If you find a spot, get it!

And many staff quits and kids keeps seeing different people. Happens a lot in centers

Don't go centers, they mostly sleep like cra a p. My offices center is just 1 big room where everybody, cribs, people are. Also centers has too many kids, too much noise, they rotate the staff and your baby sees different people. They rotate staff to other rooms ir staff quits. Happens a lot in centers.

I prefer the home daycares, they have a separate room with 4 infants for 2 people, the provider was an infant and preschool teacher, and when they got 3 preschool kids they hired another 3rd person. We felt so relaxed and relived at that local home daycare! It's nice knowing that you're going to work and your baby is in good hands.

As a counterpoint to the PP, we briefly had our DD at an in-home when she was 16 months old. The in-home did not have a separate nap space and only had one caregiver for 8 children (most were 2 or 3 yo). At her center, DD was in a room with 5 other babies under 2. There were 3 teachers for the 6 babies. She really loved the baby room and got lots of love and attention. Naps were hit and miss but she was not a good napper at home either. There are also some centers with separate nap spaces, FWIW.

I think there are some great in-homes out there. I would just not fixate so much on whether it's a center or an in-home and instead assess each on its merits.

Yes get on waitlists. Center daycare waits can be a year long. It is good to get on a few and see what happens.

I would recommend finding out what the neighborhood parent listserv is in your area and get on that, that is where you will get the best advice on where people go. It is also a good resource to find out about home daycares in your area. These usually do not hold waitlists so you find one closer to the time you will need care, usually a few months or even closer before because that is when they will know they have a child moving on to preschool or moving or whatever.

We tried a center with our oldest at first and ended up moving to home daycares for the infant years. It is totally personal preference (and dependent on the center!) but we reallllly liked the home daycare over our center experience for infants because most center infant rooms there is no separate sleeping area so many infants sleep just terribly and it can be stressful. We liked the cozy home atmosphere with separate room for sleeping etc that the home daycare provided and then moved our kids to center based more preschool program at 2.5.

We are due in November and will need full time day care starting April 2024. Should we get on this? We live in Bethesda, not sure if that impacts waitlists, etc.

Thank you