DD turned 3 in March. She understands that there is a baby coming very soon and that it means I have to spend time in hospital.

She's becoming anxious about it. Yesterday I spent the day at mum's with her and late in the afternoon, I had to drive my stepdad to go and pick up his car from the mechanic. At the time I left, DH was at mum's working, so she had my mum and DH there. But apparently after I left, she got upset and asked when I was coming back. I was gone an hour. DH left in that time and she got even more upset at the both of us being gone, even though she adores my mum. She's never had a problem with it before.

Over the past couple of weeks, her sleep has gone back up the creek. She usually sleeps from 7.30-8pm and will sleep around 12 hours (bliss!) But lately, she's been waking up numerous times, crying and stressed, even before DH and I go to bed. She won't say what's wrong and won't resettle until DH and I both go into her room for hugs and maybe a drink of water. Last night she refused to sleep, but did remain in her bed, until nearly 11pm, alternating with crying and calling out for me. Both DH and I took turns in going into her, giving her hugs and being firm that she needed to go to sleep. She came into our bed around 2am, and had to sleep touching me. I woke numerous times, sometimes she was wedged in my back, sometimes her foot was on my hip, other times her hand was on my face. During the day, she's tired and getting cranky because of it.

I sat down with her again this morning and explained that yes, mummy is going to hospital soon, but she can visit me every single day and daddy and nonna will be with her all the time. She just replies with "Okay". I'm not sure where to go with it from here to try and help her get her head around it.

Has anyone got any experiences about what their older child reacted when you went into hospital for #2? It's a five day admission for me, and while I'm not ruling out coming home early, I at least want to be in hospital until my milk comes in (which was day 3 with DD).