Philosophy
At Nanny for Newborns, we believe that newborn care specialists offer an invaluable service to new parents. We not only offer our years of experience and our expertise, but we can offer time-tested advice and education to parents of newborns as well. Our focus is to reassure you as new parents and make your transition to parenthood relaxed and enjoyable. Nobody will ever parent your child as well as you will, and we want to help get you off to a good start.
What Lisa enjoys most about working as a newborn care specialist is two-faceted. First, she truly enjoys the day-to-day work of caring for a newborn and watching him grow and mature. Second, she loves being able to relieve the stress you feel as a new parent by offering her capable, loving hands for your baby and gentle guidance for you. Lisa likes seeing new parents who are rested, relaxed, and enjoying their new babies. It is our feeling that a good newborn care specialist will teach by example while always making herself available to take over when the parents are ready for a break.
Nanny for Newborns makes it our top priority to gently transition your baby onto a schedule that fits into your family, and to lovingly guide him to sleep through the night. We firmly believe in the use of pacifiers, as newborns are born with a strong sucking reflex, and indeed, this is a need for them. However, we discourage overuse of pacifiers and using them as a crutch to soothe a baby to sleep. As much as we love rocking babies, it is our philosophy that babies should be laid down when they are awake but drowsy and that it is best for them to learn to fall asleep without external sleep props. This will help to avoid sleep problems later on.
We realize that one of the most frustrating things about being a new parent is learning to differentiate all of your baby's cries: hungry, wet, overtired, lonely, fussy, sick, etc. As a professional who has cared for newborns for over 20 years, Lisa has learned to distinguish between those cries. Therefore, she invented what she refers to as "the one-minute method," which involves listening to a baby's cries for one minute per week of age before responding so that she can determine what his needs are likely to be. It has been Lisa's experience that many of the "cries" that babies make are simply noises and that they are many times self-soothed within that one-minute time frame. A self-soothed baby makes a very happy parent!
At Nanny for Newborns, we have found that newborn respond well to being fed every three hours. We strongly believe in swaddling, especially during the first weeks, as this recreates the peaceful feeling your baby had in the womb, a feeling of warmth and comfort.
In the past, the "baby nurses" of old often disappeared into the nursery with your baby and discouraged your presence there. We encourage and welcome new parents to work alongside us so that we can gently guide you as you learn the intricacies of caring for your new little one.
