Daycare/Nanny Interviews, ? Help ( long)

mspatche

HI ladies,

At the end of February I am going back to work. So the girls will need to go to Daycare or have a Nanny 2 days a week.

I am in the process of interviewing Nanny's and haven't found one that is the right fit. ( two were unemployed and just looking for a job, not truly interested in working with kids, they just didn't have other employment opportunities. They came right out and told me this....)

 So I decided to start looking at daycares in the area.

Question: We currently feed our twins on the same schedule. If I am alone, I feed one baby 2 ounces , then the other or I feed them using the boppies. Usually they are ready to eat at the same time, if not we'll wake the sleeping twin. Two of the centers we interviewed to date said they will not wake a sleeping baby. This is causing me great concern...have any of you dealt with this issue?

 Also at the daycare they need to be in separate cribs, which I understand, and eventually we'll separate them at home as well.

 Are their other questions/concerns I should have for the daycare interviews that are specific to twins? we are touring a few places next week.

Thx for reading all this, and for any advice!

Thx

Maggie

hopeful34

I just went to a daycare yesterday and i left there in tears. Mine are only going 1 day. It reminded me of an orphanage.  I would love to have someone come in our home but i think i'm leaning more towards the in-home daycares.

BUT if you are doing a center they should be doing whatever schedule you have for the babies. The daycare i went to yesterday will do ours to a T. I never thought of asking about if they'd be in sep cribs because ours are already in sep cribs.

I'll be interested in hearing what the responses are to this post

Oh one question i didn't ask is if they make you wear booties in the infant room. They don't because i had my shoes on. I don't want my babies crawling on the floor that everyone has walked on as everything will go into their mouths. To me this was important not specific to twins tho. GL!

monkski

I don't have any advice regarding the daycares, but I have to say that I love having a nanny. She does whatever we ask her to and sticks to my schedule. It's also great not to have to cart them off in the morning and get them ready. I think that when they are a little older, we'll do daycare, but while they are just babies, this is working out great for us.  I found when I was interviewing, that once I made my Ad more specific, stating exactly what I was looking for, I got much more qualified candidates. How are you going about your search (what service are you using)? We used Care.com

ebrooke

monkski:

I don't have any advice regarding the daycares, but I have to say that I love having a nanny. She does whatever we ask her to and sticks to my schedule. It's also great not to have to cart them off in the morning and get them ready. I think that when they are a little older, we'll do daycare, but while they are just babies, this is working out great for us.  I found when I was interviewing, that once I made my Ad more specific, stating exactly what I was looking for, I got much more qualified candidates. How are you going about your search (what service are you using)? We used Care.com

Ditto this. Of course, even with a very specific ad we still had people respond (I think they responded without reading it). We got a ton of responses, did phone interviews to shorten the list, and met with a top few face-to-face. If you go this route, I suggest asking scenario questions that have little to do with taking care of your little ones to get an idea for the kind of person they are. Our first nanny was a hot mess of a human being but was great with the kids. We interviewed very differently the second time around and couldn't be happier. Good luck!

 

 

mspatche

thanks ladies, we are using care.com as well. Maybe I am giving up on the nanny route a little too quick! I will tighten up our ad and hopefully we'll get some better responses.

 

thanks for the advice and for listening:)

Hunter22

I have no clue about twins in daycare (yet!) but our son is in a fantastic daycare and we definitely had to conform to some of their rules. Now, he was 1 when he went in (so I am not entirely familiar with their infant plan) but they don't give them bottles (he was still on bottles), he napped twice a day they only did one and a few other differences. To be honest, I found that the daycare knew more about the milestones and when to expect certain things from our son than I did as a first time mom and was glad for their expertise. In the end, they have my son on more of a schedule that I could have provided. Also, we had him at a in home daycare before that and he completely flourished once he got in daycare.It could be his age too.

Now, not every daycare is as good as ours but what I am saying is there are reasons they do what they do and their whole way of doing things is by getting the children on a schedule. That being said, if you got a bad vibe than let your instincts take over.

mrs.grunder22

I'm really not needed on this site since I dont have any children of my own but I got bored on the other boards and came here. I worked in a day care for a year and now currently a nanny/babysitter depending how you look at it for twin 1 year olds. Been their almost a year. I also am a Early Childhood Education major so I took the jobs cause I LOVE kids not so much me needing a job. But at the day care we didn't have to many sets of twins, like none that I can think of right now. But I know if they wont let them sleep in the same crib it is because State wont allow it and if they would come in for an inspection and see that the day care could be in trouble. Most day cares though if you ask them to wake the baby up to feed them at exact times they shouldn't have a problem with it. The day care I worked at tried for the most part to stick to parents schedules if they had a certain one scheduled out. If not they did feedings I think every 3 or 4 hours or something like that I dont remember now. And they chart everything on a paper that they give you at the end of the day. Not sure how the ones you looked at are though. But I also know depending on the room and how many teachers their are they can have so many kids and if all the kids need feedings at about the same time it gets very hard to get them all fed right when needed but most teachers try their best.

As for nanny job, I love it. I go to the families house and watch the babies. Sometime their older siblings. I help out whenever needed, sometimes one or both of the parents are their but they are doing work, or outside work and its just nice having someone their so they can get stuff done uninteruppted. Right now I am doing morning hours so the mom doesnt have to wake them up in the morning and take them with her when she takes the older girls to school then she heads off to work. She not to strict on schedules they have estimated times they do things so it a pretty set schedule but she doesnt mind if one of them sleeps past feeding they just eat a little later. If your wanting your children to get full attention and feedings at exact time. I would look for a sitter who cares for few children so they more flexible on things like that.