Arimeh- I don't think you should have your mum there. I'm actually more concerned with how she'll affect your children than you. I think she's very likely to make it a negative and scary experience for them by projecting all her fear. We had my aunty and cousins planned to watch my son. I wasn't thrilled about my aunty (elective c-sect births) though she was supportive, the main reason was my son gets on really well with my cousins who were about 10 and 12 at the time. I knew they would be the only people he be comfortable leaving the house with if he needed to take a break. In the end they didn't get there in time (my aunty waited for them to finish school, then stopped for dinner etc etc) and our student MW took care of our son when he woke about an hour before the birth. That worked well and it was nice not having other people around.

I'm all for children at birth! My son was almost 3 at the time but he has autism and a lot of anxiety and speech delays. I prepped him with youtube birth videos and I would 'make the noise mummy makes when the baby is coming'. He didn't mind the youtube videos but HATED hearing me make loud noises so I kept working on it with him. On the day he didn't want to be in the room and he played with playdough in the next room. I think he was okay and sort of knew what was happening. Once baby was born and I was lying in bed I noticed him trying to skirt into the room full of people so we told everyone they had to leave as he hates crowds and we wanted him to be able to come close and snuggle with us. We also chose not to have a birth photographer though I would have loved one because it would have been too many people.

I hope the supplements help eenee.

Yay for spreading the HB word Jennifer! I know what you mean about listening to everyone talk their OBs. I stopped going to a certain pre-natal yoga last pregnancy because we had a circle time thing and it was killing me to listen to all the OB stories.

I hope the prelabour isn't too tiring Cricket. I'm also looking forward to the flurry of births coming up in here!!!

Congratulations Bella!! My last pregnancy I was testing early and got a few days of faint lines before they got darker. I think you're in