Please Help Me Decide - Multiple Infants

[RubyBell]

Hi all! I have had some open spots for about a month but I am ONLY getting calls for infants. My current group is 7 month old, 2 year old, 4.5 year old, and my own daughter is 7. I most recently got a call from a mom with a 2.5 month old. They want to start her part time for about a month but are willing to pay the full time rate, and then have her go to full time when she's almost 4 months old.

For those of you with multiple infants (or not) can you help me work through the pros/cons of this?

Thank you!!!

[cheerfuldom]

I would be okay with this on a trial basis. Try it out and make sure that you are able to meet all the kids needs. I think part time to full time would be a good option because there will still be days that you wouldnt have this baby at all and can focus on activities for the big kids. I know this baby is young but do what you can as far as making sure you and mom are on the same page with the baby's routine. At this age, I would imagine that as long as you have a good routine going, a lot of the time the baby is at your house, she would be napping anyway.

Sometimes part time infants are hard if they are high needs and prone to over stimulation or if mom and dad have a random life and baby is not on a good routine. So I think the big thing is making sure that they are not dropping off an over tired, over stimulating, hungry child that is just going to cry the whole time with you. Make sure baby is being helped with sleeping on their own (not nursing to sleep or other things that you cannot replicate at daycare) and that baby is taking a bottle well.

[Blackcat31]

I think every single situation has it's own unique pros and cons. I would do as Cheer suggested and give it a try. You will know within two weeks if it is something you can manage or not.

[RubyBell]

Thank you for the advice! The mom said she would be doing the p/t to f/t schedule to help with the adjustment for baby.

I'm thinking maybe I should try it and be very clear about the two week trial period.

[MizzCheryl]

The younger you start the infant the better. Waiting till the baby is 4 or 5 months old will make transitions a little harder. I would try it. A 2 month old will adapt to your schedule quicker.

[youretooloud]

It would be worth trying for a while, if the 7 month old is easy and self entertaining. If it works out, the 2 month old and the 7 month old can be bestest friends once you get through this year.

But, if one or both of them is high maintenance, it's really hard. I have a demanding bossy one, and a needy one. The bossy one doesn't need anything until she sees or hears the other one being needy, then suddenly she has a little meltdown. It's not a real meltdown. But, it's still stressful to me.

[Francine]

My dream daycare would be to be only licensed for 4, start off all 4 as new infants and keep just those 4 until they go off to preschool and then start over again with a new group of infants. I find it very difficult to have a mixed group, unfortunately I can only have two under 18 months so I don't have muchof a choice. I could stop taking infants and just do the older ones but every call that I get is for an infant.

[GotKids]

My current group consists of a 4 month old, 6 month old, 4 two year olds and 2 three olds. It isn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be with the added little ones. The hardest part is when both infants are hungry at the same time. Other than that the babies love babbling to each other and playing rollie-pollie all over the floor as the toddlers play around them. I would think it would be easiest if you had the baby fulltime just because partime is harder for them to adjust as well as your other children to adjust. If it is a short term thing I say go for it

[nothingwithoutjoy]

I've done it a few times. It's hard, but totally do-able. In fact, if you've got baby routines down, it's easier to add another baby than to try to add a baby to an older group.

I swear by my sling. I wore one baby, and that made it much easier to carry the other on my hip (or even easier, wear the bigger baby, then hold the tiny one).

One of my sweetest memories was an 8-month-old trying to feed a bottle to a 2-month-old. They're still good friends to this day (now 6 and 5).

You'll be glad you did it when they grow up with you.

[jojosmommy]

It would be worth trying for a while, if the 7 month old is easy and self entertaining. If it works out, the 2 month old and the 7 month old can be bestest friends once you get through this year.

But, if one or both of them is high maintenance, it's really hard. I have a demanding bossy one, and a needy one. The bossy one doesn't need anything until she sees or hears the other one being needy, then suddenly she has a little meltdown. It's not a real meltdown. But, it's still stressful to me.

I agree. With the right personalities/temperaments it can work. If one or both are high needs it makes it overwhelming.

I had a kid the same age as my son when he was little and her needs were too much for them to be the same age/development. Since I have had others very close in age and it always comes down to the indiv needs of the kids not the ages/stages they are at.

I have a 13 mo old and my own 8 mo old. Both are exactly the same developmentally and the dcgs low needs(read: easy) make up for my high needs kid. Both just starting to stand up with support. Both rolled over and crawled at the same time too (mine rolled at 2 months dcg at 7 mo). Works great, both sleep, eat and play the same! If the 13 mo old was an early walker/explorer I would have been in for it.

[MN Day Mom]

I've had two infants multiple times over the years. Currently I have a 6 year old, two 4 year olds, two 2 year olds, two 1 year olds and a 5 month old. Next baby was born last week and will start in August.

Multiple infants can be a challenge at times and can disrupt the routine of everyone, but its just something we all get used to I enjoy infants as they tend to stay with me until they head off to school

[RubyBell]

Wow! This has all been VERY helpful!!! Thank you all so much!

My current group is all very easy (including the baby), so I think I'll give the second infant a try. As someone else said, the 2 week trial period should give me enough time to figure out if it will work or not.

Thanks again!!!