Day Care ALREADY?!

I barely can believe that there is a human inside me but I have to start touring day cares. WTF.

I'm not really 100% sure what the work situation will be for me once baby arrives. This is what we have discussed so far - I will take off work for the rest of 2010 and resume my job in January 2011 either working 3 or 4 days/week (vs my current 5). Much of this depends on the status of some grants we have yet to hear about but that is our general idea. I probably should start firming this up since a lot of my grant partners do not yet know and my boss suggested that they will respond better if I give them an actual plan rather than the blase "we'll see".

Of course, like any city, here you have to basically decide on your daycare before your child is even 4 inches long. It's sort of like wedding planning - some places get booked up years in advance. This is all a bit crazy to me, but I guess you have to play the game.

My work has a daycare affiliated with it. Several people in my office have used it and have commented favorably, particularly for infants. In all honesty, this would be the easiest option for us. It is across the street from my office. I could walk over and feed the baby during my lunch break, and I would be close by in case of sickness or something. I also have a more flexible schedule than my husband and would likely be the one leaving work to go pick up the baby. I called the info number and right away they wanted to set up a tour. I just wanted some basic facts but no - tour first. So I'm touring a daycare on Friday afternoon. They won't even tell me how long the wait list is until I tour. CRAZY. People at work told me to get on the list ASAP though. If we have to wait past January, my husband will likely wait to take some of his paternity leave until then.

I have a rough idea of the types of things we are looking for on the tour but if anyone has any comments or suggestions, I am open to them. For people who have used daycare already, is there anything you wish you would have thought to ask at this stage?