Hi, my name is Annemarie and I am the Client Services director for Night Nannies.
I use this blog as a way to give you tips and idea's in all areas of childcare and development.
Posted 01 October 11
My mini twin raptor and separation anxiety
We have now reached that time in a baby's development where they start to realise that their Mummy is no longer physically attached to them. My daughter has started to become very upset and almost angry when I leave the room and if someone else tries to hold her. Unfortunately sometimes I do need extra help with a fantastic Nanny or family member as I have to work. My son, my daughters twin brother has not reached this milestone yet and is happy to just play and enjoy a new face.
I posed the question to my Facebook Mummy friends who have daughters, "Did your daughters have tantrums from an early age?" The response was astounding. I who have 3 boys now have only ever seen the male behaviour a parenting perspective which was passive and calm and none of my boys really had any tantrums or terrible 2's. My 8yo on the other hand seems to be going thru a tween stage.. but thats a whole other blog. So now my 7mth old daughter seems to be showing small signs that if she doesnt get her way.. e.g a toy or I dont pick her up upon demand she then clenches her fists, makes an angry little groaning sound and her face goes red before she starts to cry. She has also become a mini raptor. Her nails (cough) claws which arent actually long suddenly come out of nowehere and watch out skin. She will pinch and clench and basically rip at your skin. Poor Daddy recently had his face clawed and was made to bleed.
So I have vowed that I really need to spend some intensive one on two time with my twins when Im not working to try and ease through the separation anxiety time.
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Posted 01 October 11
Travelling with twins - by my friend Virginia who is also a Twin Mummy.
After our first adventure as a family I thought I would share with others what I wish I had known before I set off on a 35+ hour plane trip with twins.
Please note, you need a sense of humour. Without it, I would not bother. Things are going to go wrong. You need to be able to roll with the punches and laugh in the face of climaxing chaos.
CARGO PANTS : Do not underestimate how useful pockets are. Dummies, nappies, wipes and toys can all be shoved into them to be within reach for the walks up aisles or nappy changes!
PRAMS VS CARRIERS : Taking carriers was for us the best choice. Yours hands were free, your kids were safe and comforted and happy to be most places as long as they could touch their parents. Prams would be better for kids 1yr+ but for bubs I would use a carrier any day. You have to take them off for most xrays but the staff are normally more than happy to help. Some airlines will also let you use them in place of a seatbelt for the infants which to me is a much safer option. Infant seatbelts are about as useful as holding them down with a headband. Settling bubs with a carrier up the aisles left your hands free in case of turbulence. We ended up taking at least one carrier on most outings when we got to our destination even tho we had a twin pram. Italy is most definitely not pram friendly.
NAPPY BAG : You can take one x kid as long as it only holds nappies and formula. Not once were ours checked or weighed. Have it extremely organised and it will make your life so easy even when the plane lights are switched off. Have any liquids and food in a bag inside the bag, that way at checkpoints you can easily get all the liquids for them to be checked. The moment the seatbelt lights are switched off have an airline staff get it down for you and leave it between your feet.
TOYS : are your friend. Keep the kids amused. Sing them songs, give them things to play with, specially on takeoffs and landings when they get bored of being seated and with the discomfort of a seatbelt. At a pinch, the safety guide in planes will keep them amused and makes a nice noise for them to whack at. The people sitting near you will become your kids favourite new toys. We didn’t have a single person NOT want to make a fool of themselves to amuse our kids and a few thanked us for making their flight go quickly.
JETLAG : On our way into Europe, with all the short flights and airports, the kids had a “day” routine happening, short sleeps, with action in between, landing at 7pm them made it perfectly for us to get to where we needed to go and get them to bed for their night sleep in their new time zone and barely no jetlag. Coming back we had a 10 hour flight and landed in early morning and the babies were all over the place and confused.
THE BOTTLES : This is what worked for us… I know others did differently, but eh. We took 3 bottles per kid but in reality 2 would have sufficed. After use we washed in the toilet to get the bulk of gunk out then got the airline hosts to wash out with boiling water. Im sure just giving it to them would be fine but with thickener and tricky bottles I preferred to do the initial wash myself. Nearly every airport we went to had boiling or really hot water in the parents room as well.
THE GREAT FORMULA DEBARCLE: We took a mixture of powder and liquid. We did not have a problem at any airport apart from London which made us taste half of the liquids. Obviously that makes it need to be drunk asap. Just take more than you need and if you need to throw half out than so be it. On the way back different staff were too busy playing with the twins to care. You can buy it from Boots pharmacies at London, but they have weird brands. For the powder we used the hot water on the plane. This is EXTREMELY HOT and on the way there we made them pour the water in bottles and let them cool for an hour before adding powder… on the way back we made them put in half the water we needed, added the formula then topped up with ready to drink formula to cool it down. They told me most people used the planes cold water, but I had no idea where it came from so didn’t trust it.
INFANT FOOD : We booked it for all flights and were shafted on most accounts. Don’t know if this was Qantarse or just the flights.. only one had ample baby food, on all others our kids wouldn’t have had enough to eat had I not taken some baby food with me. Some flights also supply you baby juice to try and help keep kids hydrated.
THE BEDS : You are not guaranteed a bed and they have to go by the amount of oxygen masks in rows.. The beds have a 12 kilo weight limit and I would estimate about an 80 cm length. They have a bevel on them so they can actually hold a few bits and pieces and came in very handy even when the kids were not sleeping, they played in them sometimes and were handy to just plonk them in when we needed toilet breaks etc. You have extra leg room with them and room for your nappy bag in front of you.
ADULT MEALS : We got ours sent one at a time so one could hold a baby whilst the other baby slept and one person could eat then we swapped. We didn’t bother with hot drinks as we found it too dangerous.
All in all… we had no trouble with people complaining about the babies crying… we found that planes are so noisy that you get to a few aisles away and you really cant hear it… in fact when the kids were in their beds we often didn’t hear them wake up. The only times they really cried was if they were uncomfortable. They loved being constantly cuddled and having parents dote on them for such long periods of time! Get a couple of extra pillows so you can use them to prop bubs up in your own seat so you can stretch your back. Picnic blanket with plastic backing for airports gives bubs something to play on without germs. The entertainment on planes is more than enough for the little free time you will have so don’t bother packing something for yourself. You should be boarded on first. Saline drops as their little noses can dry out. We didn’t have a problem with their ears.. dummy sucking was sufficient. Plastic bags for the huge amounts of rubbish you will end up with. Wipes… lots of wipes granted I have two happy chuckers , but we went through ahuge amount of wipes.
Lastly a comforter item for the bubs so they always have something familiar. For one of ours we used their fav blanket, the other the same songs they listen to each night on iphone.
Posted 05 October 11
Sleep Guidance and Breastfeeding Guide Course for Nannies
The dates will be Sat 12th and Sun 13th November
Costs: Sleep Guidance - $100 (9.30am-3.30pm) includes manual and practical components plus Certificate Breastfeeding Guide for Nannies - $80 (3 hours) includes handouts and Certificate Dunstan Baby Language -$60 (2 hours) includes manual and DVD plus Certificate
Early Bird – date: 14/10/2011 (Sleep Guidance & Dunstan) = $150 (Sleep Guidance, Dunstan & Breastfeeding) = $210
Location: Hornsby
Posted 26 October 11
Melbourne cup Babysitters and Spring Carnival Nannies
Melbourne cup is just around the corner, are you planning on having a day or night at the races? Why not plan a fun afternoon out with your partner and have one of our professional Nannies look after the children?
Rates are from: $20 per hour after 6pm or $22 per hour during the day.
Call us on 1300791663 or inquire by emailing: info@nightnannies.com.au