Day Care: Here or There?

The current plan includes returning to work after a 12-week maternity leave. Since Tim also works, that means we need infant daycare. I’m finding this is not an easy thing to choose. To start with, I can’t even decide what location I should look in: home-zone or work-zone. We’re talking two different states, 20+ miles between zones, and a car commute of 45 minutes–1 hour, 15 minutes depending on the time of day. To help make the decision I’m compiling a list of Pros for each zone. In doing so I noticed I gave some items more weight in my head than others and ultimately I gave each item a rank of 1–3, 3 being very important to me. So far the home-zone is in the lead. But I’m open to other Pros/Cons someone may think of as I continue to decide.

CLOSE TO WORK:
3: Potential to visit/breast feed during lunch hour
2: Quickly accessible in an emergency
1: Can stay at work longer at end of day and not be late for pick-up
6 TOTAL

CLOSE TO HOME:
1: No long car ride with commuter-crazy drivers for Peanut
2: Potential of Tim collecting Peanut at end of day if needed -- dependent on finding a location within Tim-walking distance*
2: Accessible even if I’m working from home or have a doc appointment in town; no need to drive to a different state and back first
1: Longer wait but shorter ride home if Peanut gets sick at daycare
2: Closer to doctors and affiliated hospitals
1: Closer to toddling friends and potential playdates
1: No need to change provider should I switch jobs
1: Tim can still use daycare in the rare case I go out of town without the two of them
11 TOTAL

*Random question: I’ve been thinking a daycare needs to be Tim-walk-able for his help in an emergency to even be an option, but I don’t want those two strolling the main roads around our house. In our neck of the woods police officers on routine stops wind up victims of hit and runs... Since we only have the one car, and it’s usually in my possession, would it be worth it to invest in a second car seat base should Tim need to pick-up the Peanut in a Zip car? We could store the base at home, conveniently located across the street from a Zip car location.