I have a quandary. I have a 1 year old boy who started in nursery in January this year. He was booked for 2 days a week but has barely been due to illness. In that short time he's had croup, flu, tonsilitis, ear and eye infections, vomiting and diarrhea bug, etc etc. Hes also passed on a couple of the bugs to me (i have an immune system disorder). I have a 4 year old daughter at the school attached to the nursery. The nursery is lovely and clean and the staff are great. My daughter started there at 3.
I am struggling seeing him so poorly all the time. I had hoped to go back to work hence starting him at nursery. I don't need to go back to work financially although my sanity might be helped. Im finding being a stay home mum of a second child a very different experience than being a stay home mum with 1 child.
I need a break during the week as he is a challenging child, im an older mum (not by choice) and just need a few hours a week to have a shower and do washing, walk dogs, paperwork etc without him using me as a climbing frame or making mess faster than i can tidy it.
So my dilemma is do i pull him out of nursery and get a mothers help/nanny for a couple of half days a week? The benefits i see are that the nanny would still come even if he was poorly so we wouldnt waste so much money and would have help when we really needed it. I would have my son with me at all times as id be in the house even if i was taking a shower. It would be someone else for me to talk to in the day other than my son.
Downsides are that i don't want to annoy the nursery as they have done nothing wrong and they are attached the the school both children with be at through primary education. I dont want to be seen as an over anxious mother. I did have 9 years of IVF to have the kids but that's not why im finding it hard. My boy has been so so poorly for months, in the peadiatric ward 5 times in 2 months through flu and other things. When he is in nursery i dread a call saying he is sick. Last Wednesday he went in for the first time in weeks and when i picked him up they said he had a temperature and we later found he had the vomiting and diarrhea bug. I said if he got one more thing he wasnt going back then he got something else the first day back ( i checked the incubation period and its possible he got it from nursery, i havent taken him to playgroups for a couple of months either as hes been so ill but he has a 4 year old sister at school).
My instinct is to get a nanny as its cheaper than nursery if i can get someone for a few less hours. But im not sure and im going round in circles. Please help.