A Typical Night with Your NCS
A common question I’m asked is “What do you do all night?”.
It’s an important question to really understand the services you will be receiving, how your family will be supported, and how an NCS may operate. While all postpartum and newborn parents have similar needs, support for each individual family may look very different.
During a discovery call, I describe what a typical night may look like depending on a number of factors including the family’s preferred feeding goals, their expectations for overnight sleep for themselves, their education expectations, their understanding of newborn needs and development, their sleep goals for their newborn, their lifestyle, the hours of provided services, and the length of the contract.
Feeding Support and Goals
Whether a family chooses to nurse, formula-feed, pump, bottle feed, or any combination of typical feeding options, a qualified NCS can support your goals.
Nursing / Breastfeeding / Chestfeeding:
For my nursing clients, I typically bring the baby to them overnight to feed (or let them know it is time for a feed, and they come to the baby). Depending on their experience and preference, I either stay to support and educate (within my scope of practice and level of knowledge) or I will leave once feeding has begun and check on them after 10-15 minutes in the beginning, to handle burping and changing. I can help parents work through feeding positions, typical holds, evaluating latches, and understanding when their baby is full, hungry, or needs to burp. I also make sure the nursing parent has necessities like water or simple snacks available for the session. Hydration and sustenance are very important for breastfeeding/chestfeeding success!
Some parents enjoy company during their nursing sessions while others may prefer privacy. I like to support the parents however they feel would be best for them. This can be a great time for lactation support, general questions, emotional check-ins, company, or private bonding time. At the end of a nursing session, the parent can go back to sleep, and I will handle additional burping, changing, soothing, and supporting baby back to sleep.
Some families wonder if it is worth it to hire an NCS if they’ll be up for night feedings anyway. While a nursing session may only take 30 minutes (give or take), burping, changing, and soothing baby may mean being awake for an hour or an hour and a half. Not to mention how long it may take you to fall back to sleep! When a baby is feeding every 2-3 hours (or more frequently!) this cuts down on a parent’s rest time.
Bottle Feeding: Formula and Human Milk:
For bottle-fed babies, I like to prepare feeds at the beginning of or early in my shift. I handle washing and sterilizing of the bottles and prepare formula (based on formula package instructions and CDC/WHO recommendations) for the night (or 24 hours). Depending on how the human milk is stored and sourced, I will prepare the bottle feeds per CDC recommendations for the overnight feeds. This could be ensuring that pumped milk to be used during my shift or during the day is poured into the bottles and stored in the fridge properly, or pulling out frozen milk to be thawed within 12-24 hours. I educate families on proper formula/human milk storage and feeding guidelines. I also educate families on how to prepare formulas, especially batch prepping if appropriate/applicable.
For the overnight feeds, I feed baby and maintain an overnight atmosphere to continue their circadian development. And of course, feeding, changing, burping, soothing, and supporting back to sleep. Unless a feeding has ended at the end of my shift, I like to ensure all feeding supplies are cleaned and ready to be used by the end of my shift. For these feedings, I don’t wake parents, but I am, personally, happy to have them join me for bottle-feeding. I offer bottle-feeding education at the beginning of the night before parents go to bed or in the morning before departure.
Pumping:
For clients that are pumping, I also clean and sanitize their pumping parts, as well as store milk (either to freeze, to be stored in the fridge, or to be used for feeds during my shift) per CDC/ABM guidelines.
For most of my pumping clients, I ensure the pump set is ready for a session and available to them. Some parents prefer I leave the set at their door, on their nightstand, or in the kitchen – whichever is best for them. Depending on their needs, they can set an alarm to wake themselves for a pump session or I can wake them to pump. They can leave the pumped milk on their nightstand, outside their door, or in another agreed-upon location, and I will store the milk, and clean the pump parts. For clients that pump multiple times in a 24-hour period or exclusively, I always recommend more than 1 set to ensure a clean and dry set is always available.
Combination feeding:
Combination feeding is fairly common and can look different for each family depending on the reasons for combination feeding. While the reasons may vary, I still provide the services as described above and adjust the plan based on their needs.
Resources:
Sleep Expectations and Goals
Sleep is one of the most common reasons a family may hire an NCS. Both for themselves and their baby! A family’s sleep expectations will have a lot to do with their preferred feeding methods and feeding goals, their sleep goals for baby, and the length of their contract. Families need to have a good understanding of what newborn sleep looks like, what to realistically expect from their baby, and how much sleep they would realistically achieve for themselves. A newborn care specialist can educate you on realistic expectations, goals, and what length of a contract might be best suited for your family.
For families with their main goal being to rest and recover during the early postpartum stage and are not concerned about sleep development or longer-term goals like independent sleep, sleep progression, or sleeping through the night, shorter contracts can be a great option. This can include any of the feeding methods described above and still include parent education, establishing healthy sleep habits, and even developmentally appropriate sleep conditioning that could include longer overnight sleep stretches. For many of my clients in this category, 3-5 nights for 6 to 8 weeks of support is recommended.
For families with the goal of helping their baby sleep independently through the night, no matter their feeding preferences, I always recommend at least 12 to 16 weeks. It’s important for parents to remember that night wakings are very common, normal, and expected in the first year. Between feeding needs, diaper changes, developmental leaps/readiness, temperament, soothing needs, or illnesses, night wakings should be a realistic expectation. Even after a baby sleeps through the night consistently, wakings will likely happen. However, sleep conditioning and independent sleep skills can help baby and you manage these throughout the first year. Of course, typically the goal is to help baby sleep through the night which can often be achieved if baby is developmentally ready to do so. Most of my clients in this category have support 5 nights per week, for 12-16 weeks but some may even choose up to 6 months.
For families that desire, need, or want to prioritize daytime routines and awake time support, or travel care, some NCSs (including myself) will offer 24/7 support. This will often include a designated 4-6 hour rest period for the NCS during the day.
The hours of service provided may be different from NCS to NCS. For my overnight services, I typically offer 10-12 hour shifts, usually within the hours of 7 PM – 9 AM, but I will not start later than 9 PM and I won’t end a shift before 5 AM.
Parent Education
As an NCS, one of the services I provide is parent education. This may look different for every family depending on their level of experience, their parenting preferences, and the amount of time available during a shift.
Each of my clients receives resources about newborn sleep and routines, products, newborn care, and development as well as general postpartum/newborn resources. For families that want to prioritize parent education, question times, and demonstration of care, I recommend an earlier start time or a later end time when baby would be awake, or even daytime care to be included in the contract. This allows the parent to get overnight rest without interruption. But no matter the start/end time, I always make time for parent questions and education as appropriate.
Additional Services and Considerations
The services provided beyond newborn care may also vary from caregiver to caregiver. Along with general newborn care, parent education, and lactation support, I also offer additional services that can help lighten your load. Typically, newborn laundry and nursery organization/restocking can be expected. While these are responsibilities to be completed by the NCS, the baby’s needs will always come first. These responsibilities should be completed when and if possible after the baby’s needs are met, when appropriate.
When all the responsibilities of the NCS are completed, and the baby is resting, your NCS may lightly rest, read a book, take care of their personal needs such as having a snack/meal, or maybe listen to podcast/video (they should be able to listen/watch baby and do any of these without distracting from or disturbing baby/family).
These factors typically apply to all families, but the support of your family will be individualized. The needs are common, but how you are supported will be unique to your special family.
If you have additional questions or would like to learn more about how your family can be uniquely supported, please fill out the contact form!
