Starting school already

I never thought about looking into preschool for Zane, but the subject kept coming up. Melissa's 3 yr. old Anna was about to start preschool. I went to a bible study with Sasha and one of the ladies was working at our church's preschool, WEE Place. At church Pastor Scott talked about how they changed the mother's day out program to a state recognized preschool over the summer. On a whim I called to see what ages they accepted, thinking about next year. They start at 1 yr old, but the class was full. She put my name on a waiting list but said students usually stay enrolled the entire year so I didn't get my hopes up. Two weeks later she called with an opening, so we got the paperwork filled out and he started on September 22nd. He goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am - 1pm. There are only 8 kids in his class and 2 teachers. We decided to do this because he has no one his age to play with and he's such an independent little guy, we want him to start getting used to being around other children and adults.

I thought he'd enjoy it because we took him to the nursery at church for the first time the Sunday before and he had a great time, never cried. But he had a very hard first day of school. They said he cried almost the entire time except when he passed out for 30 minutes while one of the teachers was holding him. I was surprised because he usually doesn't let anyone hold him - ever. And I felt horrible, like I was torturing my poor baby. But everyone at the school told me this is normal and he'll get used to it. And Charlie said we either do it now or when he starts kindergarten and it'd be much easier now. So I'm just praying he eventually starts to enjoy it. I know the benefits, but it's just hard to believe it's the right thing to do when he was so miserable.