My top 7 tips for making a smooth transition to nursery

The end of your maternity leave can be a real mix of emotions and the transition to childcare for your baby or child can sometimes be a challenge. Both times for me, even though I love my job, I have been filled with a mixture of DREAD and excitement.

Here are my top tips for a smooth transition to nursery

Get in touch with the nursery a few months before your little one is due to start and make yourself familiar with the settling in process. Any good nursery will have planned in some stay and plays before you have to leave them.
If you can, start back at work after they have done a couple of full days at nursery, see if you can work from home or work flexible hours while they are settling in. Most employees will be accommodating, as the better your children are settled, the less likely you will be called away from work to go and collect them early.
Everyone worries about how their little one will nap at nursery because we all have our own ways of doing things but children quickly adapt to new environments and routines. Provide the nursery with any comforts which will help settle your little one for naps e.g. familiar grow bag, comforter and/or teddy.
Preparation is key! For me, every minute in the morning counts, as getting to work on time is crucial to me when I am teaching, lecturing or providing group sleep workshops. The night before, make sure that you have everything prepared: nursery bag packed (your nursery should provide you with a list of things needed), clothes and shoes that they will be wearing laid out and the pram/car seat ready to go and all the things you need for work. I always get up half an hour before the kids wake up and get myself ready so that I can concentrate on the kids as soon as they wake up.
Leaving them! The worst bit! If you have time, try to settle them in the room before you leave but don’t hang around too long or this can make the leaving harder. Once you are ready to leave, make the goodbye SHORT and SWEET! Quick kiss, cuddle, eye contact and say good bye (don’t be tempted to sneak out). Once you have said goodbye, don’t go back in because you will only confuse them and they will spend the day waiting and expecting you to keep reappearing. If they are really distressed when you leave, call or message the nursery to find out how they are. The chances are, they have already forgotten about you and are tucking into their breakfast. It is rare for Ivy to get upset when I drop her off these days but a few weeks ago she did. I messaged the nursery 2 minutes after I had left and they sent me a lovely photo of her happily eating her Weetabix.
Plan your pick-ups carefully. If you can, get there in plenty of time before the nursery closes so that you can talk to the practitioners about your little one’s day (ours provide a really useful sheet about how much they slept, ate and pooped!). This also gives you time to have lots of cuddles before you have to strap them into their pram or car seat which never goes down well with either of mine! I always have a biscuit in my pocket for desperate times!
It can be really tempting to delay bedtime because you want to spend time with them but I would advise against this as they will be shattered from nursery and if anything, they will need an earlier bedtime. Delaying it will only mean that bedtime becomes a battle and they may wake up in the night or have more wake ups (if they still wake in the night) because they will be overtired. Instead, have a slightly earlier bedtime and you will probably find story time a more calm and enjoyable time than if they are overtired.