My worry about me losing my job began to increase as the day continued. When I got home from the speech therapy appointment and I got Jolee settled for a nap, I decided I was going to call HR to see what my options were.
Whenever I called in, the HR manager wanted to put me on speaker phone, because our HR director was there and was also informed of what was going on with me.
I couldn’t even get one word out before I lost it. I was straight up ugly crying.
I was scared of what they were going to tell me. I was instantly thinking of the worst case scenario. I knew they were going to tell me it was a possibility that I could lose my job.
And the exact opposite happened.
When I was finally able to piece words together, I explained to them my return date to work was in 2 weeks, August 12th, and Jolee was still not taking a bottle and I did not foresee her taking a bottle before my return.
What was going to happen?
Was I going to lose my job?
I told them what little I knew about FMLA, which is next to nothing, but I was assuming my 12 weeks was going to run out on August 12th…then what????
The HR director immediately chimed in and told me not to worry about my job.
I had someone partially covering my job while I was out and she was still okay to cover my job. She told me my next option was to take a leave of absence, but she didn’t want to talk about it yet. The manager and the director told me to check in frequently within the next two weeks and then we would go from there. They were adamant they did not want me to stress about my job and to ONLY worry about Jolee for the moment.
It was a definite sigh of relief, but it was only temporary.
I felt like I had two weeks to get her to take the bottle, so my life could resume to somewhat normal.
Throughout all of this, I had been communicating with the daycare provider. She was genuinely curious and concerned about Jolee’s well being. She kept expressing to me that she wanted to keep her for maybe a couple of hours here and there to try and work with her and so Jolee could get used to her.
I have always said, if there was anyone that can get her to take a bottle, it would be my gaga, or the daycare provider. They are both just so good with kids. And so calm and patient with kids, which I feel like is what Jolee needed.
I agreed to let her keep her on August 1 for a couple of hours.
A short 3 hours later…I got this picture:
I cried.
I was speechless.
HOW?
HOW DID SHE DO THIS?
I can’t remember if there were 2 or 3 ounces to begin with, but I didn’t care. It was almost gone, which meant she took it.
The daycare provider told me it took her about 45 minutes and she had to stand in front of the TV and hold her upright the whole time. I honestly was not surprised by this.
This was really, really huge. NO ONE had gotten her to take a bottle at this point.
After some thought throughout the day, I asked her how she would feel “trialing” daycare with Jolee next week while I was off work. It seemed like a great idea because she could work with her with the bottle and I would still be at home so if shit hit the fan, then I could just come and get her.
The daycare provider agreed. I was really happy about this.
The next day, I sent Jolee to my gaga’s house in hopes that she would take the bottle for her.
Nope.
She said she tried everything with Jolee.
After I was feeling really good about her taking the bottle, my hopes were immediatley shot down.
I text the daycare providor and told her that I REALLY hoped she had the magic touch because my grandma couldn’t get her to take the bottle.
She told me to bring her over the next day, whcih was a Saturday, to work with her.
I’m just so thankful for her and I try my best to make her aware. I feel like not everyone would do this, espeically on their day off. And I know she appreciates her days off, especially from my kids 🙂
Long story short, the daycare provider got her to take the bottle again. Same scenario as before, it took forever and she had to be standing up and distracted.
I was hopeful, but sad.
I expressed to the daycare provider that she would have to let me know if she didn’t want to take care of Jolee on a regular basis, because I know it’s a lot. She has other kids to care for and I know and realize she couldn’t put all of her focus on Jolee.
She just kept reassuring me that it was going to be okay.
Her daughter works at a hospital and was telling her that we should try syringe feeding with Jolee.
I told her that I was all for it. If SHE was okay with it and it would work, then I was okay with it.
The weekend quickly ended and when Monday rolled around, it was time for her to trial at daycare.
Monday and Tuesday she somewhat took a bottle from her. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough. She did however, get her to take a pacifer! Which was great! We hadn’t been able to successfully do this yet.
On Wednesday, things started to go backwards. She ended up having to syringe feed her. She took it, and I think it was quicker for her, but It’s just the fact that she had to feed her through a syringe and not a bottle.
I started to lose faith.
The remainder of the week she took a little bit of a bottle, but more milk out of a syringe.
I just KNEW the daycare providor wasn’t going ot want to mess with her.
Who actually wants to feed a kid through a syringe? It’s a pain in the ass.
I asked her on Friday when I picked them up how she felt about it? How did she feel about taking Jolee while I went back to work. I hadn’t even told work yet that she had taken the bottle because the week had been so up and down.
She said she was okay keeping her. Even with syringe feeding.
I couldn’t believe it.
We are so blessed to have this woman in our lives to help with all my pain in the ass kids.
