any last minute tips?

[lobsters]

The day has finally arrived, my nannny starts tomorrow. We've got a week for handover, any tips, things to remember? I'm planning to spend increasing amounts of time out the house over the week. I'm sure she's going to be wonderful with the playing/ caring side. I think I'm going to have to spend a bit more time running through the practical side, arranging things round feeds & naps/ how the bottle warmer works/ planning nursery duties. She is an experienced nanny and very caring, it's just been a little while since she looked after babies.

In the mean time I'm spending the rest of this evening tidying up and writing all off the rest of the nanny manual.

Write a note of a typical day, feeds, sleeps, walks etc. Likes, dislikes. Favourite comforter (if DC has one). Favourite foods.

Where local shops, parks, GP etc is.

Telephone numbers in case of emergancies.

Good luck.

OOPS Emergency

Be prepared for your baby to change how they feed/nap. Some babies will stick to a routine already established, others will not... they may even refuse to feed during the time when you are not there. If that happens, don't panic. Babies won't starve themselves... if they are hungry they will take food from anyone.
Naps can change as well... they may sleep well for you during the day, but refuse to nap until knackered for the nanny.
You may want your nanny to stick to the routine but if your baby is unhappy then consider changing things for when in the care of nanny.

Take nanny to places that are regularly visited - such as baby group, park, so your nanny gets to know where those places are.

One question I meant to ask, how much do you let the nanny make their own mistakes, even when you know it's not going to work? Clearly nothing not on anything serious, but with the little things.

Depends what you mean by mistakes. And how you know it's not going to work.

The 15mo I'm temping for a the moment is completely different with me and his mother - for example, he'll happily eat cheese sandwiches with me but only eats pulped up food for her so I'm sure she would have classified me making a cheese sandwich as a snack as a mistake because he won't eat it for her, but it works fine for me!

I'm sure she can work out how best to plan her own nursery-duties/day out so would let her get on with making mistakes with that.
I would say try not to micro-manage your nanny, especially if she's very experienced. OTOH if you know your washing machine takes 3 hours then do let her know how long it'll be before she banks on it being done before they go out.

Sometimes you can only learn things by doing them and as nannynick says, children do change the way they do things from carer to carer. FGS don't say "I could have told you that" - it doesn't help (bitter experience!). In fact use that as your guide for mistakes you'll let her make: if you were to come home and she says something to which your response would be the above then you need to pre-empt that happening so she doesn't make the mistake.

Tips:
Any particular calming phrases/songs/activities
How all the household appliances work
Where the fuse box is
Where the stopcock for the water is
Any local tradespeople she might need to contact in an emergency (plumber, electrician etc)

i was thinking along the lines of the planning things, she has done a couple of mornings with us. I encouraged her to take DD to the nearby swings, but she wasn't confident she could find them so wanted to go the ones further away which she knew. I'd already when DD needed to eat and figures in my head there wasn't time to take DD to the further swings, but as nanny was adamant she want to go to the further ones, I let her go, they got 3/4 of the way there and had to come back as DD is hungry. I could have told her that was going to happen, but having pointed out when DD needed to eat and she knew how long the walk to the swings was I didn't want to micro manage.

Very long way of saying, that's the kind of mistake I'm thinking of. TBH we have a rountine at the beginnning and end of the day, but the middle can be quite variable.

Go with her to the nearby swings... so then she knows where they are.
She went out with your DD (remind me how old) but didn't take any forms of food? Think you need to tell her that whenever they go out of the home, she must take something incase DD gets hungry. Is DD on any solids? Is DD on formula milk - will DD take that cold?

I will take her around the area this week, I was running out the door to a drs appt when she was round so I couldn't show her. DD is almost 9 months. She didnt take food with her, TBH DD wasn't starving, but I will suggest she takes a few rice cakes and a cup of water on short outings, and bottles on longer outings. I think in her head she thought the other park was a lot closer than it actually is.

i was a nanny before i registered as a cm and the family i looked after through me straight into the 1st afternoon the parents went out and left me to it. This worked out great as i felt comfortable with the family from the word go and felt like they trusted me and i found it easy to bond with the children as i didnt have the worry of feeling silly with another adult around whielst i played games and acted like a big kid myself (grin)

Although if your nanny does not have much experiance with the age group this wouldnt be a great idea. I also found having a notepad helpful and my employer would write down any tasks she wanted done throught that day.

Rice cakes and a bottle/beaker of water are essentials I find for outings with a child of that age. Also I tend to pack a spoon, bib and an instant meal thing (like Carrot Lentil Cheadder from Plum Baby, as those keep for ages unopened). Packing food for outings is like packing nappies - try not to forget to do it, otherwise you are bound to get caught out.

Is the not taking things a lack of thinking about what a baby may need, or more a lack of forward planning? Maybe a list of things to have in the 'nappy bag' may be useful.

One thing I've found really useful, as I now do a lot of temping, is to have a form which parents fill in and one of those is 'things to take when you go out:'

I tend to err on the side of caution and do as nannynick does, packing a whole meal, as well as a change of clothes and the kitchen sink. Some children are very predictable and will only eat at set times, others get hungry quickly!