Need some advice and reassurance

I might have to go back to work after 3 months instead of 6 months after my baby is born. I'm not opposed to day care but I dont want to put my child in daycare at 3 monhts. We live in PA and my mom and MIL live in NY. They have offered to take care of the baby but that means staying in my home every day while i go to work. And I aint having that.

So if you have had your child in daycare since 3 months please give me some reassurance that it is ok. MY Dh thinks that it will be fine but I am so nervous about it. Originally I wanted to wait until the baby was 6 months for daycare.

Re: Need some advice and reassurance

Caiden was in daycare at 6 weeks old and then Connor was 3 months. They were both fine! There's nothing wrong with it!

Re: Need some advice and reassurance

DD was in daycare at 4 months, full time over about 50 hours a week.

She does wonderful! She loves her teachers, and made the transition better than mommy. Babies are very resilient, he/she will be just fine. I cried more leaving DD in the beginning than she did when i left her.

I am in the same situation as you, I live a state away from my parents and IL's, the only relatives i have here are my bro and SIL and they both work full time, so family care is not an option.

Re: Need some advice and reassurance

I had to put my daughter into daycare at 10 weeks - quite a bit earlier than I had anticipated (my company was going through layoffs and I needed to go back to avoid being a casualty). Looking back, I have absolutely NO regrets. If you look through my posts you'll see that I've been 150% THRILLED with my experiences with daycare right from the beginning. I think the key is to find a place that you trust implicitly and that you really like. Also, what helped for me was to spend the last two weeks of my maternity leave visiting the daycare center with my daughter and spending time with the teachers and with her. Not so much for her comfort level because she didn't have a clue, but for mine.

At our daycare the teacher/infant ratio is very small, so the teachers spent a great deal of time with each and every baby. She was cuddled, played with, fed, nurtured, consoled, you name it. I got a daily report every day on her activities, her food intake, her wet/poopy diapers, etc. She bonded very quickly with the teachers, and now, one of her favorites is her babysitter. There are also two other girls her age that she's been in daycare with from the beginning, and now they are best friends. When they arrive at school they hug and kiss and squeal in delight - it's the most amazing thing in the world. And, now, that she's older, she's learning so much - so much more than I think I could ever teach her - she has learned sign language (about 15 words now), she has music classes, art projects, plays outside everyday with her friends, etc. For her development and socialization, daycare has been an absolute dream and I truly believe that she's getting so much more than I could ever give her by staying home with her myself.

I live in PA too - in the Philly area - where are you?

Re: Need some advice and reassurance

Ds went to daycare at 3 months and despite him being sick it's been a great thing for him. The interaction he gets there is amazing, watching him play w/other kids and learn from them is really amazing. It took some time but now I am very comfortable w/his teachers. It's not easy at first, but for us worked out totally fine.