Nannies-El Salvador, Trinidad, Jamaica-who is raising your children.

    This is a huge subject-who is raising your children?  I interviewed a young woman, Monique, actually she's 34, for the nanny position with the twins.  We met at Cafe Peddlar for the interview, which  Jordan had asked me to do.  Jordan now goes into work and gets home at 7pm. It's a long, hard day.  If she takes one baby in, she comes home at 7 and gets to nurse and feed them both before bedtime, which is around 7:30.
     One thing I have learned with all of the visits with Jordan's friends is how frustrated everyone is about family, work, love, etc.  Jordan told me how Sarah, her friend from high school who is an attorney, used to cry when she would leave her daughters.  She would go into the bathroom and pump her milk and cry.  When the girls got older and she went to school events and other mothers would talk about play dates, etc., she would be jealous.  No matter what Sarah did, she was frustrated.  She flew out to NY from San Francisco when Jordan had the twins, and stayed for 3 days.  We had a great time.
     But now we have had 6 or so different women, including "Nanny nurses" and "Adoulas"  watching them and Jordan wants to find a nanny. A "nanny nurse" charges $20 an hour, and does nothing except take care of the babies.  So like today, Judie, who is a baby nurse from Jamaica, just watched Tess and did nothing other than feed her and play with her and clean her bottles for $200, no taxes, for 10 hours.  There was a night outfit that had poop on it and she didn't wash it out.  She also left the baby on my bed where she could have rolled off.  I found myself getting frustrated.  But Jordan told me she couldn't ask her to do things that were not in her original contract-but she would talk to her about leaving the baby unattended.  Then you have to have a cleaning person, etc. 
     When the babies were born one usually gets a "baby nurse " or Adoula.  A baby nurse takes care of just the babies, but an "Adoula" is there to not just take care of the babies, but to help and nurture the mother.  Jordan had an Adoula for a few days, her name was Kate, she was a college graduate and an artist.  She charged $35 an hour, and would spend the night and watch both babies.  I don't think Jordan paid her 35, maybe 30 an hour.  She would get Jordan a cup of tea in the morning, some toast, and try to make things easy for her.  Jordan was going through 300-400 a day for help. It's all pretty crazy.
     But back to finding a nanny-not a baby nurse.  Jordan needs a full time nanny who can work up to 10 hours a day, and really be a part of her family.  I meet Monique at Cafe Peddlar, she is waiting outside.  I get us hot chocolate and we have a chat.