To choose convenience over facilities for 3 month old starting nursery?

What makes a nursery good or not is the staff. An app with photos is just a flash way of updating you. What are the staff like? Qualifications/ experience/ retention .

Get a nanny

A baby doesn't need a curriculum nor do you need an app. If they are spending all.day adding info to the app for all the children, how much time does that take away from the children?

A 9 month-old is quite young for nursery. I'd look at childminders.

If money isn’t an issue don’t send a 3-month-old to nursery.

Yes exactly what I was pointing out. Don't think was a year when my DS was small _ although maybe 6 months then and he's 21. My eldest DD is almost 34 and was 16 weeks then

DD 1 went to nursery at 13 weeks along with many of her contemparies and has grown into a perfectly happy adult

Entirely agree.

@safetyfirst1, Childcare : what the science says | by criticalscience | Medium - this is an article summarising lots of studies done on attachement (all are linked).

If you can afford a nanny, which you say you can, then I think you should definitely do that rather than put a 3 momth old in nursery. Much better for the baby.

Kids don't care about the 'look' of the place like adults do. Our first nursery for our toddler was in a converted house and looked pretty small/ shabby but my daughter was so happy there! They were also incredibly inventive with their activities and artwork. The staff make or break the nursery, more than anything else. If you like the staff of nursery one, this is your one.

I didn't even need to read the thread to pop on to say, I'd choose convenience every time. Go for the closest one, if you don't have any concerns about sending her there. Doing the drop offs and pick ups is so stressful as it is, I'd take the 5 minute commute.
I currently do 2 drop offs and pick ups because I have a nursery and a school aged child, and I'm counting down the days until my drop offs are 5 rather than 20 mins!
Modern facilities mean nothing. The baby won't care either! Caring staff with good communication, a good range of activities (babies don't need fancy) and outdoor space is what I would tend to value the most.
The money is also a bonus!

My view (opinion only) is that 3 month old ideally needs 1-2-1 care - but, I had a difficult baby that didn’t like to be put down.

It’s hard to know till the baby is here how you will feel really - but I didn’t feel mine was really ‘ready’ to be in nursery until they were able to sit robustly (so 7/8 months?).

i have seen many babies this age at my nursery though and they seem to settle well and do fine - the older children are cute with them, and they are usually being carried around by their key worker!

So my thoughts have nothing to do with long or short term impacts… I just didn’t feel the nursery environment was quite right until they were more physically robust!

I used a nanny from around this age, which worked very well (if expensive!)

@safetyfirst1

Here is a study for you:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7160792/

EC Melhuish has also done a lot of research on this- I can't link to them because they're downloads rather than web pages, but if you Google "EC Melhuish nurseries babies" you will find some studies.

I had my first in the UK and DD still ended up going to nursery for 2 days a week when she was 6 month old as we couldn't afford for me to be on unpaid maternity leave. I earn much more than my partner. It's only generous on the assumption there is a supporting partner with a good job.

Some very unrealistic people on here too - if you are self employed , no such thing as 12 months maternity leave or pay - you can either take time and not get paid or go back to work at the point you financially need to.

Most people can’t live off £187 a week.

OP is self-employed, so she probably cannot leave her business for a prolonged period.

Yeah . Most of the people on here don't realise just how generous maternity leave is in the UK and take it for granted so come out with all this shite

the first one without hesitation. The shorter journey makes a massive difference.

For me it's just that baby room staff don't have time to give a 3 month old enough attention. The babies need to be able to bob around the room entertaining themselves.
A 3 month old needs a lot of attention, someone holding them a lot of the time.
Often they still need to be rocked to sleep and feeding can take a long time.

A childminder who doesn't have another child under 18 months (eg just a couple of toddlers/preschoolers) would be my preference - someone with mothering experience who will be an aunty or granny figure.

I did a nanny share from 13 weeks till my son was 18 months OP - ( maternity leave literally was13 weeks at the time many years ago) basically she was a marvellous Spanish lady- had 2 kids she dropped off to school and picked up and my son the rest of the time in ‘her’ house - so like a childminder but with a very small number of children - wonder if there’s anyone around like this local to you? If not I would go with option 1 - convenience and genuine care matter more at that age than fancy facilities -

Why on earth do you need studies to believe that a 3 month old baby shouldn’t be in nursery? It’s just obvious, common sense. UK gives 12 months maternity leave so baby can be with its mother during the time it needs her most. It also gives women time to recover & rest when doing night feeds etc. Why are you having to return work so early?

I had to go back to work quite quickly, and we had a nanny.

It doesn’t seem to have caused any problems. Most working women had to do this 20-30 years ago.

OP can balance her business and having a baby.

I agree that the baby is significantly more vulnerable but one of the biggest contributors to a baby’s wellbeing is the wellbeing of the mum so it’s important to be sensitive to the mum’s needs too. And of course people can say they disagree with nursery at any age but there are ways to do this that don’t involve minimising the OP’s current struggle/flat out shaming her.