Interviewing nannies

My adorable angles are 21 days old now. So far my MIL has been helping out. She is going to stay for another month before going back to Israel. So I'm starting to look for a part time nanny. I need someone to care for the babies for about 20-25 hrs/wk so that I could continue with my music teaching and that will allow me to drive my older kids around for thier after school actvities.
I posted an ad on craigslist and received whole bunch of e-mails. So I'm starting to interview nannies and wondering what should I ask??

 

Hi. - I haven't done this yet, but I can post the list of questions that my local parents of multiples group sent out. I will try to dig it up.

 

I would first make sure that they have newborn experience. Ask what types of activities they will do with your LO, how they put them to sleep, making bottles, feeding. I would get checkable references too. Our Nanny had newborn experience, and it's great because she does stuff with our boys that we would never think to do. She is also good about giving them tummy time and other activities - not just holding them! I think that's important. I hope this helps...

 

Hi,

We've just went through an extensive nanny search. We used a website called Care.com to post our position. It cost $30 for one month. Care.com will perform a basic background check on a nanny for free which we felt was important. They also allow other mommies to rate their caregivers which was interesting information.

What we learned through the process was that before actually interviewing them, if their backgrounds seem like a good fit, then 1) ask and check thier references; and 2) confirm their rates. There were some that were just way more money than we could afford to pay so it really was a waste of everyone's time.

As far as what to ask, you ask the basic questions about experience with twins, more than one child, etc, certifications (CPR), education, etc, why leaving current role, why did you get into this profession, have you ever had an emergency, what do you like about nannying...but more importantly I think its about how they interact with your twins when you interview them. We had nannies come over that didn't even look at them or ask to hold them. The one nanny that we choose got on the floor with them (they were only 3 months), changed them, snuggled them and we just let her interact with them just to see how comfortable she was and the boys. It was so telling to us. She's been a wonderful nanny!

 

We went through this right around Christmastime - I'll dig up my list of questions when I get home tonight and post them. But, I was very interested in knowing what her experience was with multiple infants - esp. if she had experience outside of a daycare center. (It's one thing to have taken care of multiple kids in a daycare setting where you have backup if you need to go to the bathroom or something - but different when you are the only caretaker around.) I also wanted to know about her thoughts regarding sleep training and discipline - you want to find someone who is aligned with your perspective, and willing to carry through whatever routine you are trying to establish.

ETA: When we started looking, I posted an ad on care.com and got a zillion responses - many of which did not even meeting my minimum criteria that I spelled out in my ad. I interviewed a couple of people from there, but didn't quite find someone I loved. I then went over to sittercity.com and rather than posting an ad, I read through a lot of profiles and contacted people directly. I found that to be a lot easier process and was eventually how we found the person we hired.