First Time Mom Looking for Newborn Childcare Options

Congrats on your expected bundle of joy! All of my friends who live in the city use/have used Clybourn Kindercare Center Director: Kathy Florez; 1733 N. Marcey Street;
Chicago, IL 60614. It is about 2.7 miles from your zipcode but is the only place I know people have used/trusted. They love it there but I understand there is a waiting list. It is also more expensive than Kindercares out in the 'burbs (and higher quality from what I understand). It is still cheaper than the rate many nannies demand in the city. This kindercare takes infants as young as 6 weeks old. You can find information on them by going to www.kindercare.com and putting in your zipcode in the search.

Also, I am not sure on your space in your home but my husband and I recently got an Au Pair through an agency and we have been thrilled. They must have their own bedroom and cannot care for children under 3 months - they work max 45 hours a week and 10 hours per day. It has been a flexible solution and great decision for us! We have a 10 month old and 26 month old and they were honestly just getting sick too often for our liking (even in the super clean Montessori we had them in). I am likewise a career-focused woman (attorney) but plan to have a mini-brood of kiddos!

If you are interested in exploring the au pair option please give send me a private message and I will give you my e-mail and phone number or you can provide yours!

Best wishes on the coming months!

Congratulations on your pregnancy! I had good luck with the Northside Parents Network - you can probably get the skinny on a variety of different places. Also, if you hang out at any of the local parks around 5:00 PM you should hit the parents/kids in daycare crowd and you can ask local parents. If you go during the day you'll just get the nannys. I suggest looking for a place that is close to your home. I can tell you, from experience, that I was actually not particularly happy with *any* daycare I could find for my son when I went back to work 12 weeks postpartum. I did not feel like he got enough attention at a group place, and ended up pulling him out of the daycare and hiring a friend and fellow mom (with a daughter 3 weeks older than him) to take care of him for his first year of life. At that point I put him in daycare and felt much better about it. With my daughter, I took more time off (6 months) and then went back to work full time and put her in daycare. I felt much better about that decision b/c at 6 months she was much more independent and not nearly as helpless. I, too, enjoy my career and went to school for far too many years not to pursue it, but being a mom changes your priorities. You will find the right balance for yourself. And going back to work, no matter how ready you are, always is tough. Best of luck.

While I do not know of any specific options in your area, you can go to www.naeyc.org to search for highly qualified childcare facilities in your area.

Try Action for Children of Illinois. I did and found the perfect in home daycare for my child. They charge a yearly fee based on your income. It isn't much though. Their website is http://www.actforchildren.org/. They will send you the names of in home daycare as well as daycare centers in your area who are prescreened. I hope that this helps!

Hi A.,
Try the Gertrude B. Nielsen childcare center and the Total Childcare center in Evanston. Also, call the northside action council for children, they should be able to generate a list of childcare places for your area. The Chicago Parent Magazine is another great resource for childcare options and other activities.

All the Best,
D.

Congratulations, A.! Have you thought about having a nanny/caregiver come to your home to take care of the baby? You could go through several venues to find one: Sittercity, K Grace Childcare, This Little Piggy Nanny Service, etc. It can be expensive, but then again, is full-time center-based care is not cheap! Good luck with everything!

If you haven't already, join a local church and ask the rectory/school if there is a parish babysitter list. You'd be surprised by how many neighborhood people may be available. I found two grandmas to split the workweek. They are reliable, trustworthy, loving, and affordable. I quickly abandoned the nanny quest when I couldn't afford even the youngest or most inexperienced of them.

Illinois Action for Children can help you. http://www.actforchildren.org/
They will help identify providers (home daycare and centers) in your zip code. If you are considering a nanny, look into agencies (I love Olive You Nanny) and consider joining Neighborhood Parents Network (npnparents.org).

i babysit newborn babys im good with kids so just get back at me have agood day

Congrats on being pregnant and moving to North Center (great hood!).

If you go through a nanny agency I suggest Northfield Nannies (http://www.northfieldnannies.com/). There is a finders fee - but only if you hire one of them. You can interview as many as you need to!

I recently had GREAT success with finding a new nanny for my kids on CARE.COM! I can't say enough about how many responses I received (90+!) and the caliber of the candidates. Really amazing. They had all sorts so whatever you are looking for , older, younger, drives, don't drive, experienced, new....We ended up with our sweet Jenna - former preschool teacher and she is AMAZING! All it costs is $30 for one month and that includes background checks!

The part that is hardest for a first time working mom - is you want to find that nanny as early as possible - but you will find that most nannies are not out of work for long and only look for jobs when they are available (or maybe the month before).

Good luck!!!

Have you looked into Kids Work at 2600 W. Addison? We toured it before it opened and were impressed with both the owner and the facility.

We're also big fans of NPN. We have gotten both of our babysitters through the site.

Good luck - there's a lot out there; it's just hard to find when you don't know where to look.

You can search for daycare centers by zipcodes on www.cribsters.com and they show you what age children the center accepts.

Northside Parents Network - http://www.npnparents.org/index.asp

askinchicago - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/askinchicago/

I have had good luck with both of these resources.

After a lot of research when my daughter was born, we ended up using a nanny-share. In our case, two families shared a nanny - it was a lot cheaper than daycare!

Congratulations and good luck!

~C.

I used to live in Lincoln Square. We had a nanny who lives around Montrose & California. She watched our son from the time he was 4 months old until we moved to the Burbs when he was 3. She loves our son and we continue to make the effort to let them see each other once a month.
It was a huge relief to know that my son was in the hands of someone else who loved him, not just a daycare center. She only watched our son, so we weren't concerned about whether he was getting attention. The nanny's sister lived downstairs from her, so he got this whole extended family taking care of him. Additionally, she is spanish speaking so my son is now fluent in Spanish. If you are interested in a situation like this, I can pass on your information to her or we can talk more.

A.,

When I was pregnant, I contacted my EAP (employee assistance program) through work and they sent me a list of licensed daycares in my neighborhood. I think you can also get this through a government agency, but it was a lot easier for me to just call the EAP and have them send it to me. Then I drove around one night and looked at all of the locations and chose some to schedule interviews with. I am not in your area, so I can't recommend any in particular for you, but I can say I now have a 3 year old and a 6 month old in the day care I chose in this manner and am very happy with it!

If you can't find a daycare that you like, you may also want to look into getting an au pair. When I did the research the cost wasn't much more than my daycare. We originally thought we would go this route when we had our second, but then we loved the daycare so much we decided to pay the extra money for both.

Good Luck,
D.

Congratulations, A.! When my sons were young, and they are now 23 and 26 years, I located daycare homes through a hot line that DCFS had. I truly don't know if they still have it. Things may have been different back then. In my neighborhood (Foster and Damen at that time) there was a small store which I frequented, and I asked one of the cashiers if she knew anyone who did babysitting before my oldest was born. She did, and that worked out for many years. I liked having my sons in a daycare home as opposed to a center. This may still be true; a daycare home could be licensed for only so many kids of certain ages. If you are a member of a church, perhaps you could put a notice in their bulletin or something like that. A friend of mine just went through that with her granddaughter. She works part-time so has the baby 2 days a week. I'll ask her what they do the other 3. Good luck! If I learn anything more, I'll email again.
S.