Nannies and Assistive Devices OH MY!

Well, it has come time for me to return to work. After my one year maternity leave and two month leave of absence I will be returning to work in January. With a return to work comes the thought of who will be taking care of Piper and Fynch when I go back. When my son was small we decided to put him into daycare. He thrived in this environment and we are so glad that we made that choice for him. With Piper it’s different. After tossing around a few scenarios we’ve come to the conclusion that a nanny will be most appropriate for her. As well the nanny can go pick Fynch up from school at the end of the day.

Now begins the search for a nanny. I’ve posted an ad on a nanny website and had loads of applications. When I responded back to the applicants only a handful got back to me. I’ve spoken with a few of them on the phone and will start interviewing within the next couple of weeks. It’s so hard to imagine leaving Piper with somebody I don’t really know, but I know I have to do it. I will update everyone on how the search is going over the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck!

On another note we’re starting to look at some assistive devices for Piper. I registered Piper for Easter Seals Canada and they will help out with some of the cost of assistive devices. In Canada this is how it works...75% of the cost of the device is covered by the government and the rest of the 25% is up to you to cover. Now you can see if your insurance company will cover the rest of the cost OR you can apply to charities to see if they will help out. These devices cost thousands of dollars so the cost can really add up. I think right now with our insurance and the Easter Seals we’ll be okay for now, but we haven’t really gotten our feet wet quite yet!

The first device we looked at was a bath seat for Piper. Since she can’t sit up on her own we are currently using a small angled netted bath seat. This allows her to lay down in the bath at an angle, but really the seat is made for newborns and Piper is getting way too tall for it. The seat that we would get is a full mesh chair that will sit in the bath and support her full body. We will be able to angle it more so she can sit up and maybe play for a bit in the bath. As well it’s not as low as the contraption we have now so this will make it easier for us to lift her out of the bathtub! I’ve included a picture at the bottom. Next we’ll be looking into foot braces and possibly a stander to help get her up in a prone position.

With all this stuff it’s still so confusing. Again I never thought I’d be looking for stuff like this for my little girl but I’m coming to grips with it (I think). So many things to think of!! Today we are off to our first visit to a speech pathologist. This should be interesting...