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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Running A Daycare With A Newborn?
Ariana 09:35 AM 04-19-2012
My DH and I are considering adding to our family but I'm a little worried about running a daycare and having a newborn at home!

For those of you with experience in this area, care to share some insight and personal stories with me? Any advice as well would be appreciated.

I'm in Canada so I don't take care of any infants in my daycare so I'm wondering how I would set up a routine involving an infant and kids aged 3-5. Also how much time I'd need to take off.

Thanks
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littlemommy 09:53 AM 04-19-2012
We had our 2nd child in january. I worked up until the friday before i had her (labor started on sunday.) I took 2 weeks off. I have mixed feelings about my maternity leave. It would have been nice to take off more time, since the day i started back up my husband left to start a new job 2 hours away. It was very hard on our 2 year old, and i wish i could have given my kids more one on one time. I felt a bit pressured by a dcm. She called on thursday wondering if i could watch dcg on friday bc she didnt have anyone. I was annoyed, but did. I think my son was glad to have other toddlers back.

Overall, it hasn't been too bad. The main struggle I have is that I have an infant dcb too. Two infants that close in age is too much!
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godiva83 09:54 AM 04-19-2012
Can you apply for the self employed EI benefits that the Canadian gov't has to offer??
You need to apply at least 1 year in advance before planning to submit a claim and you pay when you do your year end taxes. I plan on using it come July and I will roughly get $850 a month not a ton but allows me a break! You can also earn up to $200 a week I believe and still get EI.

We paid a total of $431 on our taxes this year to qualify for the benefits, IMO well worth it.

If you need the extra income of running the daycare I would definitely give yourself a 2 week recovery period. However, you really never know the cards you will be delt until the time comes... You may need a c-section, have a complicated birth or could be just awesome
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Ariana 09:58 AM 04-19-2012
Originally Posted by godiva83:
Can you apply for the self employed EI benefits that the Canadian gov't has to offer??
You need to apply at least 1 year in advance before planning to submit a claim and you pay when you do your year end taxes. I plan on using it come July and I will roughly get $850 a month not a ton but allows me a break! You can also earn up to $200 a week I believe and still get EI.

We paid a total of $431 on our taxes this year to qualify for the benefits, IMO well worth it.

If you need the extra income of running the daycare I would definitely give yourself a 2 week recovery period. However, you really never know the cards you will be delt until the time comes... You may need a c-section, have a complicated birth or could be just awesome
Very interesting!! Thanks for the info! Can I submit my claim for this tax year to use next year? say in January? I'm definately looking into this tonight!!

Ok I just did some reading and I think I might be too late Ah well!
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MrsB 10:05 AM 04-19-2012
I took 3 weeks when my DD was born 18 months ago. I was super tired at first after adjusting but it went pretty smoothly. I worked until the Friday before I had her. Luckily I didnt go into labor until the Monday morning that I was scheduled to start my leave (which happened to be my due date). I did have a family ask me if I could take their daughter after 2 weeks. Of course it was the same family that had to bring their daughter every day while the mother was on 12 weeks of maternity leave with the sibling. I said NO. I did loose one family. They never said that it was because I was going on Maternity leave, but they gave me notice 2 weeks before I was to start leave. It turned out fine though, because they were the family that thought they deserved special on everything anyway. Plus it was nice to be on leave and be able to interview and pick the very best family to fill the spot.
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godiva83 11:49 AM 04-19-2012
I give you girls so much credit for going back to daycare so soon! Daycare is hard and busy enough without just had having a baby.

First you need to apply for your self employed EI number online at the Canadian govt web page, they will snail mail you a pin number to enter into the needed forms. You are not nesecarily to late hun... If you have paid taxes previously as a home daycare or self employed person I do believe you can do a quarterly assessment. This was my first year in business, so I had to file at the year end because they had no previous record of yearly earnings KWIM?

The most important thing to do is get that number and set up an account a year prior to claiming.

If you call hopefully they can help .... They were brutal with me not knowing what to say, who to talk to ect
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jojosmommy 11:58 AM 04-19-2012
I just had a baby in October. Being pregnant while doing day care was no biggie. I had no complications. I planned to take 3weeks off. 1 family came back after the 3 weeks. The other I made wait until 4 weeks because both their kids are more difficult. The transition was pretty smooth. Basic tips I have:

Make preplanned freezer meals. Amazingly helpful.
Have preplanned/prepurchased curriculum. Easier.
Don't take another infant. I have my own 6month old and a just crawling 12mo old. Both at the same stage and rather overwhelming.
Hire out cleaning help for the first few weeks. Helped me keep 1 major stress off my plate.
Consider the issue of having a nursing newborn eating every hour or so at times and how you will balance drop off/pick up. I made my parents call ahead everyday no matter what time they picked up just in case.
Consider how frequently you have to bring them into the doctor. My little one had to have surgery shortly after I went back so I had to have lots of closed dates for Dr appts besides for the usual 1, 2, 4, 6 month well checks.

In regards to the older kids, they had no issues with having a baby at daycare and sometimes having to wait for baby's needs first.
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SilverSabre25 12:22 PM 04-19-2012
OH, daycare with a newborn was a piece of cake! Baby sleeps, baby nurses/has a bottle, baby sleeps some more. Baby sits in a swing/bouncer/etc. Baby bats at toys. Cake, I tell you!

It's doing daycare with a crawling,toy-mouthing, toddling, separation-anxious 6-12 month old that is a balancing act of carefully managed insanity...

Okay, so I know that's not *really* helpful. Honestly, it's not as bad as you might imagine. Baby's needs come first, and their needs are very simple at that stage. They change so fast that you really just take it a day or a week at a time, and you manage. Once they are older, it gets more challenging and it's helpful to have a solid routine for the older kids, and work around the baby as best you can. Have a dedicated space for the baby to play in, and have an excellent baby sling/wrap/carrier for wearing it. Train the older kids that they DO NOT TOUCH YOUR BABY (this helps minimize risk of injury and illness).

I took off two weeks, but only one week off of daycare--DH did the work the second week. It was doable only because I had an uncomplicated vaginal delivery with no drugs and minimal tearing and because DS started nursing like a champ right away.
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mom2many 12:49 PM 04-19-2012
My second child came 6 weeks early and I worked Friday and went into labor Sunday afternoon. I took two of the children back when he was a month old. They were 3 years old like my oldest son, so it actually helped having his playmates here.
When my daughter was born 2 1/2 years later, I had to have her induced. She was 2 weeks late. I worked on Friday and had her Sunday. I only took 2 weeks off when she was born.
Both times it was actually not hard. I found it worked out well for me not taking much time off and I didn't have any problems doing it.
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Ariana 12:49 PM 04-19-2012
Thanks for the input everyone!!

Next year I will only have 2 kids with both being 1/2 day at my house and 1/2 day and kinder...possible 3rd kid fulltime. So 1 kid in the morning plus my DD and 1 kid in the afternoon plus my DD. It's still up in the air whether I'll have a 3rd fulltime every day as the mom hasn't mentioned anything about going fulltime when her mat leave is up in October so I might have the option to term. The ages will be 2.5 - 5 yrs with the 3rd kid or 3.5-5 without. I think those ages would work since napping likely won't be an issue. I don't take newborns at all.

I was thinking I would take 3 weeks off after birth and then have my DH take an additional week to help me transition back. My mom will also be in town and could possibly be an assistant if I need it.

Cleaning person and freezer meals sound like a great idea
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permanentvacation 01:32 PM 04-19-2012
I went into labor with my second child WHILE doing daycare. I called my substitute to come over after the school kids got home from school. I waited for my school kids to get home from school. My sub came over. It just happened that one of my daycare moms who had become a friend of mine came to pick her child up at that time. So, she, her daughter, and my then 4 year old daughter rode with me while I drove myself to the doctor's office. I gave birth to my 2nd daughter on the floor in the doctor's office. They made my newborn and I go to the hospital for the night. They sent us home the next day. The following day, I got up at 6:00am and did daycare.

You can easily do daycare with a newborn. Many of us watch children from 6 weeks to 12 years old. The reason many of us go into daycare is because we recently had our own baby and want to stay home with our own child.

The biggest difference with doing daycare with a newborn vs. doing daycare without a newborn is that the newborn will create your daycare schedule. You might be used to doing a particular routine/schedule with your daycare kids and the baby needs to be fed at the time you usually would be in the middle of an activity with the older ones. So, you have to be able to be more flexible and teach your older children that they will have to wait to do their activity and teach them to be more flexible and understanding that we have to take care of the baby first then we can do get back to our activity. Also, your baby will have to wait at times while you finish what you are doing with the older kids and are able to then tend to the baby. Your baby might fuss a little longer than if you weren't working at all. But the baby will be okay to fuss for a little bit while you finish up with the older ones.

If you can prepare bottles ahead of time, then when the baby fusses, you just have to warm the bottle up instead of making it and warming it up. If you are going to breast feed the baby, talk with your daycare parents about the fact that you plan to breast feed and will need to do so with the daycare kids present. Most parents don't seem to mind. They know you aren't going to whip your chest out and display it for everyone! They know you will put a blanket over yourself so the kids don't really see anything. The daycare kids will learn that the baby drinks from the mommy's chest - they will simply state that fact. They really don't care. It's just the way it's done. Kids won't make a big deal about it.
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