Thank you everyone, I appreciate all your thoughts!!

Hi There. My kid is in nursery day since she is 9 month 2 days a well full time. she loves it, I ve a nanny for Wednesdays and Thursdays morning as I work from home at day. is a good balance as I didnt want her in nursery 4 days. She will start in Parkgate house this September 2017 and she will be 2,9 months, turning 3 in November. She will be 5 mornings and I will have help to pick her up from school until 5:30 when Im back home, for the 1st 5 months Im having an au pair ( a family member really), but after that ( if we havent move to a new house yet) will have a nanny share mainly, if not, will continue with au pairs.

My daughter started nursery having just turned 2 (July birthday). I was very worried about the afternoon naps as she had always been a pretty routine sleeper. Weirdly, right after she turned 2 she started fighting nap time and afternoon naps got pretty erratic anyway. At age 2, she did nursery 3 days per week so she skipped nap time on those days and napped pretty consistently on the non-nursery days. The first couple weeks she was clearly more tired than usual so we moved her bedtime up by about 30 min. After the first couple of weeks she was absolutely fine.

I think the first year of nursery most places tend to be quite flexible. IF your child needs some quiet time or a quick snooze, they seem to accommodate. You can't know for sure how it will go in advance, but at least in my case, i worried a lot in advance and then everything turned out to be just fine. I think kids mostly adapt to any new situation within reason.

Childcare is a harder one to fix. Nanny share is probably the only real option if you are working full time.

My LO started at Mouse Hole at just over 2 and did afternoons however it was not every afternoon so he just didn't nap on the days he went. It was fine. He then moved up to Mouse House just before 3 and again did afternoons which was generally fine. We then got a morning spot which was better. My second child (sibling, so got straight into mornings) would have been fine with afternoons as he had dropped nap by 2. We just had a nanny the whole time but there were lots of people who did nanny shares which worked well for them.
In my experience if you still with MH you are likely to get a morning spot eventually - some people in the end actually prefer staying with afternoon slots!
It is a great nursery, would highly recommend. However if it doesn't work for you I know plenty of people whose children stayed in daycare nursery until school and that worked brilliantly.

Thanks for the thoughts. Unfortunately I have to commit to the place now so I can't wait until she is 2 to assess the nap situation, but I appreciate your thoughts on everything!

1. nap - depends greatly on the child, but I think by the time she is 2 you will have a pretty good idea if dropping the nap will be easy (my eldest didn't drop his nap until 3.5, whereas some of his friends dropped it by 2.5)
2. childcare - there are many children going to MH in the afternoons, perhaps look for a nannyshare with someone who goes to MH as well? You may find a family who employs a nanny a full-time nanny for a younger sibling anyway.
3. if mornings are easier for you, keep calling MH as places do become available (people move out of London, etc)

While I have no advice - I am following this post, as we may be in a similar situation, come September.

Help please local mums!! My LO has an afternoon place only at Mouse House starting next year, she will only just be 2.5. Firstly, I'm worried about the whole nap situation, it seems quite young for her to drop her lunchtime nap (although she has always dropped naps early so perhaps this isn't so much of a concern?). Anyone else done this at her age? How did it go? Secondly, what on earth do people do about childcare? She is currently in full time childcare, but I'm guessing we will need to find someone who will look after her in the morning, take her to nursery, pick her up and look after her until we get back from work. But I don't think we can afford a nanny by ourselves, and I assume we will need to continue employing someone for the middle of the day when LO is in nursery. I would prefer a morning slot at least so that childcare could just be from pick-up to when we get back but this isn't an option for us at MH until she has been for a term or two and there is space. Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks.