Night nannies for twins

[SallyBiddulph]

Dear Mums,

I am pregnant with twins and am hoping to use a night nanny for the first month to help establish a sleeping & feeding routine. Have any of you used night nannies? If so what are your experiences and when you booked them how did you guess their start date? I would like them to start a few days after birth to help with the initial craziness, but if I'm late giving birth I have to pay 50% of their salary until the babies arrive even if I don't use them. What did other mums of twins do?

Thanks xx

Firstly, congratulations

You can usually find a night nanny at very short notice either from an agency or privately. Are you thinking of a maternity nurse who may charge you 50% from the date you predict the booking to start? A night nanny, in my experience, wouldn't charge a retainer like that.

When are you due? Where are you based?

I'm a maternity nurse with seven years of experience with new borns, mostly singles but one set of twins. Depending on your location and due date I could maybe help.

Congratulations! We had twins in November last year. I wanted to have a few weeks alone before she started as DH was on paternity leave and my DM and MIL came to stay ( not at the same time mind you....)

So I booked her for when they would be at 40 weeks. Knowing that the hospital would not let me go beyond 38 weeks. They came at 37 weeks so we had 3 weeks to try and manage before she arrived!

We had her for 3 nights a week, every other night from when they were 3 weeks until 12 weeks (except Xmas when we didn't have her for the week)

We had a single bed in the nursery and she slept there on her nights - I slept there on the other nights. I expressed milk for their feeds but had to mix with formula as didn't have enough. She took charge from 9pm to 7am the next day, and never once woke me for anything, she was very competent. They were sleeping through from 11pm to 7am by the time she finished. If you are in London area I can pm you her details or her agencies details.

I'm a night nanny and cover Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Rutland, Staffordshire (basically anywhere within 1hr 30min drive of NG10 postcode area).

I am currently working for 2 families with twins, one set born at 36wks, one set born at 37wks. With one family I met the Mum before the birth and we settled on a start date (easy to do as she was having c-section). The other family contacted me after the twins were born.

I'm always flexible with regards to start date and dont charge a retainer. I reckon that (as another poster said), booking a night nanny for 40wks would be a good guide with twins, then if they arrive early you can see if night nanny could start earlier. If you're adament you want help very early on then maybe book from 38wks?

If I can be of any help please let me know. I have checkable refs, CRBc, own car and over 15yrs experience.

Congratulations I am in Leicestershire and cover all of the Midlands as a night nanny and have extensive twins experience.

Families book me for a date usually week before due date unless they are having a planned section then they know a date and plan for me to start 5 days post section as they plan to stay in hospital for that time. If I dont start on agreed date only 50% is charged and booking can be extended if I can fit them in (generally thats not an issue as I dont do back to back bookings as I like a break in the middle).

If you plan to breastfeed a night nanny will bring babies to you to feed and support and advise you on feeding and they will change the babies and re-settle so you can go back to sleep, once feeding is established the night nanny can give a bottle of expressed milk if you wished or you could continue to feed - entirely your choice.

One tip with twins have them in the same routine do everything together when one needs feeding wake the other and feed and dual feed them a night nanny can support and show you best ways to do this whether breast feeding or bottle feeding - for this reason with twins I would always use an experienced night nanny who has twins experience as its quite different to singletons. If you try to do one then do the other in the early days especially you will be feeding 24/7 (although I have strong memories of bf my little one for what seemed like 24/7)

There are many agencies you can use but most night nannies and maternity nannies have their own websites so its always worth doing a good google search and asking on here for recommendations.

When getting references right a list of what you want from a night nanny and ask questions related to that from the referees as will give you a picture of whether they will work for you.

You will know whether you can work with the night nanny or not from meeting them as you need to be comfortable with them and likewise them with you as they will be caring for your babies whilst you sleep and wandering around your home - I have been a night nanny for many many years and still always feels very strange on that first night with a family.

Dependant on what you can afford I have worked for a family who had 2 of us so I did 2 nights and the other night nanny did 5 nights and other families (which is more common) who have had 2-3 nights and then used a night nanny for a longer period of time as they rathered less nights a week over more time than cramming lots nights in and then having nothing (also had families start with 3 nights for 8wks then reduce to 2 nights for however many weeks and then sometimes down to 1 night to wean themselves off!!) - All babies I have night nannied for whether singles or twins or prem have slept through from dream feed (10.30pm) until 6/7am by 12-15wks.

sorry for long post - any questions please do ask.

Thanks, I'm in North London and thinking of using the Tinies agency. They have been great on the phone and very efficient so far. I'm just working out best time to get them to start because with that agency if the night nanny is not used when booked you have to pay 50% salary. This would only happen if the twins hadn't yet arrived, but I'd like to start the night nanny from very soon after birth to estiablish a routine

Thanks, any recommendation of her or the agency would be great. I am in North London x

Thanks for your message but I'm a long way from the Midlands in London x

Have the hospital given you any indication what the latest they would let you go is? I would book from then.

Honestly a routine for the first few weeks isn't hugely important, although an extra pair of hands is, and if the twins arrive early there are always emergency nannies available.

When you say night nanny how frequently do you mean?

Thanks sally for your message. I would recommend tinies I found the maternity nurse branch to be very very efficient from a night nanny point of view.

I can also recommend www.kidsmatter.uk.com as they cover all of the UK and overseas.

Hi there Fraktion,

My due date is March 9th, but hospital haven't said how late they'll let me go. We were thinking of a night nanny 5 nights a week for 4 weeks from birth but would you say we need it a couple of weeks after birth rather than straight away?

Thanks x

It really depends what you want them to do. Most night nannies will honestly tell you that you won't get the babies sleeping through, or indeed dropping any night feeds until around 6 weeks so if you want them to establish a routine that will stick better wait until things are a little more settled than just continually be playing catch up. A feeding/sleeping routine is usually worth starting around 2 weeks, before that the routine is more feed one, change one, feed the other, change the other, put them down to sleep, feed whichever one wakes after 20min... A pattern does emerge but not immediately and the first couple of weeks they just need lots of feeding and cuddles with their parents, not to have their days precisely planned.

If on the other hand you were looking at someone to come in and help after a CS, bring you the babies to feed and settle them after to allow you to rest that would be worth it from the off.

Many night nannies will take a longer booking that starts off with scenario 2 and then the role changes to implementing a routine.

It just depends what you want. Both are equally valuable forms of support.

Sally
If your OH is off on paternity leave I would really recommend leaving the night nanny until he returns to work. It worked really well for us to have her start when they were 3 weeks old.

Also if you have a CS you will be in hospital for a few days (I was in for 8 days as one of the DTs was in SCBU and thankfully they let us all stay in with her) and it was really nice to be able to spend time at home with just me, DH and the DTs for a few days before the night nanny started. I found adrenaline kept us going but we were definately ready for a good nights sleep by 3 weeks in!
We only went for 3 nights a week - sunday, tuesday, thursday - rationale being that we always knew we were going to get a good night sleep every other night.

Some times tiny twins will feed every one and a half hours , if so. You need help .