Daycare Dilemmas

So I've started looking into the day care situation for when/if I go back to work in the fall. Unfortunately, I am up against the clock, since I have to inform the district by February 1st if I intend to take another year of child care leave. The plan was always for me to go back in the fall and teach 2 classes. But do I want to go back? An emphatic no. Which is kinda crazy. The last 7 months have become a roller coaster. After I had Callie, I really struggled with the adjustment and would have gone back to work in a heartbeat. But I just love the time I have with Callie. I love all the snuggles, the smiles, the laughs, the new things she does everyday. I hate to miss any of it.
But anyway, I started to look into daycares. I really love the Montessori model. I visited one this week in Almaden. The facilities weren't terribly updated but what they are doing is pretty impressive. They have really good ratios of teachers to kids and they offer half day day care rates, which is what we are looking at. I just didn't see the point of paying $1500 or more for care that we weren't really using. The location is called Tomorrow Montessori. Really the only drawback is the location, it is in the opposite direction for both Bill and I. They charge around $980 for infants for half day until they are 18 months when they go to the toddler room. They help with toilet training, take care of breakfast, snack and lunches. When they are 2 1/2 they move into the preschool rooms. It is a true interdisciplinary approach to learning. They are studying continents and in their study they examine geography, history, culture and food. The more I heard about the program the cooler it sounded. The socialization looked wonderful as well as the fact that each child's individuality is valued and built upon. The socialization aspect is what I wanted the most, since Callie will be almost a year and a half when August rolls around. We thought about having a nanny, but I think the socialization aspect is really important.
Yesterday evening I filled Bill in on the highlights on the school. And we started doing some loose calculations on how much money I would be making and asking ourselves if it was worth it financially. We estimated that I would be taking home around $1400 a month. Wrongo. I emailed our payroll guy at the District Office and it would be closer to $1800. So that was a nice surprise. The nice thing about it is it opens up the possibility for another Montessori school in sunnyvale that I had 86ed because of the price. So I will check it out on Tuesday.
Am I still torn about it, you bet. I didn't use to understand how women could be stay at home moms and be happy, but now I totally get it. I consider myself incredibly blessed that I was able to stay at home for Callie's first year. I know there are a lot of people that don't have that luxury.