Hellobee Boards

@dominobee: when I was 4 months pregnant. We got so lucky! A spot finally opened up when DD was 5 months old.

See if you have a chilcare resource and referral in your area. I also recommend looking at the DHS list about complaints and violations against centers or providers. I'm not sure if all states have this, but mine does and it really helped me rule out people based on violations (e.g. I remember one violation being an open gun safe )

At 5 weeks I put myself on the wait list of all reputable centers within a mile of my downtown office. I miscarried and got pregnant 4 months later. We planned to go to the same center I loved (still on the wait list). At 7 months pregnant my office moved, so we went to the county website and called every home daycare within 2 miles to see who had vacancy. There was one person and she was blah. He'd be safe, but I wasn't happy. When he was 3 days old we got a calk from a daycare a block away and she was wonderful. It was such a good fit. And at 6 months I finally got a spot at the original center I loved. It was 18 months after going on the wait list.

My advice is to figure out what you want (home, nanny share, center) and then start making calls to centers. Home daycares are normally less rigid and nanny shares are often arranged after birth

Our school isn't enrolling and isn't even taking more people for the wait list until October. I'd start researching now!

We started researching options before LO was born, and called to get her on waitlists when she was 3 months (we wouldn't need it until she was 15 months because of my leave). In-home daycares seemed to have more openings; the daycare center she's going to had a one year wait list.

I don't think it's ever to early to start looking, so don't feel silly...when you look, just ask about their waitlists & availability and it will give you a better idea of how quickly you need to figure out your options.

We started looking when I was about 12 weeks along. It worked out fine for us but I had a longer than average maternity leave.

As soon as the pregnancy test turned positive I put DS' name down on the waitlist. Infant care is extremely hard to find- we were lucky to get a spot when he was 9 months old.

I put DD's name down when I was 4 months pregnant and she didn't get into my first choice daycare. Highly sought after centres usually have longer wait lists.

With DD1 (2014) we started looking ~20 weeks and were lucky to get a spot at our top choice. This pregnancy I signed up DD2 right around 12 weeks and got one of the last 2 spots I think (to start exact same time of year, if that's relevant).

I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt to call around to get an idea of availability sooner - you can always do tours a little later if demand isn't too high.

@dominobee: Ah that's terrible! Hopefully you'll be able to take some time off!

This is definitely not a huge issue where I live in PA. There is one very popular center with a long wait list but there are lots of really great options that have little to no list. I looked when my son was 5 months and needed to enroll him at 9 months and that was early.

I didn't have any personal recommendations to use so I just googled for centers in a particular area (my husband and I work in opposite directions and split drop off and pick up so we needed to balance the commutes). Then we visited a couple.

Same as @gilmoregirl: , I'm in PA and it's no big deal for most places. We're switching daycares because we moved up a new school district and so far everyone has immediate availability. A friend just moved as well and got into my current daycare immediately (toured on Wednesday and starting the following Monday). There was another daycare she was interested in but even though they could take her son now (I'm assuming due to it being summer), they wouldn't be able to take him September or October until their expansion was completed. So not saying that you'd definitely get in anywhere, but there are plenty of options.

Um, I started looking for my first's childcare situation (way back in 2012) when my baby was 6 weeks old. I managed to find an excellent in home daycare that we stayed with until he was 2.5 years old. After that, we went to a more preschool oriented daycare. We sent his little brother to the in home daycare until we moved to the burbs.

I did daycare searching about a month before we moved and located one that would accept both kids at the same time which is a feat onto itself.