our nanny quit

Breezy8407 · August 2012

Our nanny started Monday full time - the week before she came for the day to shadow H to learn the routine, lay of the land, etc.

On Wednesday she called me at work around 12:30 saying DS had been screaming at the top of his lungs crying for 2 hours and she couldn't get him to stop. Of course, I think something is really wrong so I drive home quick, pick him up, and he stops within a minute. I stayed for a while and he fell asleep on me for 1/2 hour. He seemed fine after that. I couldn't see anything wrong with him, but was still worried since it's out of character for him. I think what happened was that she overfed him and he got a tummy ache. We told her that he will cry when the bottle gets taken away, but he will stop once he gets distracted and realizes he's not actually hungry anymore. That must have happened because she said she fed him 3 more ounces and he ate it all. They say a baby won't overeat, but I am not sure about this guy.

This was all a big red flag, but I kept telling myself it's only the first week and they need to learn to get to used to her and vice versa.

Yesterday I was home before taking DS to his PT appointment for torticollis. She was there and I was doing work from home in the meantime. When I went to get DS ready to leave, she told me "I don't think this is going to work out." She said it wasn't us or the babies, just that she was overwhelmed and didn't feel comfortable.

It really sucks because we felt great about her, she had nannied twins before (but have learned they were older than ours at the time and it wasn't a full time position), and she was willing to work with our schedule.

So since yesterday, I am trying to keep it together, do my crazy stressful job, and search for a day care. Oh and be a Mom to 4 month old twins.

We went and toured a center near our house last night that has openings, but it was beyond depressing. Am I expecting too much from a center? It was small, dated, and had no windows near where the infants would be. I am not sure I would send them there for free, let alone for over $300 a week per child.

I guess this is more of a vent, and I just need some encouragement. JCath's post below about being sick constantly from daycare does not make me feel any better about all this....

besu-chan · August 2012

So sorry. That sounds really stressful- sorry you're going through this! I hope you can find a good situation for your LOs soon.

Hopeful1! · August 2012

I had the same thing happen except my orginal nanny never showed up on her first day. I was out of leave and totally freaked out but after a week I found a replacement who was so much better than the first, though we did end up paying more. In the end it was worth it and a lucky break. With twins you need the right kind of person. Get on care.com or sitter city and start looking. With this economy you should be able to find someone who is competent and ready to start ASAP! Good luck!

BabyCarryingVessel · August 2012

I'm so sorry to hear this. I don't have any insight because I'm not in your shoes yet, but I wanted to say that you're not expecting too much. Your babies are going to spend a good amount of time with their nanny or in a day care, and you should be picky! I'm looking at day cares right now and it just makes me sick to think about leaving them in some of these places. I know something will come along. Hang in there.

Jen0204 · August 2012

Sorry it didn't work out

Have you looked into an in-home daycare? They're smaller then center daycares and might be more the type of atmosphere that you're looking for. It is hard to find one for twins, though, since they can only have a certain number of infants. And I agree with others - check sittercity.com and care.com. In my area center daycare is about $650-700/wk for the two of them and a nanny would have cost about $750-800/wk so it wasn't a huge difference (we could afford neither of those options, thank god we found an in-home daycare!). Good luck!

BeccaLandes · August 2012

i am sorry that the nanny didn't work out, we have also had a lot of trouble with childcare.

i know our friends found a great nanny for their twins through sittercity (i think) or an agency. they had to pay a fee, but i think it was totally worth it for the kind of loving and personal care they got.

i am getting ready to send my boys to preschool next week and i am having a hard time with it even now, i can't imagine putting my itty bitty infants into daycare!

Breezy8407 · August 2012

Thank you all for your support. We originally found her and a few others we liked on care.com, so I can re-post my ad. It took a lot of time to find people and then interview, so I think we will need to find something in the interim before we have time to do that - if we still want a nanny that is.

I've already had some offers for temporary help, so that is nice. We are touring two places tonight after work. One is actually a referral, so that is nice for a change as well.

Thanks for letting me vent! As George Costanza would say, serenity now!

keg · August 2012

(((Hugs))) Figuring out the childcare thing sucks. We were initially going to go with a nanny and we found one we liked, but she completely flaked out on us. I had previously looked at a daycare, and while it was a really nice facility, it just didn't seem right. (Not to mention we would have to somehow fill a 2+ month gap between when I started back to work and when they would accept kids.) I really wasn't into the whole daycare thing. However, friends told us about a place and I basically called just to get DH off my back. Amazingly enough they had two infant slots which is almost unheard of. We visited, and while physically it wasn't nearly as nice as the previous daycare, it just felt right. And DDs are still loving it 3+ years later!

Oh, and if makes you feel any better, I can probably count the number of days I've been out of work with sick kids on one hand in those 3 years. Sure, they've had lots of sniffles, but very little that's really slowed them down. Good luck!

Want a personalized experience?

our nanny quit

Re: our nanny quit

Choose Another Board

Search Boards