How do I prepare my baby for child care / family day care?

My baby is currently 7 months old. I will be going back to work 2, maybe 3, days a week in April. So Lily will be 10 months then.

She is in a fantastic routine at home, but I do everything for her and I am concerned how she will go when she is in the care of someone else and not in her own home.

Her routine ATM is:

Wakes around 5.30-6.00am
Short BF
Plays for 2 hours
Proper BF in her room in the feeding chair
Sleeps for 1.5 hours (8am-9.30am-ish)
Plays for 3 hours (BF if need be in there somewhere)
BF in her room in the feeding chair
Sleep for 30mins
Plays for 2 hours (BF if need be in there somewhere)
Sleep for 30 mins
6pm - Dinner, bath, BF, bed (asleep by 6.45-7pm)

She only started solids a month ago, so her day time solids are just a bit here and there - no real routine with them yet.

Her night time routine of course won't change, but I'll be dropping her to care at about 8am and picking her up about 4pm, so all of her day time sleeps will be in a strange cot and she won't be getting her BF before she goes down. I don't feed her to sleep, but it's something that we always do before she has a nap (I do this so I feel confident to let her cry if need by because I know she is dry and not hungry, so there is nothing wrong with her).

I will express BM for her, although the last time I tried to bottle feed her she wouldn't take it. She'll take water from a bottle, just not milk - but perhaps if I wasn't there, she would have to.

She will sleep in her port-a-cot if we are out, but again, she always gets a feed before going down. So perhaps the change of cot won't be too much of an issue if she can take her 2 toys and blankie with her, but I am concerned about me not feeding her before hand. Any suggestions on things I can do to make the transition easier before she starts? I am going to send her for a few short days before I go back.

How did your babies go? What worked for you?

ok, so my DS was 12 months when he first went. I, like you dont feed to sleep but we do have a lovely quiet breastfeed in his room right before he goes for a nap. I too was worried that he wouldnt sleep properly at daycare and would be confused about muumy not being there to give him his boobie. Ds wont take a bottle and tbh, i wasnt keen on the idea of expressing so i started to introduce cows milk in a sippy cup for him.

ahhh, poo on carpet - gotta go but i will be back tomorrow for the rest!!

I think she'll do great settling in at 10 months! We've just started our 10 month DS in family day care (only half days so far, we are easing into it) and he IS breastfed to sleep at home and doesn't sleep in a cot! Anyway, he slept at day care on his fourth visit (we didn't attempt a nap until the third visit) in a cot and without me! I was shocked!

He also wouldn't drink milk from a bottle and we really wanted him to be able to do that as a comfort thing as he wouldn't have the boob help him sleep. He started having small amounts of EBM after a couple of days and this week had 125mls so he has caved on the bottle thing!

I strongly recommend the short visits to begin with! In our case it meant DS could "recover" in the afternoon if he hadn't slept or eaten in the morning (DS' solids are also a bit here and there!!). Also, a straw cup has been really handy. DS has been drinking water from a Nuby straw cup for about a month. He can do this on his own so I was confident he wouldn't dehydrate at least in the half day he was away!

DD started FDC at 6 months.
I let the daycare mum know what her general routine was at home and she tried to keep it as similar as possible. I also let her know what DD likes/dislikes
I expressed milk for her to take and as DD weaned we gradually changed over. When she started solids I just sent a few different things in small amounts. I wasn't too concerned if she didn't eat much as I knew she was also getting the milk and stuff at home. I would BF her before we left home (daycare is only a 5min drive from home) and then another BF when I got home. I also expressed milk during the day.
When she first went, i put her favourite bedtime toy in the bag which she was only allowed to have a bedtime so the other kids didn't play with it.
I would try and get there 10 - 15min earlier so I could spend some time with her just while she settled and according to her daycare mum she was fine.
I always make sure I let her daycare mum know what is happening at home so if anything happens its not out of the blue eg. teething, has she had a good/bad night etc
HTH xx