Hellobee Boards

i'm curious to hear other's responses. LO starts daycare on tuesday and i'm really nervous about his napping--he is the opposite of a good napper and i worry that he's not going to get enough sleep at daycare.

i know this isn't helpful, but there are pros and cons to either option, and there is no wrong decision for you. for me, i always knew that LO would have to go to daycare, and i figure if tons of kids have done it before him, he can do it too and turn out just fine. plus i think the exposure to other people/babies/environments is a good thing.

@AprilK: this makes me feel better. i know in my head that the daycare staff has way more experience with babies and i'll probably learn from them on how to improve LO's naps, but i'm nervous anyway. thanks so much for your response.

@googly-eyes: I remember being so nervous about LO starting daycare nearly a year ago but now we are so happy with the choices we have made and the experiences she gets to have there. We love our center and the peace of mind that I have that she is safely cared for and loved while I am at work makes it possible for me to WOH FT. She started at 5 months after two months home with my mom after my maternity leave.

My LO was not a good napper and this continued through the infant room, but she seemed happy and content so it never became a huge issue. Many other kids in the room took longer age-appropriate naps--it just seemed like my LO did not want to miss anything, which is a tradeoff with the ondemand schedule that most infant rooms have. Now that she is in the toddler room, they all nap at the same time and her naps are a lot longer.

Let me know if you have questions I can answer. It does help to be picky at the beginning!

My LO has the same nap routine at home. And yes, naps are totally screwed up at day care. She naps in the swing w a bunch of other kids making noise around her. Honestly it hasn't really affected her night sleep that I can tell.

i was so worried about napping because charlie and olive were also crib/blackout curtains/white noise nappers. but both napped great from the first day. in fact i think olive became a better napper because of daycare since she was used to sleeping with noise there. she used to nap a max of 2 hours (usually closer to an hour and a half), but she can go over 3 hours now. i had to wake her up today.

overall daycare has been a very positive experience for us. although i did like having a nanny in the baby stage, overall i love daycare more than i love having a nanny.

We use a small in-home daycare, and sometimes she naps, sometimes she doesn't. I tell daycare about how her morning went since LO gets dropped off at 10 or 11, and they try to go off of that. She didn't nap hardly at all from 7:30-11:00 Friday morning, so daycare got her to nap for about 2 1/2 hours between 11:00 and 4:30, when DH picked her up.
I love that LO gets to be around other kids. She's a very social baby and the older kids love reading to her while she's in the swing or tickling her feet. She enjoys watching them play on the playground, just babbles and talks that whole time. It's great for her, and I am a much better mom when I work.