Hello! This is my very first Hellobee post, but I have been a lurker for quite some time

I would love to tap into the hive wisdom for the following issue that just landed on my lap last night:

We have an 18 month old DD, and a nanny who we absolutely adore. I WOH 3 days a week. The nanny comes 3.5 days a week so that I can squeeze in an extra half day working at home. This is our second nanny, and she has been with us for the last 4 months. Our plan (prior to last night) was to use our nanny until later this spring or early summer, and at that point move our DD into daycare 3 days a week (for the benefits of socialization, out-of-the-house stimulation, and our budget!). But last night, our nanny dropped the news that she is moving out of the state at the end of January (i.e., in two weeks-ish). I'm so so disappointed! And now we need to revisit our plan.

So, our options are (a) to fast track the transition to daycare at the end of the month when the nanny moves, or (b) to find another "stop-gap" nanny until the daycare transition in the spring/summer. To complicate matters a bit, our nanny may be willing to stay an extra month or two to help us transition into daycare, but that's uncertain at this point. For now, though, I'm preparing for the worst and assuming that the nanny will be gone at the end of the month. Given that we are going to transition our LO into daycare in the coming months anyway, do you think it would be easier on LO to just do it now and get the transition out of the way, or find another nanny (which, in itself, is another transition for LO) and then transition to daycare after a couple months with the new nanny? A huge part of my hesitation with finding another nanny is that I just can't imagine finding one on such short order who can hold a candle to our current nanny.

So I guess my question is whether it's easier on LO to have one big transition now at 18 months (the move to daycare), or one smaller transition now (new nanny) plus the big transition when she's closer to 2?

BTW, I have this nagging sense that the daycare transition is going to be tougher on me than on LO, and would LOVE some input...

And one final thought: one of our reasons for wanting to wait until the spring or early summer to move LO into daycare was the thought that it would be easier on everyone to wait until cold/flu season has passed. Is this logical, or is LO's immune system going to get hammered regardless of when she moves into daycare?

This ended up being really long-winded. Sorry to write a novel. Thank you for any input!!!