Lily's first day at Preschool

Lily's first day at preschool was emotional.. more emotional for me than her I think.

We both set off this morning not knowing what to expect. Because she'd been offered a last minute place last week we hadn't had chance to have any settling in sessions or home visits so it was more or less like walking in to the unknown or at least that's how I felt. 

The night before I had such bad anxiety over it all..it was ridiculous! I kept wondering if I was doing the right thing, whether she was ready and whether we should wait for January like we'd originally planned. But I decided to give it a go and my thought process was basically along the lines of if it doesn't work out it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, we can just try again in a few months. 

So last night I put her outfit out and packed her lunch so that when morning time came around we were ready to go. 

On the way there she was SO excited bless her. She kept singing 'we're going to my nursery!' over and over again. I'd been feeling so unsure about it that I think if it was the other way round and she'd not wanted to leave the house I would have just allowed her to stay home, so I'm glad she was feeling so positive about it all because in turn it helped me.  

As soon as we got to nursery we were greeted at the door by some lovely members of staff and Lily's mood completely changed. She wasnt sad, just so shy and clingy to me! She kept hiding her head in my lap every time someone talked to her and I think she could sense all of a sudden what a big thing it was. 

She was shown her peg and her own personal symbol above her peg which was a sunshine and she was really impressed with that and then we were shown around the nursery - which consists of two good sized rooms and an outdoor area. 

I immediately got a good feeling whilst we were being shown around actually. We'd looked at another nursery before this one and I hadn't liked it at all but there were little things about this nursery I really liked - like the fact it was light and airy rather than dark and cold like the previous. 

I stayed to fill out some forms and discussed with her key worker how long I should leave her for. One worker suggested that I leave her for the whole day (9-2.45 which is technically her allotted time) but I just didn't feel comfortable doing that on the first day and told her as much, Lily's key worked agreed that collecting her at lunchtime would be a good idea - that gave her a good 2.5 hours without me to get to know everyone and her surroundings and so away I went. 

It was hard leaving her - especially after she'd seemed so clingy at first but she wasn't tearful and she said bye to me without any problems which was the best I could hope for. I went and sat in Starbucks down the road for that 2.5 hours as I didn't feel like going all the way home in case they called me because she wasn't settled. But it turned out to be a good thing as I actually ended up getting loads of blogging done whilst I was sat there haha. 

When I came back to collect her at lunchtime, the difference in her was crazy! She seemed so much more confident than when I left and immediately started showing me things she'd done. I felt so relieved and so proud in that moment, it was such a lovely feeling. The key worker said she'd been great and that she was really impressed with how social she was - especially for a first day - which was lovely to hear. 

I really feel much better about the whole nursery situation after seeing it all with my own eyes and seeing how happy Lily was. I really think I might have made the right decision after all. Im sort of expecting some bad days along the way as she settles in but today really was a great start. 

I'm leaving her for an extra hour tommorow - so 3.5 hours, so I'll probably update you from my comfy starbucks chair in the morning! 

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