How early should we register for a nursery?

[ArchieCarlos]

Hi everyone,

My wife and I are expecting our first in July/August. I've two questions I'm hoping you could help me with:

• assuming costs are not an issue, how early would you send your child to nursery?
• how early should one register for nurseries around ED/Peckham/Camberwell? Or how long in advance of the date you're hoping your child to start there?

Some friends have scared us with talks of needing to register right when our child is born or even before, but I'm wondering if it's just scare mongering. 

Many thanks!

[sjmfh]

Unfortunately they weren’t scaremongering! It seems a lot of people put themselves down as soon as they got pregnant. The three nurseries we contacted after our 12-week scan last year had 18-24 month waiting lists, which is pretty nuts, so I would get your name down at a few places as soon as you can. Having said that, Gumboots seems to have some spaces in their baby room at the moment, so their wait was shorter than expected - they quoted 2 years and it’s been about 1 year. Childminders don’t tend to need so much notice.

[Kesc]

when you get the positive test! seriously...