Preparing LO to go to daycare within 2 months

[Fien2016]

Hello everybody,

DD is 4 months old now and within 2 months she will go to daycare for 4 days/week (+/- from 8 am till 4 pm). On Wednessday and in the weekends, I will be home with her the whole day.
I was wondering if anyone has some advice about how we can help DD to make this transition. She is touchy and doesn't likes changes, so I know it will be hard for her, and honestly I am already quite stressed right now... I'm most concerned about her naps.

Since we have still 2 months left, I was thinking about a step by step approach to increase the time spend at the daycare slowly. For example something like this:
2 weeks: Monday morning + Thursday morning
2 weeks: Monday whole day + Thursday whole day
2 weeks: Monday whole day + Tuesday morning + Thursday whole day + Friday morning
2 weeks: Monday whole day + Tuesday whole day + Thursday whole day + Friday whole day

Does anyone has ever tried anything similar or has some advice on this? Maybe it is better to go from 2 half days to 4 half days first, and after that starting to lengthen the days by letting her go 2 full & 2 half days?

All other advices that can help us making this transition are also very welcome off course

Many thanks in advance for your feeback!

[jessmum46]

Hi there, and (((hugs))).  I know just how stressful this transition is, having been through it with both of mine, albeit at a slightly older age.  I'm going to be totally honest, although you may not believe me! - but this is WAY harder for Mummy than it is for LO.  Honestly, she will be fine   She is really young, and that is a real plus in many respects.  She is not yet old enough to have true separation anxiety and is of an age where she is very very adaptable, more so than you perhaps realise.  Realistically I think the settling sessions may be of more comfort and reassurance to you than her - at her age she'll almost not remember the first session by the time she gets to the next and I do think the biggest change in retrospect is for us as Mums to get used to leaving them and trusting someone else to care for them.  I stressed a LOT with DD, especially about naps, but it did work out fine.  Daycare are magic   They have loads of tricks to help babies sleep!!  And even if the routine isn't ideal and she ends up overtired, there is so much they gain from being in that sort of environment.  (Plus you can always do early bedtime!).  One of the loveliest things someone here said to me at the time was that by letting them be cared for by someone else, you are adding to the sphere of people in this world who make your LO feel loved and secure   So overall my feeling would be enjoy the next 2 months, it is still a long time and you don't want to waste it worrying about what might be xx