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** Note this article was written several months ago. **
The first few months of Sophie's life were really tough for us - she wasn't sleeping, we weren't sleeping, and sleep is important! So, with Maggie's arrival, we knew that we couldn't just hope for the best as
far as sleep went. We were going to need help. Since both our families live hundreds of miles away, we would have to "outsource" it.
Betsy took the initiative, and found two nurses who could stay overnight and take care of Maggie. How? Did she use an outside service, one that prescreened candidates and made sure they were worthy of the job? No....she went through craigslist, that earthy-cunchy classified ads website better known for listing broken toasters and counterfeit Red Sox Tickets.
She waded through the responses and found someone who also had a friend who needed some extra hours. I don't know how Betsy did it, but we got really lucky with Marianna and Lesley. They take great care of Maggie and Sophie, and give us the chance to get a full nights sleep two (or three) times per week. They're not just night nurses, not just babysitters....I guess they're special members of Team Patrick working on Operation Maggs.
The best thing I have been able to do over the last several weeks is pop some Ambienand turn off the monitor, knowing that we have lefty Maggie in skilled hands. Marianna and Lesley are helpful not just at night, but also during the day. I suspect that they like taking care of Sophie, since it gives them an excuse to go on the boat into town and walk through Fanueil Hall.
To give you an idea of how much a party of
our family they have become, they were the only two non-family member invited to Maggie's baptism. In addition, before one of Lesley's dates, she had the guy pick her up at our house - we had the opportunity to meet him before her own parents did. It was also a good chance for me to work on my "bad-boy sense" to weed out the rotten ones. I think I still need to work on it, since I didn't pick up any bad vibes with this one.
If you are looking for a night nurse, here are a few suggestions -
- Craigslist (as I mentioned above) - The downside is you have to wade through a lot of not so qualified people (we got a lot of non-english speakers).
- Sites like Sitter City - They have a form which sitters/nannies/night nurses fill out so you can narrow down your choices.
- Your personal network - Our night nurses went on to work for other people who used them after getting a recommendation from us.
The challenge is to set a time limit - we knew that we needed the help, but couldn't continue to afford it for more than a few months. Paying someone while you sleep isn't cheap!
** Addendum: We finished up with our night nurses about two months later (once Maggie was sleeping more than 3 hours at a time), and are still extremely glad we did it! **
(April 2006) (
