When did you book a nursery place for your child?

[ShirleyPhallus]

I’m pregnant atm and friends of mine have told me that they booked their nursery places as soon as they’d conceived, taking in to account their whole pregnancy and a year of mat leave also. So almost 2 years in advance.

We have booked up now to see some in the area but it seems crazy to me! How far ahead did you book your nursery place?

I think the main issue with ours was that so many existing parents put their next baby's name down as soon as they were pregnant again that a lot of the spaces were taken very early. We did for number 2.

Just after DD1 was born, it suddenly seemed real that we had had a baby and needed to think about nursery. We rang several local ones to enquire about looking round and availability. She was less than a month old, we wanted 2 days a week and could be flexible about which 2 days in 9 months time. There were only 2 or 3 who could offer us a possible place. I had not realised that people booked nursery places before their baby was even born. DD1 was still at the nursery when I was pregnant with DC2, and we registered her for a place the day after the 20 week scan.