We get it. Everyone told you to sleep when the baby sleeps, and nobody mentioned that the washing, the visitors and your own three year old would have other plans. Hiring a nanny for a newborn is one of the least talked about forms of family support in Australia, partly because so many parents assume it is only for people with staff and a second house. It is not. For plenty of Gold Coast families it is a handful of hours a week that makes the difference between coping and drowning.

Here is what that support actually looks like across the first year, and how it changes as your baby grows.

What a nanny for a newborn actually does

The picture most parents have in their head is someone taking the baby away so the parents can rest. That happens, but it is only one version. In practice, newborn support falls into three broad shapes and most families move between them.

Holding the baby so you can be a person again

Your nanny takes the baby for two or three hours while you shower properly, sleep without one ear open, or sit down to a meal you did not eat standing up. If you are breastfeeding, this works around feeds rather than against them. You feed, you hand over, you rest.

Holding everything else so you can hold the baby

Just as often, parents want the opposite. You keep the baby, and your nanny handles the bottles, the steriliser, the endless washing, the lunch, the pram that will not fold. This version suits parents who do not want to be separated from a very new baby but are quietly buried under the logistics.

Keeping the older children afloat

If you already have children, this is often the most valuable form of all. Your nanny does the school run, the park trip and the afternoon meltdown while you and the baby stay home. Older siblings get proper attention from an adult with energy, which does more for the family mood than almost anything else.

Most newborn families do not need someone to take over. They need one more capable adult in the house for a few hours, doing whichever job the parents cannot get to that day.

The first twelve weeks: survival, not routine

Nothing is predictable yet, so support in this window should be flexible rather than scheduled to the minute. Families commonly book two sessions a week and use them very differently depending on how the nights went.

Useful things to ask your nanny to cover in this stage include settling and resettling the baby, preparing and freezing simple meals, running loads of washing through, changing the cot linen, restocking the change table, and simply being the adult who answers the door so you do not have to.

What a nanny should never do is make you feel judged. If your house is a mess and you are in the same clothes as yesterday, that is the entirely normal fourth trimester. A good carer walks in, gets on with it, and says nothing about the dishes.

Getting your home ready for a nanny

None of this needs to be perfect, and nobody expects a showhome. A few small things simply make the first visit smoother for everyone.

  • Walk the rooms your nanny will use. Nappy bin within reach, cords tucked away, the wobbly gate latched, the heater that gets too hot switched off at the wall.
  • Leave the practical notes somewhere visible. Feed times, how much milk, which room the baby sleeps in, where the spare dummies live, and your mobile number in case you are napping.
  • Say what matters to you. Whether you want the baby held to sleep, whether you use white noise, whether the older one is allowed a biscuit before dinner. House rules are yours to set.
  • Point out the boring but essential. Where the fuse box is, where the spare linen lives, how the front gate opens, and which neighbour has a key.
  • Do not tidy first. Truly. Your nanny would far rather arrive to a real house and get useful.

Three to six months: routines start to stick

Once your baby’s days develop some shape, the support shifts. This is when many parents move from ad hoc help to a regular weekly booking, because a consistent carer can now genuinely reinforce a routine rather than improvise around it.

At this stage your nanny can take over a full nap cycle, run the bath and bedtime while you deal with older children, manage bottle feeds and start solids preparation, and take the baby out so you get a quiet house. Consistency matters more than hours here. One reliable four hour block every Tuesday beats twelve scattered hours you cannot plan around.

If you are weighing whether you want a regular nanny or occasional babysitting, our post on the difference between a nanny and a babysitter lays out which suits which situation.

Six to twelve months: mobility, and going back to work

Crawling changes everything. Suddenly you need eyes on the baby constantly, exactly when many parents are also preparing to return to work.

This is the most common moment families move to ongoing nannying. A nanny who has known your baby since the newborn weeks already understands their cues, which removes almost all of the settling in stress that comes with a brand new carer at ten months. Your child keeps their own cot, their own routine and their own home while you return to work.

We wrote a full guide on that transition in returning to work after maternity leave, including how to structure the first fortnight so it is gentle on everyone.

What our newborn carers already bring

Newborn work is genuinely specialised, and it is the part of care we are strictest about. So before any carer is introduced to your family, we have already done the work.

  • They are screened by us first. Every carer goes through our full screening before they ever meet a family, and only around the top 20 per cent of applicants make it through.
  • Current First Aid and CPR, including infant CPR. Infant technique is different from adult technique, so current infant CPR is something we require and hold on file for every newborn placement.
  • A valid Working with Children Check. That is a Blue Card here in Queensland, and we hold and monitor it on file.
  • References already spoken to. We call them ourselves, we ask the awkward questions, and we listen to the pauses.
  • Real newborn experience. We match newborn families with carers who have genuinely lived those first weeks with other families, not simply people who love babies.
  • Safe sleep and feeding knowledge. Our newborn carers understand safe sleep practice, and they work around a breastfeeding mother’s supply and timing rather than over the top of it.

Because our carers are our employees rather than contractors, we carry the insurance, the training and the accountability. The family never has to chase paperwork or file certificates. We match on warmth and temperament just as carefully as we screen on qualifications, because the carer who calms a room at three in the morning is the one a newborn family actually needs. By the time your carer walks through the door, all of it is already handled.

You can see exactly what our screening involves on our screening process page, and our nannying service page covers how ongoing bookings work.

What it costs

Ongoing nannying in Queensland starts at $56 per hour for one or two children, GST inclusive, with a $500 non refundable recruitment fee at the start of a placement and a minimum of ten hours a week. Casual babysitting starts at the same $56 per hour with a three hour minimum, which suits families who only want occasional support in the early months.

Every rate we quote is GST inclusive, and a 2% service fee applies to every booking. Full rates for every service, including weekend rates and larger sibling groups, are on our pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Is it too early to book a nanny before the baby arrives?

Not at all, and it is usually easier. Arranging care while you are still pregnant means you meet your carer while you still have the energy to sit down properly with a cup of tea, rather than trying to organise it on four hours of broken sleep.

Will a nanny undermine my parenting choices?

They should never try to. Our carers follow the parents’ approach to feeding, sleep and settling, and offer their experience only when it is asked for. If a carer is pushing their own method, tell us early and we will sort it out. Fit is our job, not yours.

Can a nanny help overnight?

Yes. Overnight babysitting runs from 7pm to 7am and is billed per night rather than hourly, starting at $275 for one child. Some families use a single overnight booking a fortnight purely to bank one full night of sleep, which is often enough to reset everything.

How many hours do most newborn families book?

Somewhere between six and twelve hours a week is typical in the early months, usually split across two or three visits. Families with older children tend to sit at the higher end because the school run alone eats a chunk of it.

Let us lighten the load

The first year with a baby is meant to be hard, but it is not meant to be done alone. A few hours of the right support each week gives you back the parts of yourself that get lost in the fog, and gives your baby a calm, consistent extra adult who knows them well. All the checking, calling and paperwork sits with us, so you can simply focus on your child.

If you would like to talk through what would help most in your house, contact us for a no pressure conversation, or book now when you are ready to start.