I know I am getting way ahead of myself (as I always do) but I think a lot about our childcare situation, and now that we are for real having a baby (what? yay! what?!) I'm obsessed! Daycares have insane waitlists around here so I want to go ahead and make a plan.

We're so lucky that my mom is going to help us with childcare for the first several months, but around 9 months - 1 year, I'm anticipating LO starting daycare at least part-time. I am more comfortable with that than as an infant because they will be more active/mobile and get more out of the group experience.

Having said that, when do you think is the best time to start daycare? I was thinking when they are ready for the toddler classroom - so, cruising/walking, eating solids, drinking out of a sippy, and taking one nap a day. I was thinking we'd try to wait until we get to this stage, even if it means some interim childcare for a few months at home, so that we don't start daycare at say 10 months, and then have to transition classrooms shortly thereafter.

On the flip side though, do you think it would be really hard for a baby to go directly from a home environment to the environment of a toddler classroom? I'm almost wondering if an easier transition would be to an infant classroom first, and we should start daycare (part-time) earlier... What do you think?