New baby - keep toddler in nursery after birth, or home?

[AmyW9]

Due to have our second child in March. We've booked our toddler (age two) into nursery full time for the month (she's usually four-days) so that we have childcare lined up during the day for when I go into labour.

However, when baby is here, we can't work out what's best - keep her in nursery to give me space to rest and recover, or keep her home for a few days to help her bond with the new baby?

Would love to hear from others with any recommendations. I can see the case for both!

Nursery, definitely.

If you decide not to send her one of the days you can. But you'll probably be so grateful for it and more able to help them bond when she does get home from nursery

Keep the routine, keep it low key. They have years to bond and you will be recovering from birth, getting little sleep and emotionally shifting from your firstborn being your precious baby to her being a hulking toddler who is a uncontrollable risk to your fragile new baby

Routine. But you also have the flexibility to pick her up early on some days to do something nice with her if you are feeling up to it or not send her in on a day if that is what you want to do.

I'll be keeping my DD off nursery for a week to bond with new baby then send her in 2 days a week whilst on mat leave

Recommend nursery 100%. It's what we did with DS when we brought DD home. It kept him in his familiar routine and gave us 1:1 time with the baby.

I’m keeping my son’s days as normal but he might be cared for GP’s for a few days.

If you can afford it - nursery!

Phew. This is very validating! :-) And a relief to know that keeping the nursery routine going is possibly the better option.

Like the idea of picking my DD up early if it up to it too. This feels a lot less commitment and far more manageable.

Another one for nursery , routine is a great thing !

DD was in nursery 3 days as her routin, which we continued when our second was born. I didn't think of it as childcare at that age as she only started nursery aged 2, and it was described as early years education. I never considered taking her out as it would be taking her away from her friends and learning opportunities and it wouldn't be fair for her to miss out. Plus it meant I could attend all the classes that I'd done with DD - sensory, swimming etc. There was plenty of time to bond in the mornings and afternoons, but tbh I don't think the bond really kicked in until the baby was mobile and could interact a bit anyway.

Absolutely routine, routine, routine! DD2 was born last April and at the time, DD1 was FT. My plan was to drop her down to PT but DD2 ended up having a whole host of feeding issues, taking 90mins per feed, massive jealousy from DD1 over breastfeeding - it was a really tricky time. We actually decided to keep her in FT and it gave the whole family breathing space, plus meant i had lots of time to work on DD2 in terms of skin to skin, bf drop ins, sorting her tongue tie etc, attempting some baby classes. We tried to collect her earlier each day so she got more time with us that way instead. Plus DD1 had that time with her friends and especially as she had just moved into preschool room, she had that sense of being a bit more independent, telling everyone at nursery about her sister etc.