I have been working as a night nanny continually since 2007. It is the part of my job I enjoy the most.
I feel that for parents facing the early days with a new baby can be exhausting. A new mum can cope with most things a new baby throws at her if she has had enough sleep. Without that important sleep it is easy to become down and sometimes depressed, not bond with baby and feel that dealing with day to day life and the most mundane of task become mountainous. Sleep deprivation is the most common complaint amongst new parents.
It is very hard to be able to leave your new precious bundle with someone you feel you can trust to look after them in the same way that you would.
This is where I come in. Whether I’m booked in advance of the birth for a block of nights, or in an emergency when sleep deprivation has really set in. (round about 6 weeks). I come with excellent references; I am DBS (CRB) checked and first Aid trained. I am sympathetic to your family’s needs and feel it is important to work with you rather than for you. I generally work for a 10 hour period. 9pm-7am but this is negotiable around what works best for you.
I will sleep with baby in a room, generally spare room, nursery or lounge with a sofa bed. If baby is bottle fed I will make up the feeds as per your instructions and feed baby as per any routine you have in place.
If baby is feeding from expressed breast milk, formula milk or a mixture of the two I will support you in all of these. If baby is breastfed I would sleep in a room with baby as above and take baby to Mum for feeds and then take baby from mum after each feed and settle, wind, change baby. This allows mum to return to bed quite quickly after feeding baby and not be disrupted by the usual noises that babies make during light stages of sleep.
I can also help with suggestions for getting baby to back to sleep, to sleep during the day, to sleep longer between feeds. I am also a trained Breast feeding councillor and can help with all aspects of breastfeeding.
Give me a call, text or Email for an initial chat and we can take it from there.
There is no need to book a minimum or maximum amount of hours. Some parents just need one good night’s sleep to restore them and others book 6 nights a week for 6 months. It’s entirely up to you.
I charge between £20 and £25 an hour depending on location. This is the same for multiple baby’s too.
Sometimes all you need is someone else to have a different prospectus on what has been going on. This can happen in the form of a meeting or telephone advice. Sometimes you need someone to come in and do a few nights to see what may be the cause of the child not sleeping.
I generally find that most habits can be changed very quickly with a few simple procedures put in place. I am not big on controlled crying as I think children/babies cry for a reason. It is after all there only way of communicating.
I have a wealth of experience at getting babies that once slept through the night and no longer do, babies that at 9-12 months that have never slept through the night. Babies that have co-slept with parents back into their own beds.
I can offer support by phone, text and email or in person. It all depends on your individual needs and budget.