Night nanny
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Anonymous
| I’m 22 weeks with our first and just hired our night nanny. We initially intended to only hire her for the first two months (5 days a week, 8 pm to 8 am), but I’ve since read that babies don’t start sleep training until 4-6 months, and several friends have told me that they kept their night nanny for six months so that she could help with the process. How long did you keep your night nanny? Is six months overkill? She will also do laundry, dishes and light cleaning while she is here, so I’m sure it will be helpful to have her around even as the night feedings decrease, but six months still seems like a lot to me. |
Anonymous
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Most people contract for 4 months and then reevaluate. Sometimes around 3 months families drop down to 3-4 nights per week.
-Night nanny for 5 years, agency owner, mom of 2 that had a night nanny for both of my kids |
Anonymous
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6 months is fine if you’re that rich but chances are good that you won’t need it. My baby slept through the night at 12 weeks and I’ve heard this is common. Of course, “through the night” as defined by our pediatrician was just like 11 until 5am so I was still tired. But I didn’t go back to work until 7 months so no way would I have paid hundreds of dollars just for someone else to handle the 5am feeds.
Sleep training doesn’t require a night nanny. In my case all I needed was a husband who watched the baby monitor while I put on headphones for an hour for 3 nights as the baby cried it out. |
Anonymous
| It depends on how much money you have honestly. Extra time won’t hurt you unless you can’t afford it. |
Anonymous
| I have multiple friends who had night nannies and NONE of them needed them for 4-6 months. My best friend had hers for 10 weeks when baby started sleeping through the night and my other friends I believe were 12 weeks max. A good night nanny won’t take 6 months to sleep train your infant. |
Anonymous
The only people I know who had night nannies for six months are parents of three where the two other kids were very young (under 5) and the dad was always working and not hands on. We had our third three months ago and I’ve never used a night nanny. My husband and I both work but he’s pretty hands on and I bounce back very quickly postpartum. You do not need a night nurse to help with sleep training. If you commit it will go quickly. |
Anonymous
| We had ours for 12 weeks and baby was sleeping through the night at 8, so those last 4 weeks were more annoying than helpful (having another person in the house). I’m pregnant again and will only do until 10 weeks this time. |
Anonymous
| All 3 times I had them for about 5 months. I ended up doing the sleep training on my own for various reasons but what was super helpful was having the night nurse help with nightweaning first. I would have caved every time and fed them to sooth them versus having the patient to sooth them other ways when they didn't really need to be eating |
Anonymous
| Night nannies do not do sleep training. They feed babies as they wake up through the night trying to keep them on the recommended feeding schedule. You do not sleep train until 6 months and even then a lot of parents do not want to sleep train. Also, I may be in the minority here but I am against night nannies and much prefer regular day time nanny. |
Anonymous
They do sleep conditioning so actual sleep training is generally not needed for people who have a night nanny at the beginning. |