Not too early to start, although it seems like nanny shares tend to fall into place only a few months (or less!) in advance. I called many in home daycares 6 mos before the due date, and almost all of them told me to call back a few months before I needed care to start and they'd let me know if they had spots at that time. But you could visit them now, and have a priority list ready to go . . .

And for the big daycares downtown, 6 mos might actually be too late . . . all the ones I talked to that were even adding to their waitlist told me that a 9-12 wait for an infant spot is normal. A couple told me the waitlist was already full, and one said, "by the time you get off the waitlist, your child will no longer be an infant!"

We started looking for daycare basically as soon as I found out I was pregnant and were looking for a spot about 11 months out. Some of the centers didn't even have spots that far in advance. Definitely not too soon to start looking.

it's definitely not too early to look at day cares. one thing to keep in mind is the rhythm of facilities. We had a nanny share at first, but sent DD to preschool at 2. The openings didn't happen till Sept when all the 5s went off to Kindergarten and everyone else moved up a class. For infant rooms the openings are obviously less tied to the school year, but I am pretty sure that some months have more openings than others.

If you decide that a nanny is the way to go, 5 months is generally too far out. I have found that folks start posting that their nanny needs a new family just a month or two before they plan to transition away from her. We gave our nanny several months notice that we'd be starting preschool and she didn't really start looking until after she finished working for us....

If you're planning on going with a commercial day care facility, it's wise of you to start looking now. We put ourselves on a waitlist in FEB of last year, delivered in OCT, and I am still on the waitlist! I ended up finding an in-home daycare (search and interview phase took about a month, all in all, and I relief primarily on the VA state resources for families; not sure if MD has something similar), and am very pleased with that arrangement. Good luck!

Definitely smart to start looking now. Infant daycares can have wait lists of 6+ months.

not sure about nannies but i'd definitely start looking into in-home daycares now.

I know centers can have wait lists this long, so not too early to look into options. Plus, you will have less time than you think after baby arrives.

While I hope you get good answers here, you may get quicker responses in the daycare or nanny threads. Good luck!

I will be delivering in late mid-October and plan to return to work Jan 1. I will need basically a full-time nanny at that point. Is it too early to post ads for this? Ideally am looking for someone to come to my house but am open to home daycares. Is there a good resource for local at-home daycares (Kensington/Rockville/Bethesda, MD)? I would imagine some have a waiting list? Any advice for how/when to start searching is greatly appreciated!