In which the players are introduced ...

For the last seven and a half months, my wife (R) has been home taking care of our beautiful baby daughter (Tadpole) while I worked as an implementation consultant for a software company in the Chicago area.  Next Monday, R starts as an attorney at a big firm downtown.  In preparation for this, we hired a nanny who started last Monday.

On Tuesday, I got an urgent request to fly out to Florida to help put out a fire with a client.

By Wednesday, we had a few indications that the nanny was having some difficulty adjusting to Tadpole's schedule (and our expectations), but we assumed that we would be able to have a conversation with her to encourage these adjustments (and get her to change a few things that needed to change right away).

On Thursday, I flew to Florida, getting home late that night to talk with R about how the conversation had gone.  Unfortunately, the answer was "not well".  To the point that neither R nor I felt comfortable with the nanny caring for our daughter.

So on Friday morning, we fired our nanny and I got to tell my boss that I was taking some time off.

Next Monday, the last 7 1/2 months will be reversed.  R goes off to work, and I stay home to take care of Tadpole.  One week in email while Tadpole sleeps in order to transition my accounts, then I'm (suddenly) a stay-at-home-dad.

For how long?  I don't know.  While R was pregnant, I first thought that I'd want to stay home to take care of Tadpole.  After she was born, though, I started to fear losing myself.  Right now, the plan is still to find childcare and go back to work.

When?  I have no idea.  After our last experience with a nanny, R & I are starting to wonder whether a nanny is the right solution for our family.  At the least, we're going to be a bit more careful before hiring our next nanny.  We're also looking into daycare centers, but those take a while to get into (at least that we feel comfortable with).  Either way, an alternate solution will take time.  Maybe I'll find myself anxiously counting down to the day when I can return to work.  Maybe after a few weeks with Tadpole I'll find myself never wanting to leave her again.

Either way, the transition has been sudden.  Thursday I flew to Florida to assist with a client.  Monday I'll be staying home to care for my daughter - a suddenly stay-at-home-dad.