8 month old starting nursery soon - super anxious!

[BeLoudPeachDog]

Hi everyone, my DD is starting nursery mid-Jan and I'm quite anxious about it. She’ll be 8 months and she just seems so young. She’s got to go because I need to go back to work and we don’t have any other childcare. Can anyone give me some tips on how to manage the anxiety? Is it normal to feel worried about it? Would love to hear everyone’s experiences of how they felt handing their child over! Thanks :)

I won't lie, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. My daughter was with me 24/7 until I had to go back to work full time when she was 8 months old. She was breast fed and it was always me who went to her in the night and did everything for her all day too. I took her for some settling in sessions where I stayed for the first couple then left her for a couple of hours for the next ones. Then that was it - nursery Monday to Friday 7.15am to 4.45pm. Because she was there so much, nursery became like a second home to my daughter and she was happy and settled there. It was me who had the difficulty leaving her! Each evening I was desperate to get to her as quickly as possible! When I got there though she was happily playing and in no rush to go home. Remember it is worse for you than your child. So long as you are happy with your choice of nursery it will be fine in the end, just difficult for you, especially at first.