Thursday

Advice...

I am a part of a share and one of my infants demands a lot of my attention. I've tried slowly weaning him away from needing constant physical touch but feel there's more I could do to help this transition. Please share any advice you may have. It's difficult for me at times to meet the needs of the other infant when baby #1 cries at the top of his lungs. He's not old enough to cry it out and sometimes I feel like the neighbors must think I'm awful.

4 comments:

Miss B said...

I'm a part of a nanny share. I started when one of my babies was 2 months old (LJ) and the other was 4 months (T). I remember LJ would screamed not stop for two to four hours everyday! The house I'm most frequently at have neighbors less than 9 feet away I could've sworn that they could hear it. They probably couldn't but it was still stressful since she was sooo loud!!

I really wouldn't call it "cry it out" if you're right there, he's completely fine- maybe being a little loud- and you just can't hold him at the moment. If I had held LJ all that time just so she wouldn't cry T would never have gotten fed, changed, cuddled or played with. She needed love, toys, books, and cuddles, too. Also the bottles wouldn't have gotten washed, no laundry would've been done, I wouldn't have been able to eat or potty. You just can't hold or be expected to hold the baby all the time. It's not fair to the other baby. My MBs knew that and were fine. All you can do is be there with the needy baby and show him that you're there for him and will make sure he's fed, changed, healthy, clean, loved and if all that is met then you can tend to the other baby guilt free.

I know the sound, the screams and it's tough. When the other baby is playing and doesn't need you right then reassure the needy one that you're there. They do grow out of it- I just signed my contract renewal after a year and it does get better! Good luck!

Bar Bados said...

Having children cry it out is barbaric! Children cry. Comfort the child. Make sure the other nanny is also comforting the child. It is horrifying to me that a mother would pay a nanny to care for their child and let the child cry it out.

Wednesday said...

What other Nanny? A Nanny share is when two families share a Nanny.. Not when a family has two nannies. She can't always comfort the child when there is another child to care for.

Anonymous said...

Bar Bados is stupid