Victoria Smith was the maternity nurse to my son from the time he was 2 months until he was 7 months old. She was with us from October 2013 until April 2014.
It is hard to put in one page just how remarkable Victoria is, but I am going to try.

Victoria started with us after we had gone through a few maternity nurses, which was a very stressful time. From the first day she walked in I felt at ease, and confident that she was our answer! I am quite a demanding and detail oriented mom, and I have to say Victoria has more than exceeded my expectations on every front. Within one week of her start date, my husband and I went off for a weekend together leaving Victoria and the baby alone at home, which for me was unheard of. I am a total paranoid mom but I was at complete ease with her as she is caring, careful and safety conscious. She is firm but very accommodating, she is very experienced and extremely knowledgeable about all things baby but also very willing to do things my way. She has an excellent demeanor, is very professional but also very loving and warm toward our boy. She is very discreet and easy to have in the house, big or small. She is extremely adaptable and can handle any situation she is put in. We have done a lot of travel with Victoria and it was always very easy and seamless. She has worked 3 weeks straight without taking a day off on our travels and never complained, was always upbeat, cheerful and energetic. She is very hard working and has great work ethic. My son loves her, and his face always lights up and he bursts into laughter when she comes in the room. She is exceptionally great at entertaining babies, is a lot of fun and I haven’t seen a baby that doesn’t respond well to her. But on top of all those great personality traits, she is one of the very few true professionals in this field (and I have seen many!). She really knows her stuff, and is amazing at sleep training. I am proud to say I have a baby that never cried, slept exactly as he was expected to and slept through the night at 4 months, 7pm-7am. She is excellent at routine, putting baby to sleep if he is upset and wakes, getting him off jet lag, all while being not too strict and inflexible. She has also been tremendous support to me as my friend, my sister, my breastfeeding specialist, my juicer, my nurse, and the list goes on.

For the last few months I have been looking for a nanny, and have interviewed a lot. I have had trouble finding someone who I thought was good enough to replace Victoria. We have offered her the job but she loves babies! During this time she has been relentless and enormous help in trying to find a nanny for us. She really went above and beyond, every day going through CVs, interviewing, all while full time taking care of our son. I am really forever grateful to her for that. On top of spearheading the search, she keeps extending her days with us so that she doesn’t leave us in the lurch even at the cost of having no break between this job and the next.

My son and Victoria have become best friends and it breaks our heart to see Victoria go. My consolation is having another child so I can bring her back!