My grandmother came down to spend a week with us when we were in the midst of our craziest time with the twins. She saved my sanity!! But, upon her leaving, she highly suggested we hire some kind of help. She is the only one of our family that spent time with us when things were at their busiest so I often feel like she is the only one who REALLY gets it.
After she left we talked about hiring someone to come in for a few hours to help with the babies. I quickly poo pooed this idea because I'm a bit stubborn and for whatever reason had a strong desire to do this on my own. Depending on the day/week we came back and revisited this topic a few times. There were times I thought it would be a good idea to have someone come in a few hours a week just to give me a break. But, Evan has been such a high maintenance baby, I really did not ever feel comfortable leaving him with one person. I feared they would run away screaming. Hell, I'm his mom and wanted to run away screaming on many occasions. Yeah, I did leave him twice with a friend, but she is the ONLY one I felt comfortable leaving him alone with...she's a Respiratory Therapist in a NICU so I figured if nothing else she could at least keep the kid breathing (he's been known to cry so hard he holds his breath).
Another topic we discussed several times was hiring a cleaning person. My husband was pushing for this option. Again, being the stubborn independent chick that I am, also passed on this one. For some reason I thought people would view me as lazy if I hired someone to clean plus I want to clean. Plus I like cleaning. While I was running around cleaning today (we have friends coming over tonight) I kicked myself for not checking into a cleaning service. It could be nice...cleaning nearly 3000 sq ft of house is a huge undertaking. The house is never spotless. But, I am a bit of a clean freak and I know that whatever a cleaning service would do it would not be good enough. I usually don't even like my husband to clean. Sure, I like his help, but I like to clean my way. Is this crazy? Yes, the answer is yes. I'm blaming my parents for making me like this-they were/are extremely clean people. Not the worst quality I could have inherited I suppose.
Of the two options, cleaning and nanny, I'd much rather go with nanny. I want to do my own cleaning. Now that Evan is turning into a less high maintenance baby, I'm starting to feel more comfortable about the thought of leaving him with someone. Once again, the thought of a part time nanny has entered my head. How do you find a nanny you can trust? We paid well over $20k to bring these babies here and walked through hell in the process, so there is no way I'd just pick some lady willy nilly and leave them with her. Is this normal behavior? Am I just a new mom and worrying too much? I'm thinking maybe by the spring it would be nice to hire someone. I don't know. Maybe I'll change my mind again...
For those of you who have done this in the past, how did you hire someone trustworthy? Any advice you can offer would be appreciated!
3 comments:
We posted an ad on Care.com for our night nanny. It's kind of like Match.com, but for help, not dates :). They have profiles on there, references, background checks, etc. Plus, they give you references that you can call and check yourself. We only wanted people who had experience with twins, also pets. Etc. Etc. Worked out very well and would recommend that method.
And dude, I just can't wrap my head around the liking to clean thing! Whoah.
Hmm. . . I have both a cleaning lady who comes once a month (she's been cleaning for us for over two years, since before I was pregnant with my sons), and a nanny who cares for our sons 9-5 Tuesday through Friday while we are at work.
I found the cleaning lady through a strategy I would not necessarily recommend: she left a business card on my front door. She has worked out well, though.
We found our nanny through my local Mothers of Multiples club. We had also placed an ad on care.com and interviewed several qualified candidates from that source as well. We interviewed 10 or 12 people in all before settling on our current nanny, who has worked out well for us. She's been working for us for nearly 7 months, and no problems so far, thank goodness.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Thanks ladies!! I've heard a few people suggest care.com so if/when the time comes ill definitely check it out. I appreciate the feedback b
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