How early to register at nursery?

[mandspice]

I'm 32 weeks pregnant and planning on taking a year's maternity leave (starting next week, yippeee)and then will probably come back to work part time although I may be able to take off a few more months.....my question is, how early should I be looking to register LO at a nursery? Especially as I don't know my exact plans just yet - I just don't want to leave it and find there are no places..... I live in East London if this makes a difference.

Thanks x

I know that the best one near me fills uop very quickly so mate registerd her DS whilst pg - she STILL had to wait

Thanks MamaG - can you register even if you don't know exactly when LO might be starting and which days they'll attend?

I registered after my 20wk scan! And I still had to wait until she was 5 months old before they'd confirm she had a place!

I would approach nusery and ask, one of our local ones has 18 month waiting list!

I think I'd better do that! I guess I could say he'll need to start around next Summer and if I decide to delay it hopefully they'll still hold his place...?

I got a place about one month before hand, and it's a very good nursery. It all depends, the earlier the better but don't worry too much!!

Where I live you have to register while still pg, even for a year in advance. For my 1st choice nursery, I registered at 12 wks pg and got the last place available (apparently people were registering at 6 weeks!!)

I registered at 6 weeks pregnant. I think it depends a bit on the time of year, there tends to be a lot of spaces freed up in the summer time when the kids who are going to school leave.

Bear in mind that if you plan to go back part time you need to register for those individual days, which I didn't realise when I registered my dd. I thought that if I registered for a full time place I could then drop the days I didn't need. It doesn't work that way - there are so many "full time" places and also so many "part time" places for each day. It meant that I had to amend my working days when I first went back for about 4 months until a space opened up on the actual days I wanted.

I live in North London and registerd with my 2 preferred nurseries when I was around 37 weeks pregnant.

L

I registered at 12 weeks pregnant for my nursery in Canary Wharf (had just discovered it was twins). Couldn't get them both into same nursery, even tho this was a full year before I needed it. So I'd say it depends on where you want to go. Sorry, not much help am I? Have you tried phoning / asking ones in your area?

Right now!!! I registered for mine a month before my baby was born, wanting to go back at 6 months. There was an 18 mth waiting list. It was east london. I have phoned loads, and none of the good ones have got places.

As a nursery owner I always tell people to start looking asap because of long waiting lists. Now you have extended mat leave it helps take the urgency away but I wouldn't leave it too long to start basic enquiries. Also useful to look at childminders in the area too as an alternative while the baby is small or if the nursery you REALLY like has a long waiting list.

BTW any nursery that doesn't have a waiting list for babies is a bit suspect IMHO

Enjoy your mat leave!

I'd say don't rule out childminders. I do know lots of people here in North London who've found nurseries a lot later - within a few weeks or months of going back. But I think most of those are paying a lot more than I could afford.

I've found a lovely childminder - my ds started at 10 months and he's very happy with her and her family, and the other mindees. She takes them out to the park and activities at the local children's centre and the library, so he's being cared for in a lively, sociable environment but he also has chances of more one to one attention than at a nursery - she has one other mindee all day and two plus her own youngest who are at school.