Alex and Nicole

Alex Keisner

You could say that Alex Keisner began Sleeping Babies more by accident than by design. During her twenties, Alex’s career took her into the heady world of organising international corporate events. However after her marriage and the birth of two children, she realised her work and family demands were at odds when she was sitting in a client’s empty limousine expressing breast milk, which was then taken by motorcycle courier to her baby boy for his afternoon feed.

This was the moment when Alex decided it was time stop trying to do it all and seek a different career that was more compatible with bringing up a young family.

Alex had booked a live in maternity nurse to help her through the first few weeks after the birth of her first child and although she found this to be very helpful, especially after an emergency C-section, she found the support of the night nurse following the birth of her daughter two years later to be far more flexible and less intrusive.

From speaking to friends it became apparent that that there was a huge shortage of reliable and professional night nurses in the area so Alex decided to retrain. She attended various maternity courses that covered a range of subjects such as breast feeding, post natal depression, colic and reflux, establishing a routine and sleep patterns in babies, as well as more specialised topics such as bris aftercare and the care of multiples.

Alex then spent the next three years working part time as a night nurse herself, initially for family friends and then gradually a wider circle of clients until she had to enlist the help of other night nannies to meet demand rather than let down expectant mothers. ‘Sleeping Babies Maternity Agency’ was born.

Today, running the agency with her best friend and business partner, Nicole takes up most of her time, though Alex still enjoys doing the occasional emergency night nurse cover as it reminds her why supporting exhausted new parents is so rewarding.

Nicole Wall

If Nicole had a mantra it would be if you want to get something done ask a busy person as she generally manages to squeeze more into a day than most people would be able to fit into a week!

Nicole gave up a successful career in the business world following the birth of her first child (now aged 16). Three more children swiftly followed and Nicole combined raising her young family with being involved in many different projects including setting up and organising educational workshops for secondary school children, fundraising for various charities and volunteering in many different capacities at her children’s school. That was how Nicole met Alex; they were joint class reps for their daughters who had just started school together.

Nicole’s role as a mother of four means that she has experienced first hand the challenges that family life can bring and appreciates just how important it is to have good childcare. Being the proud mother of twin boys she is also very well placed to guide parents who are blessed with the delights of two or more babies and is very happy to share her enormous experience as well as her extremely positive attitude to whatever life throws at her.

Despite Nicole’s very busy family life she always has time for a chat and by the time she has got off the phone from speaking to anxious and sleep deprived new parents they always feel that they are not alone and that everything is going to be ok.

Nicole joined forces with Alex at Sleeping Babies in 2008 and together they are joint partners, running the agency in between the various school runs, swimming galas and diving competitions.