DC transition before going back to work

hi ladies

I am a happy mum to a lovely 5month old girl and am going to be 'test' running a return to full time work in July (namely because my very very very supportive employers are heading on a four week trip overseas and really need me back to cover while they are away, as I am most senior manager).

At present I am working 2 full days a week (mon/tues) and my daughter is spending that time with her grandma which is great and has been working well since April. So I have decided to use this time to trial run day care and also to see whether or not full time work is right or not.

My original plan was to gradually build my time up over the course of the year to where I would probably only work 4days a week. However that has changed since I found out most day cares have a minimum number of hours a week that your child must attend (in my case 24hrs) so with grandma looking after baby 2 days which is something I don't want to change it kinda leaves me in an awkward position.

My plan is to start baby at daycare in second week of July but kind of wondering how long you need for transition in the build up to eventually leaving her there! I am happy with my choice of daycare but it's just how much time will we need in the lead up?

So much to decide? And part of a bigger problem given I have to travel an hour to work each day hence she will be at daycare in the town where i work so it's close to me.
Really struggling to figure out how to make it all work! All your advice would be greatly appreciated.

community based or not for profit " preschools" ususlly have 2 day x 4hr minimum

DD1 started daycare at 6 months, DD2 started at 1 year old. It was so much easier to settle DD1 at the younger age as they aren't really aware of the whole 'seeing you walk out of the door' thing that they pick up on when they are older. DD2 was much harder to settle - depsite the fact she had visited the daycare often when i was dropping off and picking up DD1 on her daycare days.

DD1 settled very quickly - she cried a few times when i handed her over in the first few weeks and I would phone when i got to work and they would say 'oh she stopped crying 30 seconds after you left '

As for settling in, I visited for two mornings for an hour or so when i stayed with her, and then left her for an hour on another morning.

Good luck - she will be fine!

DD went into daycare at just before 5 months and she did 2 or 3 visits of about 2 hours in the first week, then I increased the length of visits the second week and in the third week she did her regular hours.

I went back to work 4 days a week 8.30am - 4.30pm and that's what I still work (although now its more like 7.45am - 5pm). In the begining I did some work from home, one morning and one afternoon a week. It didn't work overly well, DD never slept that well during the day and I often ended up having to catch up on work at night and on the weekend. But it meant I felt less guilty and got to spend a bit more time with her.

My son has just started daycare he is going to be going for 3 days a week. He had visits last week over 3 days, he came for the morning each time and stayed for lunch and he did pretty well so they said he was quite ready to come by himself. But he is older than your little one so Im not sure how it would work, but I imagine with being that little separation anxiety won't have kicked in quite so much so she might settle in quite easily. I would say visits over a week depending on how much you feel is needed would be quite normal but your daycare will have a process they reccomend. I found most daycares I researched had a 2 day minimum. So far I have found 3 days daycare, 2 days with nana to be a really positive arrangement

DD has just started, she is 5.5mths and goes 5 days but at this stage only 7.30-3pm. She transitioned over a week, with the first 2 days for a couple of hours and I stayed, then we had 3 days where she stayed for a nap and feed. DD is a very happy and easy going baby and sleeps most of the time she is at daycare, (altho its less than she would at home, so shes pretty much straight to bed when we get home.)

We only have to do 2 days at our daycare to have a place.

I was worried about the long hours the kids will be in daycare when I go full time, so we chose the daycare close to home (very lucky that its walking distance), that way DH and nana can pick them up early when possible. In saying that I love the feel of the daycare, which was more important.

I plan to stay part time as long as possible. Its the best of both worlds, altho with DS I worked 3 full days which was better, as I always has 4 day weekends, so never felt like I needed a holiday.2 day weekends are very short after 6 months of 7 day weekends