Nanny/Housekeeper Help Prior to Twins' Arrival

shanaynerz · January 2014

For those who had an older child prior to having your multiples, did you find doing things with your older child and/or doing things around the house were very difficult? I'm only 15 weeks, but I've been exhausted after doing little things, like going to the grocery store. I run one errand and need to come home and sit down for awhile. My OB wasn't concerned yet, per se, but she did say I need to listen to my body and just stop; however, with my 15 month old DD to deal with, I can't just stop.

We were planning on hiring a nanny to come help prior to the twins being born so that I can get a break with DD and even cleaning a bit. I read in a book (When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads) that with twins you really need to just slow down. Did anyone else find they needed some help while pregnant with multiples? And did you keep a nanny around after the babies arrived? I'm anxious a bit due to my previous twin loss, and want to do whatever I can to keep these babies cooking a long time. I hope I've made sense. I found it hard to word everything haha. TIA!

LittleLady77 · January 2014

I don't have a little one at home yet but we are currently interviewing nannies now. My goal is to have someone hired by mid-Feb. we will have them come for a few hours to help with cleaning before the babies arrive (really to just get comfortable with us and the house). We will be keeping the nanny through my entire Mat leave on a part time basis.

JessaPrimate · January 2014

I am 13 weeks and have a 14 month old. H does great with N, but I am planning on paying someone to do some housekeeping when I get further along.

katieg314 · January 2014

I am a FTM, but at 32 weeks I would really struggle if I had more kids. It's so hard to do anything. If it's doable, I would think having help after 28-30 weeks would be amazing.

MrsP419 · January 2014

I wish I could afford to hire the help now. DD is 3 (almost 4) and DS just turned 2, and doing anything with them is just plain exhausting. DS is particularly hard because he still needs to be carried across parking lots and still hates getting strapped into his carseat sometimes. My mom will have off work the whole summer and will be around a lot to help when the babies are born, but I am kind of on my own until then. I have a lot of help from DH in the evenings/weekends, and I sometimes have a mother's helper for 2-3 hours a week/sometimes get a bit of a break from a friend at church, but I am starting to think I will need to figure something out more regularly...

Olive44 · January 2014

I'm 22 weeks and have a 20 month old DD. I hired a part time nanny 2 weeks ago to help me with her in the mornings. The nanny comes every day from 9-1, and then I'm on my own with my DD during the afternoon after her nap. It has been such a big help.

LucyRicardo3 · January 2014

I hired cleaning help that came about every other week or so around my 15th week with the twins.
We were in a split level house at the time where laundry room and playroom were downstairs and bedrooms, living rooms, baths, and kitchen were upstairs. There was no way on earth I could lift the vacuum (ended up actually buying a light weight cheap one so I had one on both floors), clean bathrooms, dust, knock down cobwebs, etc.. She sometimes had her grandson with her that was a little older than my DD1 and they would have a little playdate so it was a win-win. Other times I would schedule her visits around my dr's appointments so I was out of her way and I'd come home to a clean house and could put my feet up and cuddle with DD1.

sarah_beth2005 · January 2014

I'm 19wk2d with twins (no other kids). Cleaning has gotten extremely difficult just in the past week or two - mostly because I've noticed that al the bending really hurts my back, my feet swell even more being up and about while I clean, and the vacuum has started to hurt my back, too. Housecleaning has always been 100% my responsibility, and on occasion DH will vacuum the bedrooms after I dust, but it's not a priority for him (I hate dirt, it stresses me out!), so it doesn't get done when I ask (and often not until days later, which does no good since the dust has resettled by then!). I'm looking into housekeepers, even though DH insists that we don't need one. I'm to the point that I want to know that twice a month someone will come in and just clean the whole house, and if we have time/energy to clean a toilet or run a vacuum in between, then great, but if we don't, it's not the end of the world and we won't be living in filth. It's worth the money to me not to have to worry about it. And quite honestly, once the babies get here, I know I'll have even less energy for cleaning, and I'd rather be sleeping when I have any free time.

babywillmake3 · January 2014

I have a 2.5 year old boy and this is my 2nd pregnancy. I have had to get help a couple times so far with cleaning. My DH is amazing and does 90% of the housework and cooking but I can't even keep up on the 10% that I wanted to do just to help. The cleaning lady has come twice and has helped catch us up on deep cleaning and laundry. She is a godsend.

Wishing35 · February 2014

I didn't need help but I did slow down a lot! Like one thing a day became my goal and I napped a lot. One thing you can do is use a grocery delivery service like pea pod. As far as cleaning and getting the baby things ready I would do as much as you can early on before it gets harder.

shanaynerz · February 2014

Thanks for all the advice everyone. There's an agency a family member used that I called and it's cheaper to use a live-in nanny apparently, so we were debating doing that. It just feels weird to me to have someone living here! I feel like I can do some things sometimes, but other days I'm useless. DH thinks we may as well get a live-in so I have as much help as possible and they would be helpful when the babies get here. Also, getting a part-time nanny can be more difficult apparently, and can't transition to full-time, so I'm just confused now about what I really need/want now. And by the time we get someone, I'll probably be a bit further along even, and someone will definitely be more helpful!

NBA0703 · February 2014

I was just talking to my husband about having someone come twice a month to do deep cleaning. I am just exhausted after working 12 hour shifts and trying to do laundry, dishes, and grocery shopping... I just want to cry sometimes when I push myself to get stuff done and I am hurting like crazy!

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