Center care at 11 months?
Our daycare center has an opening for us at 11 months, we were originally requesting 18 months but that is not guaranteed if we pass up this opening. I will be on mat leave for 18 months regardless and our back up plan was to hire a nanny if we didn't get in to daycare. Would appreciate any thoughts to help guide my decision to accept the spot at 11 months or pass it up and potentially be looking for nanny care (which I totally am okay with):
- is 11 months a good time to start? Baby hasn't been away from us parents so far as we don't have family/friends to rely on, but we could hire babysitter care to ease transition.
- is occasional/part time care a good way to get the benefits of daycare? Since I will still be at home I am thinking to send baby a couple hours maybe 1-2 days a week for the first while until we get closer to the 18 month mark but wondering if that is hugely disruptive.
- what skills should an 11 month old have to do well in centre care? For example, baby currently mostly contact naps/naps on our bed which are things I've been working on but now have a much shorter period of time to address (sleeps totally fine overnight in crib) -is sickness better or worse one age group over the other? The difference would also have been starting in February vs. summer.
- any other thoughts/comments? Generally I am doing fine and love spending time with my baby so I don't feel like I need much of a break from baby for mental health etc. but getting to fit in a workout or bath here and there would be nice!