I'm a bit overdue for a family update.... apologies in advance for the length of this post.
We have a Nanny now, as we were not able to find an au pair candidate that we liked and that we thought could handle the craziness that is our life. The current plan is for the Nanny to work for us through the summer, until we find our next au pair (since most Germans/European au pair candidates are on a summer cycle).
My family has been convinced that we will love the Nanny option and won't go back to having an au pair. There are definitely some pros to this arrangement, especially knowing that the babies are with someone very experienced that won't get overwhelmed. It's nice to get a bedroom of our house back, and the firm 7am start time helps Adam & I get off to work early.
Some of the Cons: Cost! This is more than double the cost of an au pair. And, less schedule flexibility - "K" works 7am-4pm. She will stay an hour longer if we need her to, but no date nights, Saturday AM hours, etc. I had a company report earnings earlier this week an hour earlier than usual. the Nanny had just left and Adam wasn't due home from work for another hour --- this is how I got work done -- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We would have never let Oliver watch TV at this age, but I didn't really have any other options.
We had really hoped that the Nanny would sweep in and restore some order in our house - get the babies napping, eating solids... I don't know what else, but that it would feel transformative. I wanted a "where have you been all our life" feeling, though I knew we were asking for a lot. I joke with Adam that we need Jana to come back. When she came to rescue us in between Katharina and Pauline, I felt like she was a German-Supernanny swoping in to get Oliver back on track. K is nice, but there's something I can't put my finger on that I'm not a fan of. It's only week 2, so maybe I'll feel better as we get to know one another better.
Post-vacation has felt a lot like New Years around here. We didn't want to tinker with any routines before going on vacation, since we had an overwhelmed au pair on her way out, and didn't want Papa & Margit stuck with babies working on something new. So, since we are back, we've started the babies on two solid-food "meals" a day, and have been trying, unsuccesfully, to tinker with their evening/nap routines. We want Oliver potty trained and want to be better about having a dinner plan.
Two weeks in and we haven't had much success with the babies. Lukas will still only eat foods that have been blended with apples and/or bananas. By this age with Oliver, we could throw some puffs on the highchair and keep him entertained while we prepared dinner, but the twins still have too much of a gag reflex to swallow any puffs. This week I bought some biscotti, and they have enjoyed gnawing on that.
The babies are still only sleep 12.5hrs in a 24hr window (they "should" be sleeping 14+hrs/daily). We tried cutting out the late afternoon nap and putting them to bed early (6pm instead of 7pm) in hopes of improving their sleep schedule (I keep reading that while it is counter-intuitive, an early bedtime could make them sleep longer) -- in our house, it doesn't work. The only difference has been that instead of sleeping until 6am, they have been getting us up at 5am. It's been brutal. They get so exhausted and overtired that they are unpleasant and difficult pretty much the entire time we spend with them each evening. Yesterday, I was so besides myself waiting for Adam to come home that I stuck them in the bathtub, even though it wasn't bathnight, because they love the tub and it was the only thing I could think of to keep the entertained/happy.
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