Six weeks without a yaya. It was kind of insane. I was so exhausted. I broke down a couple of times.
Life went on: work, sleep, feed, cook, lather, rinse, repeat. All the while, we were frantically looking for a new nanny.
Then Analyn came to us.
She was recommended by our cleaning lady, Ana. Analyn was working for her sister in Batangas, but she wanted a change of pace. We interviewed her, and she seemed OK. But she couldn’t come to us until her replacement arrived, and that took a while. I figured we would keep looking while waiting.
Eventually, Analyn said her replacement had arrived, and they were done training, so she could finally come over. And she did. With her son, Rex!
We were a little confused. Was her son going to stay with her? Would she bring him to her mother’s house nearby? How was she going to take care of Lucas? Would she stay in, or go home every night? We weren’t quite sure what to do.
It was a Wednesday when Analyn and Rex arrived. Thursday was a hectic day. I had to go to the office for a meeting. Lucas had a pedia appointment. Dad probably had golf. Oneal took the day off, and went to the pedia appointment, with Lucas, Analyn and Rex in tow. He had to teach her about diapering, feeding, logging everything in a notebook, naps, laundry, while Rex played with Lucas and tried to get his mother’s attention.
Analyn seemed to be a good yaya, but how was she going to take care of Lucas while Rex was there? I wanted to be supportive, and give the situation a chance, but the truth was Lucas was an infant, and he would need her full attention. I didn’t want to say it, but we felt it would be better if Rex stayed with his grandmother, and Analyn went to see him on weekends.
Fortunately, she came to this realization on her own. By Friday, she told me and Oneal that she couldn’t possibly focus on Lucas while Rex was in the house. She would take him to her mother’s house. Then, for a week, she would go home every night to help him adjust to his new living situation, and to see if it was more feasible than staying over during weekdays.
We were so relieved that Analyn thought of this solution on her own. It seemed like a good sign. 
Leave a Reply