How early do you need to book a nursery place?

[maggie75]

Im 30 weeks pregnant and a friend who is 13 weeks has just told me she is starting to look at nurseries - which has panicked me ... when should you start looking? Im aiming to have a year off.

the popular ones will get booked up at least 6 months in advance so the sooner the better
i got DS's name down for a place at his nursery when i was 6 months PG (i went back to work when he was 6 months old) and he only just got a place

I started looking about 2 months before I went back to work, and I got a place at my first-choice nursery. Mind you, that might have been a fluke.

I thought about looking while I was pregnant but decided to be more relaxed about it - after all, I wasn't even sure what sort of childcare I wanted or even if I wanted to go back to work at all at that stage.

i hadn't even decided what i was doing about a month before i went back, I was convinced i couldn;'t afford a nursery. Got my first choice, but it was new and had many places. Wouldn't harm to look round now.

Lots of the nurseries in this area have a waiting list of 1 year for under 2yr olds. You can ring and ask them what their waiting lists are like as it varies from area to area

Iirc I booked my DS's place at our chosen nursery when I was approx 7 months pregnant and this was to go back after 7 months off - so 9 months in advance.

However, when we went to look round, they said that if I wanted full-time (fortunately I only wanted 3 days a week) they wouldn't have been able to accommodate him until this summer which would have been 14 months in advance.

So I guess it is never too early.

I'm in SE London - and the two I liked best had a waiting list of about 2 years.
Think it really depends on where in the country you are.

I got information from nurseries together when I was about 25 weeks. I didn't visit any until I started my maternity leave (36 weeks).

However, I was panicked at the time when I started my antenatal classes and one of the mums-to-be said nurseries were getting booked up.

I think it was more of an issue if you were going to work before 6 months. I intended to have a year off and dd1 started when she was 10 months. I had no problem getting her into a good one - had a fair bit of choice.

It depends on what your nursey provision is like. There was one that you basically put your name down for before you conceived!!

Would def go and look before deciding - there were some that I wouldn't have sent my cat to - even though the OFSTED was good.

HTH

Thanks for your comments everyone - looks like I had better start doing some research at least - something else to think about!