Our Services
Newborn Care
Whether this is your first or fifth baby, as a newborn care specialist, Nikki can support your family during this transitional phase. Typically support begins when baby arrives home after birth or just after a home birth.
Nikki provides whole newborn care overnight or during the day. All newborn care will include attending to their basic needs such as changing, bottle feeding/bringing to the nursing parent, and soothing/comforting throughout the night. It also includes baby-related responsibilities like washing baby laundry, washing and sanitizing bottles/pump parts, and preparing bottles for the day as appropriate. Further duties include maintaining a well-stocked and organized nursery as appropriate. She keeps a detailed log so you know exactly how their shift has gone and what baby’s needs will be. Overnight you can expect her to provide developmentally appropriate sleep support and encourage healthy sleep habits. During the day, she maintains a developmentally appropriate routine, engaging and educational play, and healthy sleep habits for naps.
Nikki’s goal is to provide parents with peace of mind throughout the night by building their trust. She believes in building a relationship with the whole family to help each member thrive during this period.
Contracts typically range from 12-16 weeks, 4-5 nights a week, around 10 - 12 hours per night. However, she does provide shorter or longer contracts depending on the family’s needs and her availability. Travel and 24/7 care are dependent on her availability.
Rates for services begin at $35/hour depending on the number of babies requiring care and the extent of services needed.
Parent Education
One of Nikki’s favorite parts of being an NCS is helping parents understand their babies and their potential! Her goal is to help parents to feel confident in their parenting abilities.
Nikki provides parents with routines and resources at the beginning of her contracts to help prepare parents for what to expect. At the beginning of her shifts or in the morning before leaving, she sets aside time to answer any questions and teach parents any newborn care practices such as paced-bottle feeding, safe swaddling, bathing, formula preparation, appropriate breastmilk storage and handling, gas relief exercises and even playtime ideas!
All questions are valid and she provides parents with additional resources that they can reference if needed.
While parent education is included during her shifts at no additional service cost, parent education classes may be taken independently. Independent classes within the client’s home begin at $200 for 1-2 hours. If multiple families wish to take the class within one client’s house, a discounted course may be available.
Nursery Consulting
Whether you’ve completely planned out the nursery or have no clue where to start, Nikki can help!
All of her clients receive a list of product suggestions from nursery furniture, to diapering, to feeding and more! Beyond the nursery list, Nikki can also help if you aren’t sure how to lay out and organize your nursery. She also has training in eco-friendly and non-toxic alternatives.
While she has her favorites, she doesn’t believe all products will work for each family. She encourages families to ask what products would best suit their space, lifestyle, and needs.
Feeding
As an NCS, Nikki has education and experience in lactation support, human-milk storage & handling, and formula expertise.
Whether you have a feeding goal in mind or not, she can support you through breast/chest-feeding, pumping, or formula-feeding through encouragement, education, and guidance.
She also has additional experience with reflux, oral ties, food intolerances/allergies, and common feeding challenges such as immature oral muscles that may affect feeding abilities.
Her goal is a well-nourished baby and parents who feel secure in their feeding choice and journey.
Establishing Routines
Babies don’t come into the world with individual manuals, and resources online can be overwhelming. Nikki prepares parents for realistic expectations of what babies day and night may look like, how we can support them, and how to meet the needs of the whole family too through routines.
Each client will receive developmentally appropriate routines that can be used as a guide. But as each child is an individual, so will be their routine! Nikki helps develop routines that meet baby and family where they are to meet the needs of the whole family and achieve their goals!
One of the many goals families have is to maximize rest for everyone. During the newborn stage, an NCS can support baby overnight to ensure well-rested parents and baby while also guiding them through the many routines that develop during this phase which help support baby’s sleep development.
Multiples
Twins, triplets, and more! Nikki adores multiples and finds them to be double (or triple, or quadruple) the fun!
They are exciting but come with their own sets of new challenges for families. She can help parents with nursery layouts, products, feeding, sleeping, and routines all specific to multiples.
Want to learn more?
If you’re interested in learning more about how I can support your family, send me an email below!