Hi Rain,
Just to share.. We too started looking around when nearing the end of my 1st trimester. Although we never wanted one, we eventually decided that getting a maid was a better option.
Our considerations:
- No need to rush to fetch/send baby. (If i'm not mistaken, ntuc infantcare is from 7am - 7pm.)
- Baby sleeps/wakes when he wants. We don't have to bundle him up to drop him off at infant care.
- Having loads of kids at one place increases the chances of them catching illnesses.. Hand Foot Mouth (HFMD) etc..
- Didn't quite like the look/feel of the infant care "specialists" there. - can't explain but just don't feel comfortable.
- Maid concentrates on ONE baby (OURS) only.
- Can specify to maid exactly how you want your baby taken care of when you're not around.
- We normally handover baby (and maid) to mom whenever she's home.. so she's almost always supervised.
- Maid helps to do household chores when we're looking after baby.
- Infantcare: $800+ (if i rem correctly) , Maid + levy: $490
Since both hubby and me work on shifts, our arrangement is as such:
- Maid sleeps in bb's room. We have an intercom next to bb's cot with receiver on my bedside table. So if bb wakes, i wake, maid wake.
- When we up in the morning and not leaving for work yet, maid does household chores (sweep floor, laundry etc).
- When i go work, maid look after baby ONLY. Not allowed to do anything else. Baby sleep, maid allowed to sleep/rest.
- If i not working, she spend most of the time with chores while i look after baby. After chores (we specify that max we let her do chores is 2-3pm only), she given alone time to rest/sleep. After that, we look after bb together. Again if bb slp and nothing to do, she can rest.
Some people say we're not getting our money's worth by letting maid rest so much but we see it differently. Our priority is our son and his care. Thankfully, so far (our bb is 7m), everything is working out well. We're even praying for no.2 while she's still with us..
Sorry for the long post but just wanted to share our considerations.. Good luck finding something you and your husband are comfortable with!