Are you planning on using a nanny when you go back to work? If so, you may want to consider hiring a nanny while you are home. It will also be a good way to see if the nanny would be a good fit for your family. If not, you may want to consider some of the options Deb mentioned.

OP, you have any number of choices depending on your needs (or what you think your needs will be this far ahead of time) and whether you are looking more for an extra set of hands or someone who can help you learn how to best care for yourself or your baby.

1) Mother's Helper - This is someone who may have any amount of experience, but who will assume you are going to direct them and tell them what you want them to do each day. They may not be terrific self-starters, and you may have to manage them all the time. They can be any age from teens on up.

2) Night nanny - She can help you get your baby on a gentle schedule, assist with night feedings, even do baby related chores at night while baby and you are sleeping. She likely has a lot of newborn experience, and would be able to help you as you learn to cope with being a mom.

3) Daytime Nanny - She could be a very "take charge" person, or she may need to be managed - that depends on what you want in an eventual FT nanny. If you hire her to start as soon as baby is born, she might be willing to work PT. Some nannies resent having a boss at home with them, but there are many nannies out there who will gladly work as a team with new mom. Make sure the nanny you hire is willing to do that!

4) Postpartum Doula - She "mothers the new mother". The PPD is there to help you settle into your role as mom, to listen to you when you need to talk, to care for you while you recover from childbirth, and to help you learn to care for your newborn. She may have lactation expertise, and you need to ask her where she trained and if she is certified. (2 major organizations for doula training are CAPPA and DONA.)

5) Newborn Care Specialist - Some have training and even certification (research any programs that the NCS has certification from!), some just have years of experience, and some have both. A NCS will come in and either live with you doing 24/7 care (or less) or will live out. They are there for the baby primarily, and also to educate new parents on everything baby-related. A NCS can work alongside you, or she is fully able to work solo, based on your preferences.

Honestly, I would absolutely hate working alongside another person in the home. It would be like we were two chiefs.

However, there may be some teen-agers in the neighborhood that would like to earn some extra spending money and wouldn't have any issues w/it so you could advertise for a "Mother's Helper" position.

Doula? Night nurse? OP do you actually NEED help during the first few months? Does your husband travel a lot or work really long hours?

Anonymous wrote:If I plan on staying home for the first 3 months but will not have family help (except my husband for the first month), does it make sense to hire a nanny at the point when I deliver? How many hours would make sense? Would a lot of nanny's be frustrated working with a 'temporary stay at home mom' who will likely be frazzled from being a first time mom? How do most people tag team those first few months?

OP, as another poster said - a lot depends on you. A post-partum doula, and/or night nurse can be a huge help in the first few weeks. I highly recommend it (with or without your husband's involvement). You can schedule that as you need it and as you learn how you're doing physically, emotionally, etc...

My two cents on hiring a nanny right away would be to wait. I think (as you suspect) that a lot of nannies do not want to be home all day w/ a parent around - and I fully understand and respect that. I also think that you might need less help than you imagine during the second and third months - but the kind of help you'd most value would be overnight care so you can sleep. You would be likely to hire different people for the kind of overnight or intermittent care/support you'll want in the first couple of months than you would for the long-term after you return to work. A professional nanny who is looking for a full-time job won't want just a few hours here and there - he/she will want to start full-time right away. And the level of care you'll need once you go back to work is very different from what you'll need/want when you're home.

A lot depends on how you feel after your baby arrives of course - so try to allow yourself some flexibility and not make any major decisions until you've met your child and settled into a routine. But if you can plan/budget for a night nurse and/or post-partum doula definitely do that!

Congrats!

Anonymous wrote:If it's in the budget, hire a newborn care specialist or baby nurse (you'll need to specifically ask if she's a RN as sometime people call themselves this and have never even taken a nursing class). A qualified NCS will run about $20-$30/hr during the day- but will be worth it. A few hours every few days would probably work well so you can have some "off time". Check out let mommy sleep or hush hush little baby for local help.

A baby nurse is different from a pediatric RN. The term baby nurse has nothing to do with RNs, it's what newborn nannies were originally called.

Op, you should look into a postpartum Doula she will help with the baby but iS mostly there to support your needs. If you're going to be home, you could hire a ncs who is trying to get all her hours so that she can be certified. They need to clock in about 2000 hours for the certification, so you might be able to get someone cheaper if they are still training.

It really just depends on you. Are you the type to want someone else there teaching you how to care for the child? Or are you more eager to take it on yourself and learn as you go?
Or are you thinking just someone to spell you so you can get a nap now and then?

You might consider hiring a more frequent housekeeper or personal assistant type that would do laundry and cook meals for you instead. Then you don't have to do anything but get to know your baby and enjoy each other.
That's what I would do!

Unless you have some sort of disability or other unusual circumstances, you probably will not need to hire additional help if you will be home. Where will your husband be going after the first month, and how long will he be gone for? During the time he is home in the first month, how many hours will be around and available to help you (vs. which hours he will be at work or other obligations?)

Pp here, NCS have plenty of experience with new moms and work with them to help them adjust to thee new life.

If it's in the budget, hire a newborn care specialist or baby nurse (you'll need to specifically ask if she's a RN as sometime people call themselves this and have never even taken a nursing class). A qualified NCS will run about $20-$30/hr during the day- but will be worth it. A few hours every few days would probably work well so you can have some "off time". Check out let mommy sleep or hush hush little baby for local help.

If I plan on staying home for the first 3 months but will not have family help (except my husband for the first month), does it make sense to hire a nanny at the point when I deliver? How many hours would make sense? Would a lot of nanny's be frustrated working with a 'temporary stay at home mom' who will likely be frazzled from being a first time mom? How do most people tag team those first few months?