Moving this thread from the general forum - Need a baby sitter for my son and wife
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Anonymous
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This thread was locked instead of moved so I'm hoping to restart it. Here is the link to it: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/640328.page and in case it disappears, here is what I originally wrote:
I wasn't sure how to title this but basically my family is in a predicament. I NEED to travel for work for a week (I may be able to shorten it some but not all) and my wife and son can't be alone. My wife is currently pregnant (not far along so only our parents know) but having a troubled pregnancy so needs to take things easy. She can go to work and things but can't do a lot of things for our very physical 2 year old. Also, she has had to go to the hospital a few times and shouldn't be alone in case that happens again. My parents will be away, her parents are too ill, we have no friends that don't have children. My only solution is to hire someone to help in the early am and in the evenings and overnight. Where does one even look for this very specific type of care? Does anyone have any other ideas that I could be missing? I also added this information later on as well: Thanks for the feedback so far. I will look into all these various agencies. I started to look a bit on care.com and sittercity but was not impressed with the people on there but I didn't do a deep dive. To answer some questions, we don't need 24/7 coverage but close. My wife does work nearby and is able to go to work my son goes to daycare. I would want someone to be there from 6pm-6am daily. No one knows about the pregnancy outside of immediate family yet and because of the issues we don't feel comfortable sharing. We also only have 2 close friends mutual in the area and both are married with children. My wife has some friends but she met them though work and we don't want to mix business and work. Regardless, everyone has families of their own and no one has nannies. The trip in a little over a week so soon. We were hoping something would work out with family but that has fallen though. My wife is quite nervous at the moment because of her and our baby's health but she isn't just a "nervous mom". She is the most put together, stiff upper lip type of person I know. She often takes care of our child for long stretches while I travel. She just started to experience some complications almost 2 weeks ago and is on some restrictions. I would love if my wife could come with me but I think we both want her to stay close to her doctors and not be on a plane across the country. Also, even if this was just a case of her being nervous not unwell, we couldn't afford two last minute plane tickets and she couldn't afford the time off when she works for a company that is too small for FMLA and has to take sick and personal time for her maternity leave at the end of the year. I know there are a lot of roadblocks but that is just our reality. I would think someone else has been in a slightly similar position |
Anonymous
| Please leave your email address, where are you located? Start date and hours, you said 6pm-6am. So you need an overnight nanny. |
Anonymous
| Will do as soon as I can create another email. |
Anonymous
| Location, OP? |
Anonymous
| Can you take your child with you and hire a sitter on that end? The hotel may even have someone. |
Anonymous
Before you dismiss this as unworkable because you're going to be busy, really think it through. Reliable overnight care that you can trust for your wife and child on short notice is going to be hard to find, even with an agency. You need someone who can drive, because what happens if your wife goes to the hospital at 4pm? Someone has to pick up DC from daycare. Or if she's not back from the hospital by 6am. If you take the child with you, you may have to ask for some flexibility from your work in terms of dinners and after-hours events, but you can get sitters for daytime and evening hours, or even find a drop-in daycare. I agree that this is not ideal for DC, but if it is a real possibility that your wife might be in the hospital and there is no one to step in, it is a lot easier than trying to find coverage at home for all the "what-ifs." |
Anonymous
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OP, try going through a doula and ask if they can recommend someone.
momease.com I can wholeheartedly recommend Ravae Sinclair and Carolyn Alexander. The other recommendation is to contact the midwifery program at GWU. They are awesome and can help your wife at any point in the pregnancy, or can recommend someone who can. Doulas are used to working overnight and will have a network of night nurses who could help with your two year old. http://www.gwdocs.com/midwifery-services Hope this helps. |
Anonymous
| What's your budget? |
Anonymous
| When I was in similar situation (High Risk pregnancy, 2 little kids, hubby had to go to Europe), we had his mom come and stay with me for 2 weeks. Is this an option for you? An aunt, a friend, another relative? If you know a relative who is out of work, maybe tell them about the pregnancy... Might be easier on your wife. |
Anonymous
| I didn't read the thread, but please don't dismiss the idea that you need 24-hour care. What if your son gets a slight fever and is sent home from daycare? What if that happens on a day when your wife needs to rush to the hospital? |