By Lucy Boulton
Recently had a baby or found out you are expecting? Or perhaps you’re just curious as to what happens after birth and how you will manage, not to mention the endless stream of advice you will receive (welcome or not!).
It’s an incredible time, yet easy to feel overwhelmed and confused.
Come on in, Alexa aka The London Baby Coach.
Having been amongst and cared for many babies during my Nanny career, I know how much it meant to the parents to have me there to lean on, offer advice too and be of general assistance in those precious early days.
That was me as a new-born nanny, yet the adaptation Alexa has made for this type of service is just fantastic!
She’s breaking it down and diving head first into every single part of baby life that you could possibly want to know!
From groups with your friends, to online and in person sessions, Alexa has picked up and fully launched her idea into an industry that can at times be very volatile and subject to mixed messages and judgement.
She’s positive, highly experienced and ready to help any new parents out there that need her.
Talk us through the process that brought about the creation of The London Baby coach and enabled you to blend together your skills and love of working with children?
Having been a night nanny for 4 years I learnt a lot during that time about how babies sleep, especially during the night, but mainly the correlation between a good day routine and a better night’s sleep. I often guided those I night nannied for on their day routine and a lot of the feedback I received was how I had supported their babies sleeping through the night with this help so I thought to myself how could I help parents get the same results without needing to get in a night nanny? From this, The London Baby Coach was born providing help in routine setting and sleep problem solving!
What would you say has been a major career highlight for you?
It's hard to pick one as I feel I've had so many, but aside from starting TLBC one that sticks in my mind was getting my first nanny job. I had worked my way through college and worked in a nursery gaining my recommended 3 years’ experience with the goal in mind of being a nanny. As soon as I got those 3 years, I went for my first interview and got my first sole charge nanny position looking after 3 children under 5 years of age and that felt like a real proud moment for me.
Top 3 most common struggles for new parents?
1- The problem I get most contacted for is how to get a baby into an age appropriate routine. There's certainly lots of information out there but many are unsure of how to implement these themselves.
2- How to teach a baby to self-settle, this comes with sleep training and again not being overly confident in carrying out themselves, parents reach out for my help and I find this tends to tie in with sleep regressions.
3- I feel sad to say this but other parents. I find a lot of parents struggle with the opinion of what fellow parents are doing or what that person's baby is doing, so inevitably a lot of comparison goes on. The areas this applies to most is sleep training and choice of feeding between breast and bottle. I find it hard to hear some of the stories parents confide in me because it would be lovely for people to bring up their babies without judgement.
Out of all your services, which is your favourite to offer?
I have recently begun to deliver workshops and I find those really fun!
It's great to be able to give multiple parents the tools they need to begin implementing a routine or the know how to begin weaning. It's a great opportunity for them to ask questions but also meet new parents and I think they're just great feel good activities.
Helping to raise babies and support parents aside, what motivates you and what practise do you implement into your lifestyle daily?
I'm huge on female empowerment and helping to raise awareness of female issues.
Probably why I feel really passionate about the judgement mums often feel. I'm also really into better practice of cutting down on waste and reusing plastic or how to dispose of it without it going in landfill. Both of these I like to blog and create videos on too.
