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For me it wasn't a real option for me to take more than my maternity. I am very happy with our daycare. It took a while to get my MIL warmed up to the idea but after seeing how well LO is has progressed, she had to admit that daycare was a good choice for us.

@septemberlove: It gets easier with time, the first few days and weeks of taking your child to daycare are tough but then you see your child thriving and learning so much and you adapt to it

My son started day care after age 2, but it was so the right decision to send him. He's progressing so well in speech, body control, eating and other stuff being exposed to other children. Granted, he also gets sick more often from being with them, but the progress outweighs the sickness.

I was so worked up about going back to work and sending her to be with someone else all day long. Turned out that she loves being with our care provider and I love working and it's been amazing. You just kind of have to throw it out to the universe and see what comes back. If it's not good, then adjust, but you might be surprised at how good it can be.

I had a lot of worries and tears leading up to the end of my maternity leave, and the first week was rough when I was apart from him and at work thinking about how he was doing. But it didn't take long to become more comfortable with it. Now that we're in our second week and have our routine, I don't mind taking him there because I see how well he's doing. He's young (3 months) but he is very smiley and talkative to the teachers when I drop him off, and very happy when I pick him up, either playing or chilling in his crib. He eats well and naps OK. And when he sees DH or I, he's very happy, and that warms my heart. We make sure to get lots of cuddle time and interaction with him when we do see him. It works.

Like @highwire: said, he's being cared for when neither of us can be there, and that's all we can ask for. In a perfect world, one of us would be able to stay home and he would have undivided attention all day long. But to be honest, most of our day with him is spent with him napping, struggling to get him to nap, or feeding him. There's a very small percentage of active awake time. So it's not like we're missing that much anyway! He's a very good independent player so he's cool with the fact that his teachers have 7 other babies to look after. When he needs attention, he gets what he needs without having to wait too long. In short, he's well taken care of.

It's hard, but I promise, you will get used to it and be OK with it!

I may not be helpful because, to be honest, I never had any qualms about putting LO in daycare. Like @highwire mentioned, I really like the fact that while LO is at daycare, 100% of all the adults' time is focused on the kids, whereas if I were home with LO I'd have to do other stuff too. And while I think that for young infants getting attention is the most important thing, for older babies and toddlers I think the socialization and routine and learning to follow directions components are really great. Also, it allows me to focus 100% on LO when I am home- DH and I are lucky that between our two incomes we can afford to have a cleaning service, and buy prepared healthy meals, and outsource repairs and lawncare and the like, so when we are at home with LO, LO gets all of our attention. DH and I very very rarely get frustrated with LO even when he's upset or being defiant or whatever, and I think a big part of that (for us) is that we don't have to deal with it 24/7.
I also don't quite understand being hesitant to put them in daycare as babies but ok with it when they're older... I feel like as long as LO is getting loved on by whoever is caring for him at the time, he's going to be fine, and he's not going to remember these early years (not that they're not important, but as long as someone is loving on him at age 5 months, I don't really get why that has to be ME), whereas I feel like from my own childhood, it was more the middle school years where I really benefited from having my parents around more. At this age, LO just wants attention and if I'm not around, he's pretty cool with just talking his daycare teacher's ear off and making the other kids play the hokey pokey with him, and I'm cool with that too.