baby girls?!

Haha, I feel like I could fly away, I'm so happy. It's no secret I wanted a boy and while I would have been happy with a girl of course, with everything going on, the fact that I will be having the baby boy I wanted all my life has made today the perfect day. <3 And that he is healthy. The second they said "boy" I just burst into tears and said his name over and over again. I'm sure that's a feeling everyone else here has felt as well.

Congrats Barbara!

Has anyone used or does anyone plan on using any kind of baby breathing monitor?

I saw one today that clips right onto the diaper, and monitors the movement of the stomach. It's 100$, but has good reviews. I am TERRIFIED of SIDS. Like, even before I got pregnant, I would think about what if I ever have a child and SIDS happens to us. I know I'm going to be neurotic and nuts about any sleeping area for my baby, probably have a fan and humidifier going, constantly check the sheets/mattress/etc...

I'm wondering if a monitor for breathing would be a good idea, at least for peace of mind.

Anddddd, sorry for the double post but:


GUESS WHO JUST GOT A CALL THAT SHE GOT ACCEPTED FOR TRANSFER FROM THE HIGH-RISK OB-GYN TO THE MIDWIVES BECAUSE I'M DOING SO WELL!?!?!

WOO HOOOOOOO! That is awesome news on so many fronts MM!!

AWESOME!!!

And congrats on the bouncing baby boy, Barbara.