Preschool Panic Mode

I slept on the preschool thing and now I've hit panic mode with no idea where to start.

Apparently you need to start looking at preschools from the moment your child is born.

Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I should have at least starting looking into things this past January if I wanted lots of options for my soon to be four-year-old next fall.

I epically failed there.

It is early May and we've just started looking (after some serious family guilt trips).

In my defense, I had a new baby in November and we've never done any kind of day care with the kids so it's all very new to me.

And that's why I could use some help from moms who have been there and done that. You've seen how it is out there and hopefully have some inside information you can share with this newbie.

What do you look for in a preschool? Where do you even start too look? Am I just googling this thing?

I kind of assume there are sites that rank schools, but I wonder what I'm going to get this late to the game.

Should I just scrap the fall preschool at this point and aim for a January start?

I have so many questions and some serious mom guilt about not starting earlier.

But I can't turn back time (as much as Cher and I may want to), so here I am.

Am I out of luck or can I still find what I'm looking for out there? Thoughts moms?