To Nanny or Not To Nanny

Sunning Nelly while she was jaundiced

Those of you who know me knew what a hard time I had making a decision on whether or not to have a nanny help me out in my first month.

I went from wondering if I could do it because I did it on my own with Nate and was feeling great even though my body had just gone through some major changes - to wondering if I should give in to having some proper rest seeing that I am 5 years older than when I had Nate.

My advise is: listen to your body.

Those of you who are pregnant now and are wondering if its a necessity, I say, if you feel great and you have family support and wanna give it a go on your own, DO IT.

Every mother should experience it if you can - the pains and sleepless nights, however if you do feel extremely tired or are having a c-section birth, it will be of great advantage to have a nanny around.

These ladies, (mind you: if you get a good reliable one) are godsend.

They handle babies all the time, you can put your mind to rest and just well, rest.

This time round, I had wanted to get one but luck was not on my side and I got well _ cheated.

She never showed up and I had given her a deposit.

We got over that and decided that I should just do it myself.

But i swung from heaven to hell in my health and moods and I should have followed my instincts about this second birth and needing help and found another nanny earlier.

But I was held back by feeling like I had to do it myself... because every woman did it herself - in my grandmother's time.

But hey. That was my grandmothers time.

After 2 weeks of self care, I realized that it wasn't working for me this time.

Having to deal with mastitis, breast abscess, fever and a needle sticking up my boob and the guilt of ignoring my first born and well, barely being able to hold myself upright because of all of the above, I found a good nanny from a friend.

The next 10 days (she was here for just a short while to pick me up), I spent recovering.

It was much needed.

So much so that when she left, I cried. Because I was hormonal, and secondly, she came at the time when I was at my lowest and picked me right up.. She also treated me like her own daughter so I got emotionally attached but most importantly, by the time she had left, she had set a routine for me to pick up on for Nelly..She at that point made me feel confident to have another baby right there and then.. crazy right?..

Another thing to note is that confinement nannies not only take care of babies, they take really good care of recovering mothers as well.... She was motherly to the max.

I was up and running about in no time.

So if you are going through that same mind dingdonging process now, ask yourself if you can cope - or if not, if you can afford it, get a good recommendation or get a nanny from those agencies which you can find on the websites.

There are two that I know of but you need to book early.

I can't garuntee you get a good nanny but that's all up to our personal luck.

GPLS services and PEM confinement services.

Go look it up.