Baby due next month: is it too late to find childcare?

In my experience, it varies wildly! Some places have waiting lists, others just say to keep calling to check availability. 
we had our daughter at Adam’s Point Little People, and Ms. Joyce and her team were wonderful. Really loved our daughter. 

I can say that for pursuing nanny share, you definitely are not too late. Nannies aren't typically looking for new positions until a month or so after ending their current position. You might want to look for your nanny share partner family a couple months in advance, but you have plenty of time for that after the baby is here. Good luck!

Reach out once you know when you'll need care. Waitlists, depending on where you go, will range from non-existent to formal (think electronic). We have tended to favor in-home daycares and those are more "right-time, right-place" sort of scenarios. It's helpful to visit and meet with the caregivers/ owners a few months in advance to make sure you jive/ like the place, etc- but more than ~4-6 mo out it won't make sense, as they won't know their availability and you won't know exactly when you'll need care. 

Don't freak out! It will depend on what you are looking for, but instead of stressing trying to tour places now, why not add to some waitlists and then tour after the baby comes. Then you'll be in a good position and who knows if you'll change your mind about certain things after the baby is actually here. But this way you don't have to stress about being behind.

It’s great to have plans, and if money isn’t an issue, getting on a few waitlists is a good idea. But situations and timings can change, and babies need different things than you might expect, so I wouldn’t go wild joining a ton of waitlists.

That being said, infant care is much harder to come by than toddler, because the allowed limit of how many infants per caregiver is lower than for toddlers to caregivers. Once the baby reaches 18 months, and definitely 2 years, options are plentiful.

The other issue I see is that you want part time. Sounds silly but we had a much more difficult time finding part time than full time. So if you can get on a waitlist near you that takes infants part time, I’d say do it! But don’t feel like you’re behind — you’ve got this. Having a baby is just as much you learning how to be a parent vs the baby learning how to do things. 

I have had both experiences with childcare. Some say that they don't know yet if they will have an opening and others open their waitlist and do enrollment for the "school year" 6 months out. I would start researching now though. How easy it will be depends on how flexible you are. I was looking for specific criteria (I wanted to choose my own part-time schedule) and not all facilities allow for that. If you think that you want to do a nanny share, I start looking for another family now. Ultimately, we went the home daycare route because it was difficult to find another family that aligned with our schedule and location. I have found that some home daycares are difficult to get a hold of as in it might take them a couple of weeks to reply to you. You probably don't want to be stressing about that while you are taking care of a newborn. Another thing to note is that some places require an application fee or a waitlist fee which can add up. I've seen it be $100.

Hi Rod,

Congratulations! I can totally relate to this confusion/stress. I think it depends on what type of care you are looking for. Nanny shares seem to come together much closer to the start date of care (we found ours about 2 months before starting, and have just found a new family to join about 2 months before the current family is moving away). When I looked at postings, they generally appeared to be in the range of 2ish months out. For daycares, especially popular ones, that seems to be a totally different ballgame. Hopefully someone who has a lot of experience in that realm will have some advice for you. Good luck! 

I think it depends on how flexible you are vs. how specific/rigid your needs are. If you're flexible and open-minded about the type of care your child has, then there is no need to start worrying about this until your child is a few months old. However, if you have a very specific idea in mind, it's possible you're a bit behind (I was in the first camp so can't speak as much to the second camp). There aren't many daycare centers that accept young infants, so I think those tend to fill up faster. If you know that's what you want, I would start looking into them soon. However, there are many great options for in-home daycare that accept infants. Alternatively, a lot of people do a nanny or nanny share until the child is 2 and then enroll them in preschool.

To give you some context based on my experience, I started looking for daycares when my child was approx 2 months old, which was about 2 months before I needed care because I went back to work 4 months after he was born. I quickly determined that daycare centers were out of the question both based on cost and because the only ones I could find that took infants started at 6 mos. I started looking at in-home daycare centers. I made a list based on a Google search and cross-referenced here as possible, and ended up visiting 3 places. After the visits there was a clear winner and I signed my son up to start at that daycare. I had to pay a deposit to hold the spot 2 months, but it was worth it -- he stayed at that daycare until he turned 4, and our daughter went there as well from age 4mos-2 when she started preschool. (Our daycare was Alacorn Family Daycare in case you're interested, but it's located near Fruitvale BART so it may not make sense for you location-wise).

All that to say -- it is definitely possible to get good care for your kid without stressing before the baby is born. BUT that is contingent on you being somewhat open-minded/flexible about the type of care you get. 

It depends on the daycare. For larger daycare centers: Yes, ask about availability and get on the waiting lists now. These larger centers typically have the staff and resources to be able to predict availability and maintain a wait list. For smaller in-home daycares: Make a list and then reach out closer to when you need care. You can find some on BPN and others via word-of-mouth, i.e. asking around in your neighborhood and local groups. These places don't necessarily have the ability to predict when they will have openings so they likely won't have answers until families have alerted them that they'll be leaving. For nanny shares: Nannies also probably can't look too far in advance to know when they will be available, so your best best would be to find another family soon to coordinate with and then hire a nanny together when you're a couple of months out from needing care. Also keep in mind that more daycare options will open up once your baby turns 1 year old and even more so when they reach 18 months. A nanny share may be easier to find until baby is a little older. Good luck with your search and congrats on forthcoming baby!

Some places book up early, others don’t. It wouldn’t hurt to look around and get on some lists, but I also wouldn’t panic. It depends on if you MUST have a certain type of care of Center, or if you are flexible. It’s not as bad as it was a couple of years ago, covid shut a lot of places down or reduced their capacity, I feel like there are more spots available these days. 

If you are looking for a nanny share, you are totally fine! Nannies typically start looking for their next position just 2-4 weeks before start date and there are always lots of great nannies coming up for availability! There are not that many daycares who take infants, so it may be harder to find, but I would probably still wait because you may want to feel out being a parent to decide if you'd prefer a daycare vs nanny share. The thing that actually does fill up about a year ahead is preschool (around age 2) so just keep that in mind for later on. But don't worry too much! You will really be fine. 

Preschools and daycare centers - you need to get on a waitlist ASAP.

Home daycares - 2 months out from when you need care

Nanny share - 1-2 months out from when you need care

One tip you might not have considered - if you plan to nurse your baby, specifically ask potential care providers (whether that's a nanny, a family care home, or a larger center) what their experience is with feeding human milk to the babies - e.g., if they have a system for storage and keeping different babies's milk sorted, and are comfortable with it. How many of the infants in their care receive breast milk? Get an idea of how supportive they are of your choice.  For example, will they allow you to nurse on site when you drop off and pick up, to reduce how much you have to pump (if that's what you prefer)? Do they say "great! w support you!" or more like "alright, I guess so."  Some place really don't want to deal with it, and may even refuse to accept your expressed milk.

In California, no law requires them to accept your milk, and there is no training required related to handling human milk.