nannies and 2nd DC questions

vicachka7

I'm pregnant with our second and am wondering how much of a raise I should offer my nanny once the second arrives and I go back to work?  

Also, for those with a nanny, did you keep her same hours while you were on maternity leave with the second?  What did you have her do while you were home?  Did you focus on the baby and let her watch the toddler or both?

Thanks!

mae0111

We gave our nanny a 20% raise when we had DD2. She came through my entire maternity leave. She kept DD1 on a regular schedule, and it allowed me to crawl back into bed for an hour or 2 after a bad night with DD2. Totally kept my sanity. I also planned a few special outings with DD1 when I was feeling up to it. I had a particularly bad time healing after DD1, and I wanted to really take it easy after having DD2. The nanny made that possible. I would have pushed myself too hard to keep up with DD1 if I didn't have our nanny there. Good luck!

LauraChicago

We increased our nanny's rate from 10 an hour to 13 an hour when dd2 was born.

I didn't have her come at all when I was on leave. She is college aged so she just picked up more hours at her retail job. I took a long leave with both kids so it would have been really expensive to have a nanny while I was still home.

After the first week I felt great (exhausted but otherwise great) so we just went about our day like I was a temporary stay at home mom.