Need some good honest advice.

Hi Ladies

Please help me? Ive finally found a creche for Rachel to go to, its really nice and small. They take babies from 3 months which are seperate in a nursery - 1 nanny to 4 babies. They keep max 8 babies but have 3 nannies in there now which is great. My concern is this: They say they will stick to my feeding, sleeping etc routine but do they really? I will try stay there for a day and see but I would like your experienced opinions on this? For those that sent their babies from 3 months to a day mom what are the pros and cons???

Really appreciate it, thanks very much!!!!

xxxx

PS R is not even born and my heart is broken to leave her the whole day

I only started looking for daygroups / creches when J was 18 months old. So sorry TT, can't give you any advice!

From when do you want to take R to the creche?

Well I need to go back to work after 3 months so im thinking 3 months but if u all really dont recommend it then ill need to sort out another option???

sorry Tarryn, no help from me either! hope you find the right place for your LG, tust your gut, your instincts will always be right! xx

Tarryn the biggest lesson I learnt is to be flexible. I also wanted a strict time kept routine. Im a bit of a control freak. It had me on teh verge of a nervous breakdown. Luckily I demand fed after much coaxing, always tried to keep it on around 4 hours but if she slept i left her. In turn I have a happy healthy baby whose been sleeping thru from week 6.

Also bare in mind that at school there is more than 1 baby and they probably wont be able to stick to your babies routine 100% because of the other babies. Luckily becca was at a day mom and the only baby so she had undivided attention, but ive seen as she got older and other babies joined, their routines evolved together and most babies eat / sleep at similar times. and in turn ive adapted our routine to schools routine.

Chillax cookie, you guys will find your rythym and baby will settle into a routine and be adaptible and flexible.

Tarryn I don't think it's about recommendations, but rather what situation you are in and what options are available to you.

The reason J in creche only now is my mom has been looking after him during the day since he was 4 months old. But in Oct when baba comes they are going away for almost a month! I didn't think I would cope with him and a new baby, so that is why we started looking and then put him in a creche.

But, if my mom wasn't around to help he would have probably gone to creche from 4 or 5 months on.

Hi T

I sent zander from 8 weeks and he also had a routine, but because of other babies I realised it would be hard to ask them to stick with it.

Wat I then did was allow the daycare to develop their own day routine with him, and asked them to write it down so that I could follow it on weekends and holidays in order to keep things as easy as possible for him. I did some minor adjustments to the night routine because of this so at the end of the day the daycare will really be the place that determines her routine.

Zander currently has the following routine at school

08:00 Breakfast

09:00 Naptime

10:00 Snack (fruit+quarter cup water)

12:00 Lunch (full cooked meal +water or a flavoured melkie)

12:45 Naptime

14:00 yoghurt +quarter cup of water

16:00 snack (cookie) and a small amoutn of tea

We also learned to rather follow the routine of the Daycare than force them to follow ours, and it worked out perfectly

I know of a few kidlets at the boys school that have been there from tiny little babies and I think that it depends entirely on the school and how many babies they have etc.

Great, thanks very much ladies. That has helped me!!!

Hi TT, as you know I sent my darling Nicholas at the beginning on May and it broke my heart.

He is with a day mom - there are eight kids in total aged up to three years old. He is the youngest baby.

I have a flexible routine with Nicholas. I am not one for implementing strict routines in the day time. Night time yes but not during the day. His bottles are every 3.5 to 4 hours and change according to the time he wakes up in the morning. I just tell his day mom what time he woke uop and drank and she works out the next time from there. However, if he is sleeping at the time his bottle should happen, she leaves him to sleep and if he gets hungrier sooner, she feeds him.

Luckily she is flexible as well

Nicholas is not the biggest day time sleeper and usually takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to get tired. She she watches his signs and works out when he should need a nap. It can be diffuclt enough as a mom to get babies to do what you want and when you want them to do it so imagine what a tough time they can have when they have other babies to look after.

Some day cares have routines that all babies need to follow. For example the other day care I looked at had 25 babies all under 18 months with four babies per carer. They followed the Baby Love routine there and all babies slept at the same time etc. I just knew it wouldnt work for my little dude.

With Cameron around and his extra mural activies nd running around I do, it's hard to stick to a strict routine with Nicholas. He is turning into a very adaptable chap because we are flexible with him.

I know many moms are different and I was admittedly difefrent with Cameron. He had kind of set sleep routines. But he was that kind of baby plus he was with me or my mom.

I think when you send your baba to a day care / day mom, you need to be a little flexible.

Giid luck girl. I feel your pain. It's not an easy decision.

TT I am sure they will try keep to your routine but also remember their sleep and eat routine changes so often and you sort of have to adapt accordingly.

Awesome thanks for the great advice, really appreciate it!!