Pregnant and overwhelmed with the concept of daycares, help!

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are expecting our first kiddo in April. I should have several months off and will be with our new baby at home during that time but then need to have daycare. And I am finding it very overwhelming. So many places don't have any reviews, many places don't even have websites... Does anyone have any recommendations for daycares in Capital Hill, Dupont, or Navy Yard. These are the three places that make the most sense between work and home. Thank you from a stressed pregnant lady!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I are expecting our first kiddo in April. I should have several months off and will be with our new baby at home during that time but then need to have daycare. And I am finding it very overwhelming. So many places don't have any reviews, many places don't even have websites... Does anyone have any recommendations for daycares in Capital Hill, Dupont, or Navy Yard. These are the three places that make the most sense between work and home. Thank you from a stressed pregnant lady!

Probably better answers in the Preschools and Daycare forum. There is an existing Capitol Hill thread there.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately you've set really wide parameters such that it's hard to give advice. There's also the reality of long wait lists, so you will likely need backups and backups to your backups. You should really try to make this a priority, look at local forums and ask colleagues and neighbors.

You can look at facility inspection reports here: https://mychildcare.dc.gov/

[Anonymous]

Try to find a nanny share in your neighborhood. This helps reduce illnesses and provides a smaller child:caregiver ratio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Try to find a nanny share in your neighborhood. This helps reduce illnesses and provides a smaller child:caregiver ratio.

Nanny shares are unlicensed daycares

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the end of your maternity leave will coincide with the start of the school year, which can be helpful at some daycares that move kids up to the next room in September.

[Anonymous]

It’s so hard to know what you will value for infant childcare. It’s like choosing a school. There is no one best fit for everyone.

However, I would not be daunted by waitlists. Most of them are just money grabs. See if the waitlist is electronic/automated or just kept by hand. If the latter, don’t worry about it. Just start calling 1-2 months before you’re ready to start paying for a spot. The daycare workers don’t want to bother with calling a million people on a waitlist if there’s someone right there ready to enroll.

[Anonymous]

Proximity is extremely important. Tour the ones you can get to most easily and you will start to get a feel for how each is different. Once you have a feel for them it will be easier to compare what you do and don’t like.

Once you have a couple you are interested in, see if friends or neighbors can give you an honest opinion of pros and cons.

Realistically many people in DC do not get into a daycare until the baby is 1+ and many people use a nanny share to bridge the gap. We did nanny share til 13 months for this reason but it was great to finally get into daycare.

[Anonymous]

nanny share or nanny. Easy-peasy. Post on you local FB mom group. I am a nanny doing my 2nd nanny share and we are all oh so happy with the arrangement. considering prices for infant care in DC centers (think 3k a month), nanny share is only slightly more expensive but your baby at least will take great naps, have uninterrupted bottles and virtually no illness. In daycare, prepare yourself for 2 weeks in and 2 weeks out sick, repeat.

[Anonymous]

I would recommend a nanny for that young.

[Anonymous]

I was you 6 years ago! I know it’s not helpful to say hire a nanny, but that’s what we ultimately decided to do. We did have a good experience with The Hill Preschool once he turned 2.

If you do go the nanny route, avoid nanny agencies at all costs. I made some bad decisions in my pregnancy/postpartum stupor that cost us a lot of money, so don’t make the mistake I did: anyone you can’t meet in person and interview in person, absolutely do not entrust them with your infant.

[Anonymous]

Look for a home daycare.

[Anonymous]

what do you mean that you cannot met or interview in person if you go through the agency? The agency gives you a list of candidates that you still interview and meet personally before you move to hire them,after the trial period when you can observe them.

[Anonymous]

Do which ever you think best. Different people have different preferences, and that is fine, We live in a different metro, so this post makes only general comments.

We quite deliberately avoided in-home daycares and nannys and nanny-shares because it is nearly impossible to really understand what the environment is like when no parent is around.

We have heard both happy and unhappy anecdotes around safety at nannys/in-home daycares. These are not subject to local government inspection. So we could not find a way to verify how safe a place might be. No doubt, some were great, but we could not find a dependable way to sort the great from the others.

We have not heard any *safety* complaints about daycare centers subject to local government inspection. We ended up at a smaller daycare/ preschool (in its own building, not someone’s home) in part because the local government makes both scheduled inspections and unannounced inspections. Those inspection records are generally available online. We avoided using the one place with an actual safety violation in their recent (last 3 years) records, but we were not bothered by minor paperwork issues.

Again, do whichever you think makes sense for your situation. Maybe you have a way to confidently know that a particular nanny or nanny share or in-home daycares is safe,..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do which ever you think best. Different people have different preferences, and that is fine, We live in a different metro, so this post makes only general comments.

We quite deliberately avoided in-home daycares and nannys and nanny-shares because it is nearly impossible to really understand what the environment is like when no parent is around.

We have heard both happy and unhappy anecdotes around safety at nannys/in-home daycares. These are not subject to local government inspection. So we could not find a way to verify how safe a place might be. No doubt, some were great, but we could not find a dependable way to sort the great from the others.

We have not heard any *safety* complaints about daycare centers subject to local government inspection. We ended up at a smaller daycare/ preschool (in its own building, not someone’s home) in part because the local government makes both scheduled inspections and unannounced inspections. Those inspection records are generally available online. We avoided using the one place with an actual safety violation in their recent (last 3 years) records, but we were not bothered by minor paperwork issues.

Again, do whichever you think makes sense for your situation. Maybe you have a way to confidently know that a particular nanny or nanny share or in-home daycares is safe,..

In-home daycares in DC proper are licensed and subject to inspection. Not sure about MD or VA.