Triplet Moms

mbjmaybebaby

Are you working?

How do you do it? Daycare?

DH and I are both teachers so not working isn't an option.  I am just trying to get some sort of a plan in mind.  My mom is going part-time next year so she will be able to watch them part of the week (do you think she can do it alone?)

What is the "going rate" for a nanny to come in a couple days a week?  Is it by kid?

I am clueless

Thanks!!

pea-kay

I work FT. Like you, we have no choice.

The boys go to daycare. We were very very lucky to find a place we like that is affordable. A nanny would have cost us twice as much, but in some areas, a nanny is more economical for three kids. You just have to find out what daycare costs are in your area. And how much nannies cost. 

Au pairs are also an option, but you have to have room in your house for them to live.

One person can do it alone, but only you know if your mom can.

Does your school (or your husband's) offer Flexible Spending Accounts? I put $5000 a year (that's the max) into my Dependent Care account, so that helps (it's tax-free.) Plus, the tax credits we get for having three kids helps too. 

mbjmaybebaby

pea-kay:

One person can do it alone, but only you know if your mom can.

Does your school (or your husband's) offer Flexible Spending Accounts? I put $5000 a year (that's the max) into my Dependent Care account, so that helps (it's tax-free.) Plus, the tax credits we get for having three kids helps too. 

I think my mom could handle it.

We do have FSA but it's limited to $2500/year.  I guess we can each put the max amount in and have that money.  

I plan to go back to work in January so I would need care for them for about 5 months until school is out and then by the time we go back in August they should be a little easier.

Thanks for the info...btw I love your latest blog entry pics.

pea-kay

mbjmaybebaby:

pea-kay:

One person can do it alone, but only you know if your mom can.

Does your school (or your husband's) offer Flexible Spending Accounts? I put $5000 a year (that's the max) into my Dependent Care account, so that helps (it's tax-free.) Plus, the tax credits we get for having three kids helps too. 

I think my mom could handle it.

We do have FSA but it's limited to $2500/year.  I guess we can each put the max amount in and have that money.  

I plan to go back to work in January so I would need care for them for about 5 months until school is out and then by the time we go back in August they should be a little easier.

Thanks for the info...btw I love your latest blog entry pics.

yeah, the $5k i can put in is only about a third of what we pay, but better than nothing!

thanks for the comments on my blog, btw.

PianoPlayingSarah

I work FT and my mom watches my girls.  She mainly watches them by herself but I was out of work until they were 15 months old.  Triplets at 15 months are a lot different than infants.  We've been lucky in that my SIL was out of school for the summer and helped out and my niece has been able to come over and help out for a few hours here and there.

We also have other family members that stop by for visits - which allows my mom some time to run errands, etc.

There was a poll up on tripletconnection last year maybe regarding the going rate for triplet nannies.  Maybe if you do a search there, you could find it. 

 

mbjmaybebaby

PianoPlayingSarah:

There was a poll up on tripletconnection last year maybe regarding the going rate for triplet nannies.  Maybe if you do a search there, you could find it. 

Thanks, I will try searching for it.

ecleptic

I help out with SILs triplets (+1- thier 4 month younger cousin) 1 day a week 12 hours. Every other week I do it solo.

Family members can tend to be a little flaky long term. The trips grandparents handle Fridays- they're all retired and committed to doing at least every other week (changing up which couple is watching them) but after 5-6 months they started begging off and they're a lot more spotty. I'm very reliable, but I'm also being paid. As much as I adore the quartet- and I do- 12 hours of baby wrangling is exhausting and everyone seems to be comfortable with me being paid. It's a job. They're wonderful babies but they are work.

All this is prefaced by: I am not a nanny. If you acquire a nanny, they will probably have much more experience and will be able to handle more and more quickly than I (Never been a mom) did. Also- these triplets were preemies which mostly meant dealing with more reflux and needing to spend time with each to work on catching up to their actual age.

I didn't feel comfortable handling 3 solo (at least for more than an hour or three- all of this is in context of parents leaving at 9 and returning at 9) until they started spacing bottles by about 3 hours and at that point, the 4th didn't really make much of a difference. When the bottles are every 2 hours and they take half an hour or more to eat, then it's pretty much always bottle making, bottle feeding or bottle washing time (unless it's diaper changing time) and having even one of them have a bad reflux day meant that at the end of 12 hours I was covered in spit up and nearly in tears myself after listening to babies cry all day without being able to spend the necessary time soothing one without another one going off. Having two sets of hands even for a portion of the day meant that someone could feed while someone else was making sure that the others had tummy time and a little bit of non-food interaction- and you could spot each other long enough to go to the bathroom or eat a sandwich.

Once they spaced bottles to about 3 hours and they started taking more reliable (although usually short) naps there were finally enough breaks between bottles to handle the necessary interactions- tummy time, soothing, rocking, cuddling. I still spent a lot of time rocking one in a swing with one foot, feeding one while the last was sleeping on me- but the multitasking got a little easier.

Your mom could probably do it solo for a while. I'm not sure how long your work days are or how long you'll have before you go back to work. Just my point of view as a non-MoM family member who watches multiples. I try not to reply over here unless it's directly related to my situation though.

mbjmaybebaby

ecleptic-thank you for your insight, I appreciate it.

lnle

M -

I will be going back to work part-time in July.  My mom will be watching them. She has been helping me every day since they were born and is getting the hang of it. None of us has had the babies alone all day yet, so we don't know what that is like, but we can handle them for half days. So my plan is to work half days as much as possible so my mom doesn't get too burned out.