How are your preschool drop-offs/pick-ups w/infant?

By ineebee Nov 15, 2017

DS will be 3.5 and DD will be 6mo next September, and I’m a SAHM. As we browse preschools for next fall, we’re considering how many days a week to put DS in school. We can probably only afford half-day. I’m sure I’ll have to get used to interrupting DD’s naps to do pick-ups and drop-offs, but I’m also wondering about others’ experiences and other factors that I haven’t thought of.

As a parent with a child in preschool AND an infant, what do you like or not like about the preschool schedule you have? Also, how far is your drive to the school? Thank you!

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14 comments

Littlebit7
nectarine / 2243 posts

Nov 15, 2017

I'm going to follow along with this one. My 2.5 year old is currently doing two half days. Baby bro will arrive around the new year. I'm debating adding another half day, or going to two full days. Our co-op is about a 5 min walk from our house.
Mae
papaya / 10343 posts

Nov 15, 2017

My first daughter (3.5) is in full day preschool, and I'm on maternity leave with a 7 week old. Before we had our second, we just did drop off/pick up according to our work schedule, so my husband would drop her off around 8:30-9am and I'd pick her up around 5-5:30pm.

Now that I'm on maternity leave we've kept it basically the same. My husband drops off at the same time in the morning on his way to work, and I pick up right about 5pm every day. Daycare is 5 minutes from our house. It's slightly annoying because it seems like a lot of times my newborn is still sleeping as we approach 4:30, and I'd rather let her sleep... but I need to get her up and breastfeed her before I go get Lo1 because after not seeing me all day Lo1 wants to play as soon as we get home (reasonably) and I don't want to have to immediately sit down to feed the baby. But I also feel like since I'm home I should get her at 5 rather than 5:30 (although when I pick her up she's generally playing and having a great time so I don't know why I feel that way lol. Monday she told me she was busy playing with her friends and I should go home and come back later!).

I guess basically I just plan the baby's schedule around pickup, and it works. With your second being 6 months then, s/he'll probably be on 3 naps. If you're doing half day, the second nap will probably start around 12 or 1, which sort of works out perfectly with getting your first from preschool at 11:30 and coming home to do nap. The big problem would be if your second is prone to falling asleep in the car. In that case I'd try to plan it so that pickup is right about nap time and hope your second falls asleep in the car on the way home and you can just bring him/her in in their car seat and let them keep sleeping.
Mrs. Toad
persimmon / 1095 posts

Nov 15, 2017

DS started 3 days a week 9-12 when DD was 5 months. It was a 15-20 minute walk there and back. DH tried to drop him off at about 0845 to then make it home and put DD down for her morning nap. Occasionally, DH had to wake DD from her nap to get her a bottle and then to preschool on time.

I have easygoing kids, who are flexible with sleep, so it wasn't that big a deal making her deal with changing sleep. If she did fall asleep in the stroller, she just stayed asleep then.

You might want to look at how early you can drop off and how late you can pick up even with only 1/2 preschool.
Mama Bird
pomegranate / 3127 posts

Nov 15, 2017

When my two were that age, dropoffs were easy - DD is an early riser and didn't make a stink about getting dressed. Pickups were a hot mess because no matter when I was supposed to come by, she would choose that time to fall asleep. Eventually I started putting her in the stroller to nap so we could go out while she slept.
gingerbebe
cantaloupe / 6131 posts

Nov 15, 2017

At 6 months, DS2 was on 2 naps a day. He woke around 7-730am, went down for his at 930am and 130pm, and because he had just dropped his cat nap, was going down for bed around 630pm without a peep. With that schedule, half day preschool would have worked fine for us. It would have gotten trickier once we moved to 1 nap (which initially starts around 1130am).
sojellybean
cherry / 100 posts

Nov 15, 2017

DD started preschool a week before DD2 was born. She goes two afternoons a week. I do drop off and DH does pick up on the way home from work. At this age, baby is so flexible with sleep it hasn’t been an issue. She falls asleep in the car sometimes (15 minutes away) and sometimes she is ready for a nap and I can’t put her down because we have to leave in 30 minutes. Going from 12:45-4:30 is amazing though, no rush in the morning!
Foodnerd81
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts

Nov 15, 2017

My younger one was 9 months when my older started preschool at 3 years old. Her schedule was two days a week, 9-12. In the beginning the little one was on two naps a day so it worked out really well- we would drop off at school, come home and I put her down for a nap, she would wake up shortly before we had to leave for pick up. Come home, have lunch, get the big one settled for nap (when she still took one), nurse the baby, put her down for nap 2. After she dropped the morning nap mid year we had those mornings to hang out together then both kids napped or did quiet time after lunch.

The bigger problem was that I had to get the little one out of the car every time. It would be really nice to have a rolling drop off where they meet at the car.
daniellemybelle
cantaloupe / 6669 posts

Nov 15, 2017

I wrung my hands a lot about this too but it is what it is. My 4 year old goes 3 days per week 9:15-1:15. When she started this year, her baby brother was 5 months old. On school days he almost always takes at least one if not both of his naps in the car. Is it ideal? No. Do I feel bad about it sometimes? Yes. But that's just how it is for now, and it is really a short time that it is going to be like this. The payoff of how much my older LO thrives at school, and the positive impact that has on how she is at home with us and with her brother the rest of the time, is totally worth it.

As far as what I like and don't like, I loooooove that they have car line drop off and pick up so I don't have to unload/wake up my son (though he wakes up sometimes from the commotion anyway). I don't love that the drive is about 15-20 min each way and that's on the toll road! But I visited a zillion schools and this one stood out so much, that it truly hasn't bothered me as much as I worried it might.
ineebee
pear / 1580 posts

Nov 16, 2017

I feel better already! Thank you all for sharing your experiences. This is extremely, extremely helpful. I even have a few more questions to ask when I tour preschools! Thank you all so much!

@Mae: This is helpful, thank you! I wish DH would do morning drop-offs, but he leaves for work around 7:30 or earlier. Yeah, if I know what LO1's preschool schedule will be, I can and should schedule LO2's sleep schedule around it.

@Littlebit7: A 5-minute walk sounds soooo nice! Currently I'm debating two places that are a 7- and 11-minute drive. Still, not too bad, I guess. The vote against MORE half-days for me is - what if I have to wake LO2 for a half-day pick-up. I'd prefer to do that fewer times than more... maybe?? Haha I don't know. I can probably make an educated guess about her sleep by then, but still. Arg.

@Mrs. Toad: YES, this is a great question I can ask when I do tours in the next weeks. I'll definitely ask about flexible drop-offs and pick-ups. That would be a pretty huge factor, everything else being the same.

@Mama Bird: Interesting. Haha, that's a brilliant idea. If it's a problem and she's flexible enough (LO1 was NOT, ugh), maybe I'll have LO2 fall asleep in the infant car seat and then transfer her into the car for pick-ups. Sigh. This is why 2nd kids are more flexible - they have to be!

@gingerbebe: All this talk of 2 naps or 3 naps at 6mo... I just looked at my BabyConnect and saw that LO1 was still on 3 naps well into 8mo. That would be a nightmare to schedule around! Maybe I'll try to manipulate the transition to 2 naps before LO1 starts school...

@sojellybean: Yeah, I'm counting on LO2 being more flexible, for sure. FINGERS. CROSSED. If that's the case, I think I'm just having a case of omg-I-would-never-have-messed-with-LO1's-nap-so-how-will-I-for-LO2? LOL.

@Foodnerd81: OMG rolling drop-off -- is that a thing??? That sounds amaaaaaazing. I'll have to ask about that too.

@daniellemybelle: You have a rolling drop-off!!! That's amazing! Oh man, I'm praying that I can find a school that has that. And yes, I'm expecting to adopt your attitude - it is what it is and celebrate the positives. Thanks so much for sharing your experience! So helpful!
gingerbebe
cantaloupe / 6131 posts

Nov 16, 2017

@ineebee: Even if there's a 3rd nap, it shouldn't really affect the pickup situation at school. Once you have the pickup/dropoff times set for your older kid, I would just really work on manipulating the baby's daily wake up time so that it staggers well. For example, for a long time we woke DS2 up at 7am because it was easier to get him up and fed before DS1 was up for the day at 730am. Or on weekends, when DS1 would have to go down for nap at 1230pm, I would cap the baby's morning nap at 45 minutes to an hour so that they would both be ready for nap at the same time. Baby's just gonna have to adapt!
caterw
persimmon / 1445 posts

Nov 16, 2017

@daniellemybelle: My four year old goes 4 half days a week, and it is really only manageable because of car line pickup. We go in for drop off at 8:40, hang out until morning meeting, and leave. The baby (who just turned one) has been eating lunch at 11 and taking a nap in the car after that. I pack lunch for my big girl and she eats in the car as we do a leisurely drive to get some errands done. Sometimes the baby prefers to do two naps if she wakes up super early- in this case she falls asleep after we get home from drop off, she wakes up at 11 and eats lunch, then we pick up big girl and go home to play before an afternoon nap.
ineebee
pear / 1580 posts

Nov 17, 2017

@caterw: Car line pick-up! And rolling drop-off! These are incredible perks and I hope and pray some of the preschools I'm looking at has one (omg or both!) of these. Amazing.
skipra
pomegranate / 3350 posts

Nov 17, 2017

Last year I had a newborn and two kids in half day preschool. It was no big deal! We live close to school so often walk and baby could nap in the Ergo. The hallway is kind of a tight squeeze and there are a lot of people picking up at once so I avoided the stroller. If we used the stroller or drove I just brought the baby in the bucket seat. If he fell asleep on the way home I let him nap in the car seat. This year and 2 years ago I have/had a 1 year old and it's more of a pain in the winter, driving and getting in and out of the car seat, etc. So much easier as babies in the infant seat!
daniellemybelle
cantaloupe / 6669 posts

Nov 29, 2017

@ineebee: I'm just coming back to this but we do car line for both drop off and pick up. It's clutch!

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