To put DS in nursery one day a week?

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I have a seven month old DS. He’s a glorious wee man, but we have exclusively contact napped and bed shared since he was born. This means that for the last seven months, I have almost always had him somewhere about my person. I’m finding it exhausting. I made a rod for my own back and really don’t want to sleep train, so feel a bit stuck.

DH does more than his share, taking DS in the mornings and on weekends, so I can get some proper sleep. But, I’m still pretty desperate for some proper time to myself and it’s starting to depress me a bit. I don’t even want to do anything, I just want some time alone where I don’t have to engage and can hear myself think.

DH has suggested putting DS in nursery one day a week, so I can have a day to myself. There are several very good ones near us. On the one hand, a day to myself would be lovely. On the other, I worry that DS is too young and think I’d feel very guilty about dumping him in nursery for no other reason than to veg in silence.

Has anyone else done this? Do you have suggestions as to what else I might do?

I think that starting nursery before 1 year old is probably better unless you wait until they are 3 years, because they will get used to it more easily when younger.

On the other hand going from constant contact to none will be a shock for your child. Nurseries are good at getting babies to sleep because they have to just get on with it. Effectively they are sleep training. They have lots of experience so it may be that they are better at it but there's no magic involved! Maybe worth trying some gentle sleep training yourself and weaning off the co sleeping if it's getting a bit much.

2 half days would be better than 1 full day

We used busy bees, it was a fantastic nursery. Staff all been there years, very caring and approachable, allowed as much settling in as I wanted and was able to stay for several sessions. Obviously it's a nationwide chain so they will no doubt vary but round here it's highly regarded.

OP, I suggest walking past the different nursery options at different times of day, and also seeing if any of them ever go to eg the local park. One of ours was on the local Facebook group for taking the children to the park, taking a photo (in branded hi vis jackets 🙄) then loading them back into buggies and heading off again. Could well be a back story but it put me off. Similarly another one near us never has the children outside if there is a hint of a breeze or cold, despite telling me that those particular rooms always had free flow provision. So far the nursery we chose for DD has been brilliant, so I’m glad I ruled out the others.

I hope you find something that works for you.