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I would suggest waiting to book one until your baby is born. You can find out prices now and network. In Texas (MCOL) rates were $30-40 per hour with a minimum 8 hour shift. To me that’s ridiculous as their primary task was to take care of baby. if you have a great sleeper, then the nurse maybe has 3 hours of “work” total all night. If you have a horrible sleeper, a baby who won’t sleep unless held, baby with bad reflux, baby with tongue tie who does not transfer milk quickly etc. then a night nurse could be worth it.
I was going to book one for my second child ahead of time, but I’m so glad I didn’t because he’s a great, predictable sleeper. He still ate every 3 hours at night during the first 6 weeks so I had to be up anyways to nurse him to keep my milk supply aligned to his needs. He’d eat and then go right back to sleep. Easy. It would have been a waste of $$ to have a night nanny for me.
I can’t help in regards to night nurse prices etc but I can tell you my experience..I have 2. Pumped with first and BF exclusively with 2nd. Never had a night nurse but I would’ve benefited IMMENSELY had I hired one for my second. My first was an amazing sleeper by 2 months. Second born has never been a good sleeper(2.5 now) . I guess evaluate the Need and how much you’re sleeping. Some of my friends have had great sleepers with being BF &/or pumped by 2 months.
Congrats! I’m due in a few weeks with my second, live in a HCOL area, and am definitely getting night time help for the first few weeks even if it costs me a premium. $40 hr sounds steep though. Perhaps it’s an actual night nurse through an agency. I’m interviewing doula services who also support moms post-partum. Typically they bring the baby to mom for feeding, if you plan to nurse, bring you water, snacks, change/burp/swaddle and tuck in the baby after feeds, wash pumping parts if you pump after feeds, do laundry and dishes. They help introduce healthy sleeping habits, but that starts later. The first few weeks are an insane cycle of cluster feeds, diaper changes, burping and rocking the baby to sleep every 1-3 hrs. Then just when you think you’ve got it, sleep regressions start.
Start with the doula agencies to get an idea of the scope of help and costs.
$40 sounds steep, I was hoping to be around the $30 range! That’s what I have seen so far on the websites. It honestly sounds SUPER nice to have that help. Especially as a small business owner who has 0 days maternity leave
In HCOL, it was 250 for 8 hrs. We could not get the night nurse because COVID baby and we were super cautious (January baby before COVID vaccines arrived) but really it helps a lot. They not only help with feeding baby etc but also can help with bathing, educating mom with breastfeeding, sleep train (not the full blown but regulate the eating-sleeping pattern and routine building) etc. We had planned for 3 nights a week for first 4 week but our night nurse tested positive 3 days before her start so we pretty much threw the idea out of the window
Are you planning for formula or nursing? I would think that makes a difference bc with nursing you’re up anyway.
I would ideally like to nurse at least for the first month or two but I’m not set on any certain way — whatever works best for baby and me! My friend nurses but pumps and her husband does bottle feedings so I was hoping I could do some of that for the night nurse but it’s so hard to know how easy or difficult it will be for me to breast feed.