I am a mummy of twin boys who delivered in mid March, hereby like to share my experience of hiring confinement lady, Auntie Lilian.
Before we confirmed on our CL, the main criteria is to be able to take care of 2 babies and mother at the same time, which Aunty Lilian claimed she can and have many experience handling twins.
I have to admit that 1st week I was quite impressed with her, partly cos I didn’t know CL actually cover so much work! Apart from taking care of babies and me, prepare confinement food, she also cook for my hubby and family members who dropped by to visit me at least once a week. Other than cooking, she also covered almost all housework, laundry, cleaning toilets, kitchen etc…and lastly bathed and massage for me! Have to credit her performance esp for e 1st week, cos night feeding for twins really not easy. But now come back to think again, her “good performance” during e 1st week may also because my mother was staying with me and Auntie Lilian know that my mum was supervising her.
Anyway, Auntie Lilian’s “battery” seems to drop after 1st week and when my maid arrived. Before we confirmed her, I actually wanted to bargain her fees as we would be hiring maid to help her and also learn from her. As she said she would help us to train our maid, we agreed not to lower her price. But after maid arrived, which we tot her workload could be shared and expected her to focus more on taking care of e twins, we actually found out that she started to slack….1 very good example, my twins are actually non-identical, my maid could differentiate them within a week, but Aunty Lilian until the day she left us, she could still recognize them wrongly, even have to ask my maid which baby is which! And there were even few times we caught her fed the wrong baby and dozing off when feeding the babies middle of the night. Few days before she left, she fed wrong baby again, that was when I finally burst out and questioned her if she really take care of twins before, she actually told me that twins she took care were all 1 boy 1 gal and mine are twin boys……………shouldn’t she take effort to recognize the babies no matter they are boys or gals?
There are also some of her logics which turn us off, 1 of my babies seem to have phlegm when we started to switch him to half formula milk. Aunty Lilian claimed that phlegm was partly caused by the formula milk which she said was too “thick” for e baby, so she insisted to put less powder to dilute the milk. My hubby and I actually have question abt this as it make our baby cried for milk less than 3 hrs, after raised up the question to her for a few times, Aunty Lilian said she leave e decision to us BUT started to scare us how baby would throw up and choked at middle of the night if formula milk never diluted, end up we gave in….
1 of my babies is on full breastmilk while the other we alternate with formula, so I have to pump every 2-3 hrs to maintain the supply (that baby not good at latch on) and also let another baby to latch on to stimulate after I pump. Sometimes when babies were still awake or crying at night, Aunty Lilian would push to ask me to let e baby latch on in order to put him to sleep, even they were just fed less than an hr ago! If she is going to ask me to breastfeed them everytime they are awake or crying, what for she keep a record of their feeding time and amt and asked the maid to follow? And talking abt the “record” she has been keeping since day 1, my maid revealed to me after Aunty Lilian left that as hubby and I had been questioning her abt feeding babies less than 3 hours, Aunty Lilian actually changed e record and lied to us!!!
Hubby and I are considered as “qin cai ” or rather lenient as we would just let e CL do things her own way, no matter what she cook or what she eat, as long as it is right. We understand that taking care of twins is tiring, so often I would not ask CL or maid to do anything for me in afternoon and let them to take nap and rest, so they won’t be too tired for night feeding. But since we are paying Aunty Lilian more for twins, at least basic standard have to meet and make sure she deserves the pay. But from her performance after week 1, my hubby and I really feel that we overpaid her, esp the part which she cannot recognize the babies is really ridiculous! And also, her working ethics is horrible when she overfed the babies in order for herself to rest at night! My PD actually commented feeding amount for my 2 boys are abit too much, now we are trying to adjust it back, hopefully not too late…=(
Hereby just like to share our experience with all the mummies or anyone who is looking for CL, do be alert and firm when choosing and dealing with CL
Before we confirmed on our CL, the main criteria is to be able to take care of 2 babies and mother at the same time, which Aunty Lilian claimed she can and have many experience handling twins.
I have to admit that 1st week I was quite impressed with her, partly cos I didn’t know CL actually cover so much work! Apart from taking care of babies and me, prepare confinement food, she also cook for my hubby and family members who dropped by to visit me at least once a week. Other than cooking, she also covered almost all housework, laundry, cleaning toilets, kitchen etc…and lastly bathed and massage for me! Have to credit her performance esp for e 1st week, cos night feeding for twins really not easy. But now come back to think again, her “good performance” during e 1st week may also because my mother was staying with me and Auntie Lilian know that my mum was supervising her.
Anyway, Auntie Lilian’s “battery” seems to drop after 1st week and when my maid arrived. Before we confirmed her, I actually wanted to bargain her fees as we would be hiring maid to help her and also learn from her. As she said she would help us to train our maid, we agreed not to lower her price. But after maid arrived, which we tot her workload could be shared and expected her to focus more on taking care of e twins, we actually found out that she started to slack….1 very good example, my twins are actually non-identical, my maid could differentiate them within a week, but Aunty Lilian until the day she left us, she could still recognize them wrongly, even have to ask my maid which baby is which! And there were even few times we caught her fed the wrong baby and dozing off when feeding the babies middle of the night. Few days before she left, she fed wrong baby again, that was when I finally burst out and questioned her if she really take care of twins before, she actually told me that twins she took care were all 1 boy 1 gal and mine are twin boys……………shouldn’t she take effort to recognize the babies no matter they are boys or gals?
There are also some of her logics which turn us off, 1 of my babies seem to have phlegm when we started to switch him to half formula milk. Aunty Lilian claimed that phlegm was partly caused by the formula milk which she said was too “thick” for e baby, so she insisted to put less powder to dilute the milk. My hubby and I actually have question abt this as it make our baby cried for milk less than 3 hrs, after raised up the question to her for a few times, Aunty Lilian said she leave e decision to us BUT started to scare us how baby would throw up and choked at middle of the night if formula milk never diluted, end up we gave in….
1 of my babies is on full breastmilk while the other we alternate with formula, so I have to pump every 2-3 hrs to maintain the supply (that baby not good at latch on) and also let another baby to latch on to stimulate after I pump. Sometimes when babies were still awake or crying at night, Aunty Lilian would push to ask me to let e baby latch on in order to put him to sleep, even they were just fed less than an hr ago! If she is going to ask me to breastfeed them everytime they are awake or crying, what for she keep a record of their feeding time and amt and asked the maid to follow? And talking abt the “record” she has been keeping since day 1, my maid revealed to me after Aunty Lilian left that as hubby and I had been questioning her abt feeding babies less than 3 hours, Aunty Lilian actually changed e record and lied to us!!!
Hubby and I are considered as “qin cai ” or rather lenient as we would just let e CL do things her own way, no matter what she cook or what she eat, as long as it is right. We understand that taking care of twins is tiring, so often I would not ask CL or maid to do anything for me in afternoon and let them to take nap and rest, so they won’t be too tired for night feeding. But since we are paying Aunty Lilian more for twins, at least basic standard have to meet and make sure she deserves the pay. But from her performance after week 1, my hubby and I really feel that we overpaid her, esp the part which she cannot recognize the babies is really ridiculous! And also, her working ethics is horrible when she overfed the babies in order for herself to rest at night! My PD actually commented feeding amount for my 2 boys are abit too much, now we are trying to adjust it back, hopefully not too late…=(
Hereby just like to share our experience with all the mummies or anyone who is looking for CL, do be alert and firm when choosing and dealing with CL