Infant care, from six weeks old

Most group centers will take a six-week-old. What none of them can offer is the same adult for the whole day, every day, for the whole first year — because no center is staffed that way. Infant rooms run on shifts, ratios and rotas, and your baby meets whoever is on.

At GaGa's House there is one adult and three children, and that is the entire staffing model. The person who takes your baby at 6:30 in the morning is the person who hands them back at the end of the day, and will still be that person next March.

Naps on your baby's schedule, not a room's

A room of eight infants has to have a nap window, because one adult cannot settle eight babies on eight different rhythms. Three children don't need a window. A six-week-old sleeps when a six-week-old sleeps.

The youngest of three, not one of eight

The group is mixed-age by necessity, which turns out to suit infants well. Your baby is the baby — watched over by a toddler who has decided the new arrival is theirs, in a room where two other children are doing something interesting to look at.

The things that matter most at this age

• Smoke-free and pet-free. Anita's own words, and the first question most parents of an infant ask.
• CPR certified. Ask to see the card at your visit.
• Voluntarily registered with Loudoun County.
• Meals included once your baby is on them — breakfast, lunch and snacks are provided.

Bottles, formula or expressed milk, and any routine you've established, are things to walk her through at the visit. She has said she'd love to answer all your questions, and this is the age with the most of them.