Gentle Giraffes Team ~ Heidi

Heidi Charbonneau

When you first meet Heidi, you see her beautiful smile and infectious personality first and foremost. Heidi is always willing to lend a hand while making your belly hurt from laughter. She has a fun adventurous personality making sure whatever she does she has a blast doing it. She began her career in the private child care industry as a babysitter in high school, then moving on to college graduating with a degree in Early Childhood Education.
 
Over her 25yrs in the public and private child care industry, she has worked abroad as a pre-school teacher, an Au-Pair in France, a nanny, a household manager, to eventually find her love for working with newborns and supporting families during their most vulnerable times, the 4th trimester. With Heidi's team player attitude, you can find her pitching in where needed. As we all know, this is a lifesaver to families. Heidi has a wealth of knowledge in newborn, toddlers, school aged to teenagers! Some of her superpowers are keeping families organized and well fed all while running errands and walking a dog or two. Heidi's experience and knowledge as a house manager has been nothing short of amazing to families. She can see what needs to be done and just does it while also juggling a newborn in one hand as she was able to bring her two daughters with her to work. This has become so valuable to families during these first few weeks and months during the postpartum time because Heidi can give them her first hand experience of how to get it all done and then some.
 
Being a mom in this industry has given Heidi a leg up because she can relate to all families and the challenges they face during this time. Her compassion and understanding for new parents is genuine and comes from her own personal experience. Both her pregnancies were healthy while both girls were delivered via cesarean section. Her girls were chest fed for the first few months while also supplementing with formula. With all the emotions and information out there about breastfeeding versus formula feeding, Heidi is able to fully feel the struggle new families go through on what is best to do for their own children. She can talk with families about the pros and cons of each. She has been there and gone through all the waves of emotions new parents go through making choices that can run so deep on an emotional, physical and mental level. As we all know, the first several weeks and months for new parents is a time of sleep deprivation. Heidi once again has been there too and can fully relate to the long nights and fast days. This is one reason she is there for families to help them get through this time but also to educate and guide them on healthy sleep habits that not only support a loving and secure attachment but also foster sustainable habits for many years to come because she implemented theses healthy sleep habits with her own children from the start to which have fostered beautifully lifelong sustainable healthy sleep habits for her own girls who are now 8 and 10.
 
Needless to say, Heidi comes by this work honestly through her own personal experience that she can pass down to families what has worked and what has not while also giving the educational side to them as well. Heidi understands how important it is to foster healthy bonds, a secure attachment, catching eating and sleeping cues and she is there for families to be their extra hands, their support system for the parents to get sleep, recover all while educating and implementing an environment for optimal growth and development for the whole family from day one. 
 
In Heidi’s free time, she also has a love of health and fitness. She loves the outdoors, hanging by the pool or on a beach, traveling, and spending time making life long adventurous memories with her husband, two daughters, extended family and friends.

Certifications, Trainings & Classes

• AS in Early Childhood
• Newborn Care Specialist
  

"...she made the whole weekend an absolute breeze for us! Our baby was part of the wedding so we asked Heidi to bring her downtown, get her ready, and escort her to photos and the ceremony. Not only did she maintain the baby's schedule, she got some adorable pictures of her in her flower girl dress, helped me find a room to nurse at the venue, and entertained the baby between photos and the ceremony." Kira, Belmont

"Thank you for all your loving care for our little potato. You have helped us more than we can say"  ~ Liz, Newton