Anonymous wrote:Pp here -

Our 16 year old babysitter said she'd skip school to watch DD. I didn't think her parents would be down with that, but I did that one summer when I was 17 (hung out until family could arrive) and I would have happily had 16 year old come over if it weren't for school. Any highschoolers near you out on summer break?

I bet there are also a ton of college students on break. When we researched through Care.com when we lived in Bloomingdale, a few of the women I interviewed were Howard or Catholic students.

Pp here -

Our 16 year old babysitter said she'd skip school to watch DD. I didn't think her parents would be down with that, but I did that one summer when I was 17 (hung out until family could arrive) and I would have happily had 16 year old come over if it weren't for school. Any highschoolers near you out on summer break?

I moved from DC to CA in a similar situation and completely stressed out about this. Is so hard to manage!

My older child goes to daycare and those teachers aren't allowed to watch her outside school hours.

Friends in our neighborhood (with twins same age as DD) said we could drop our daughter off any hour. They have an au pair I offered to pay while our child was with her (so she'd have 3 children). She was willing for me to call her in her day off.

I also talked to my minister about my concerns - I don't think she understood how stressed I was because I was about 35 weeks pregnant when she handed me a list of parishioners (5 women) willing to be on call. I only knew two of them and my daughter didn't know any of them.

Ultimately, I hired a nanny who was between jobs. A woman posted that she was becoming a stay at home mom Feb 1st and didn't need nanny anymore BUT the nanny was pregnant (due in April) so wasn't looking for a new position until the summer. I was due Feb 13th and the nanny was happy for extra money. I interviewed her and introduced her to my 4 year old, but frankly I was desperate. My water broke Feb 7th at 9 pm. The nanny had a babysitting gig with her prior employer the next day, but the other woman knew my situation and the arrangement and knew the nanny might have to cancel on her. She was there that night, the next day, and then we gave her a choice of staying another night or going to her home. She chose to stay one more night. We paid $25 / hr during daytime and $15 / hr when DD was asleep. I think it worked out to somewhere between $600-650

The baby was born early Weds am and the nanny had a doctor's appointment Thurs am. She stayed with DD from Tues night to Thurs am when my DH took her to daycare. We went home Friday midday and, by then, a family friend who lives 4 hours away came to visit. My mother in law arrived Sunday.

Finally, we don't have much space - we offered the nanny our bed but she slept on an air mattress in the living room!

What do you do for child care for your first child? Is there anyone who would be willing to be "on call" for extra pay? Otherwise, I'd check out care.com, interview someone, and have them hang with your older kid for a few babysitting dates to make sure you are OK with them and get along. Make sure they know the circumstances, but I bet lots of nannies/babysitters would be willing to do this.

Do you have a doula or can you get one? Your partner can stay with older child and you and doula do the labor bit.

Do you have family that could get here quickly? Or stay for a little bit?

I would ask another friend, ASAP. You can try to place an ad somewhere like Urban Sitter but I wouldn't rely on that, particularly if you're not paying them to keep their time open and available for you.

We're relatively new to the area and due any day with our second. Our one friend who said she would be available to watch our first born is now saying that she isn't able. Help! I'm at a loss as to what to do. Can you hire a nanny/babysitter to be "on call"? They might have to stay over night or up to 24 hours? Where would I place such an ad and how should I phrase compensation? Hourly? Bonus for being "on call"? Ideas please!