Who Are We?


Jane

Marissa K. Applegate

RN BSN CPN

Marissa is an award-winning registered nurse and certified pediatric nurse focused on providing practical and educational support for parents and children to ensure best practices are applied to children’s health and childcare. With more than a decade of experience and educational specialties, Marissa applies both knowledge and practical applications to the field, providing parents with factual information, creative techniques, and the confidence to become skilled and intuitive in child rearing activities.

Jane

Latrice Matthews

Health Educator

Health educator with more than a decade of experience educating the community through Doula services, public speaking, workshops and training seminars, designed to support prenatal, labor, postpartum and lactation activities and increase public awareness of best practices. Latrice has worked in the public sector providing doula services through the Los Angeles Department of Public Health and in the private sector for Health Net. She provides consultant services for individuals and community organizations, all aimed at educating parents and caregivers on infant health, care and behavioral development.

Jane

Stacey Brenner

Company Founder

Mother of three, wife, and small-business owner, juggling work/life balance and tending to everyone’s needs.


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Our Story

My name is Stacey and I am a mother of three who believes that new parents should have access to the best parenting information and resources. It’s easy to say that it takes a village to raise a child, but it’s harder to define what that really means. I’ve come to believe that it’s a combination of the right resources, the right information, common sense, and the confidence we get from a trustworthy safety net. I had to find my village and I want to share the journey and the knowledge I’ve gained with you.

After my first child was born, I realized how much I just wasn’t sure about and how much I needed to know – not next week, but right this minute. The search for answers to basic questions revealed a pressing need for better resources and the right response to NowWhat? Your life has changed forever, and you need new tools to manage it.

I did not have the benefit of growing up with babies, toddlers or young children, and had zero experience with infants. When our first child was born, my husband and I had no clue what to expect or what to do. We brought him home and looked at each other, and said NowWhat? Of course, we figured out baths, bottles, diapers and cuddling, but we counted the minutes to the arrival of our infant care specialist, and we begged her to stay longer than she was supposed to. We really did not want to be left alone with the baby and found comfort in the presence of others.

As a working mom I quickly became dependent on anyone and everyone who could or would help. I had no choice. I knew nothing about children, how to be nurturing, or how to be a good parent – a very foreign concept until the baby came home. Since I had no choice, I had to accept reality and learn as much as possible, right away!

I found that one key to gaining confidence in my new role was to understand that my needs no longer came first. My new tiny little human took over first place and I had to pay attention to what he was telling me, understand his cries and sounds, decipher his actions and reactions, and respond in the best possible way. This understanding was strangely liberating – my purpose was clear, and all I had to do was figure out his needs and the right response.

It will be no surprise to learn that I couldn’t do it alone – no one can. Common sense tells you that when a baby cries, he needs something, and you need to decide how to respond or if it’s okay to let him cry. After you exhaust feeding, changing, and cuddling, what is the next step? And there’s always something new as the baby grows. What you thought you knew today just isn’t working tomorrow. You can go online and find many thousands of articles about monthly milestones, yearly milestones, important symptoms and all sorts of things. But what if you just want to know about everyday parenting, what’s a good way to soothe a cranky child, how long does formula last in the refrigerator, why is my toddler the only one not jumping in his pre-school class? When is it the right time to worry?

Everyone should have access to this information, and that’s why NowWhat? A Parental Concierge was created. When you take the baby home from the hospital and you ask yourself NOW WHAT, there will be someone here to help you with the answer.