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Can your husband not help with drop-off or pick-up with LO#1?

For us, Xander continued going to daycare full-time while I was on maternity leave, but my husband would bring him and often picked him up too, though the times I had to pick him up, it wasn't too big of a deal. I'm soooooo glad he was still in daycare and I got to spend my days bonding with my new baby! Even with a nanny home with him, I imagine he would want my attention a ton and it would be hard to fully focus on the newborn. I'd keep him in daycare! The mornings and evenings will be a little more hectic, but that time in between where you can focus 100% on your little baby will be priceless!

I basically had your second option - except my mom was the nanny. She took care of DS1 until he went to preschool/daycare and now she takes care of DS2.

When I was on maternity leave, dS1 hadn't started preschool yet so he was still at home. I loved being with both of them! My mom kept him entertained if I needed to tend to the baby. But then there were times I left the baby with my mom and did solo activities with DS1.

I like the second option better. The first couple months I would not have wanted to rush out of the house when I was totally sleep deprived. As hard as it was with both of them all day, the little one napped a lot and LO1 learned that he would get lots of attention whenever possible. That said, he did start preschool at the 4 month mark and that was awesome! By then I was more able to get out of the house with them both in the morning and it was great having time at home with just the baby.

I would do the nanny, but probably part time to save money and then switch to full time once I was back at work. With a nanny, you have the flexibility to hang with your older LO while the nanny watches the baby for a couple of hours or vice versa. Or you can have the nanny watch both during nap time and you can go relax/sleep.

@QueensBee: If you went with the daycare option, I'd have your husband do drop-offs with LO1 for at least the first couple weeks while you're feeding the baby every 2 hours and totally sleep deprived. Then maybe you can split it and you take it over completely once you're not so exhausted!

@QueensBee: one of the reasons I liked having him at home is that I work full time so this was extra time with him too. I never felt cheated either way. I felt like I got to enjoy both my boys while I was on leave.

@blackbird: This is such a good point.

If your LO is in daycare full-time and likes it, definitely keep him in daycare, in my opinion! It's hard enough for a toddler to adjust to suddenly having a sibling and no longer being the center of their parents' world, but to ALSO disrupt their normal routine?? Don't do it!

I'm clearly not a mom of 2 yet but I just wanted to pop in and say yaaaaayyyy for starting to TTC #2!!

Option 1, I hate having people in my house when I'm trying to get stuff done.

Could he go part time? I'll have a year mat leave, DD will go to daycare 3x a week and stay home with me and the new baby the other 2 days

I'm only 3 weeks into my maternity leave with DD#2, but we pulled our 17 month old daughter out of daycare for maternity leave. I couldn't justify paying for daycare while home. So far it is working out wonderfully. I love having time with both my girls. We are lucky in that the new baby is a great sleeper and I am not exhausted, but I just wanted to chime in and say that it is possible to have both kids home.