What are you doing with your other children?

Just curious, as we are trying to organise things around here for labour time... what are your plans?

We have some options of a neighbour coming up if we have to do a middle of the night run, and then another friend coming up to take over. We also have a friend who is willing to be "on call" 3 nights a week & some friends who live close to the hospital...

I would prefer the friends who live close to the hospital because then if all goes really well I would love for DH to be able to run over & pick her up to be there as soon as possible for a little while... to enjoy family time. Just depends on the situation...

So what are your plans?

We're still trying to figure this out. As i am the only one with a licence and can't really drive if in labour! DH went for his licence today, but unfortunatly failed because of one minor little thing! He's going again next week and is sure to pass because he knows what he did wrong and its very fixable. So if i don't go into labout before then, then he will drive and we will take Lily to my Aunty's. She lives close to the hospital, but we actually have to go past the hospital to get to her house! But it seems to be the only option we have.

With Lachlan we knew our Due Date cause of inducement, so Kameron spent the night at the MIL's. We dropped him off there at lunch time of the day I was induced as i was being done that arvo. the IL's brought Kameron to hospital at 11am the next morning (didn't have lach till 10.18pm that night so too late then) and then Andrew took him home from there when visiting hours were over with.

This time around we are a bit up in the air cause there is now 2 kids to take care off, and Lachlan hasn't really stayed with the IL's, so If I go into natural labour I think my step-dad will look after them at our house till Andrew gets back home with mum (who will be in delivery with me). Not really sure what we will do if it is another inducement. Probably get the MIL to come here so the boys arent' too put out.

Love

I have my mum staying with me. Easiest thing I could think of. Everyone lives soo far away.

Jacob will be staying here at home, with my Mum coming down to look after him.

When I started getting contractions with Declan, I rang my mum up and she came and minded Nicholas. At that stage I didn't really think I was in labour, but luckily I did get her to come anyway as I definitley was.

As we don't know when our little cherub will grace us with his presence I have 3 emergency babysitters ready day or night and two ready for day only. Our main babysitter is meant to be my mother, but with my sister over in Melbourne with a very high risk pregnancy (she normally lives here in TAS) mum may need to go at a moments notice. I have a whole list of people and phone numbrs for DH, each instruction and phone number in order so he knows what to do first and who to call first. DH was very relieved to get this and I often catch him double checking regularly to make sure it is in his wallet!!! ROFL!!!!

Christy, we have aplan that when (if ever, LOL!) I go into proper labour my SIL (DH's sister, my best friend) will come tearing up the hill to look after Olivia and Charlie. They only live 10 doors away, and we live in each others pockets so Olivia and Charlie are totally familiar with her.

Problem is, she has 2 small ones of her own.......so we have a multitude of contingency plans with regard to whose house/cars/car seats/portacots etc, depending on the time of day I need to make the call..........we tie ourselves up in knots over the "what if" scenarios!!

Olivia and Charlie also have a child care day on Friday....so in an ideal world I would drop them off on Friday, have my waters break on the way back to car, nip to hossy, pop B3 out, then DH can pick them up from child-care that afternoon!!!!!!! HA!

(ETA, when we had Charlie, we dropped Olivia off at SILS on the evening before the induction: it was all pre-planned and v.organised......for me, it was the only good thing about an induction!)

LMAO @ your ideal world Lucy !!

Love

LOL at the ideal world!! We have an ideal world plan as well... but somehow I don't think Mary Poppins will arrive in time....

Lucy, LOL at your "day care" plan! Best of luck with that!!

My MIL is coming to stay from 2 weeks before due date, as all our family is interstate. A good friend who lives just 5 mins away is our contigency if bub comes earlier than that. She has already set up a portacot in a spare room ready for Jack "just in case". I think she's actually hoping that she gets Jack for a bit, she really dotes on him. Her daughter is 2 1/2 and she really wants another baby! But I think it would be better for Jack to be in is own home, so hopefully MIL will arrive before bub, although not too much before as I'm REALLY ready to not be pg anymore!!

We have MIL - she lives only 20 mins away so she will be on call to come around and stay with the kids, or take them back to her place with her. My mum will be staying with us too, she is going to be at the delivery, but if for some reason things happen really fast and MIL can't get here quick enough, mum can stay with the kids and then come up to hossie after MIL has arrived. Stephen's brother and his wife only live around the corner so we can always call on them too.

We are probably in pretty similar positions Christy with lack of family around and all. And while shane's family would be great as babysitting options at home, we aren't 100% sure.
So I dont know if this works for you Christy, but I actually asked our midwife last week how she felt about siblings in the birth. She was totally all for it which surprised me, and made me feel quite happy. I know Matilda is a handful, and moreso than Jenna, so we are starting to think of ways we can do this.
The Family Birthing Unit has a lounge, and apparently when there are siblings, they bring in the TV and have a pile of kids videos to chuck on.
She did suggest that we have an extra person there to watch Jenna, so Shane can be devoted to me ;)
So I'm torn between taking her in, and having someone watch her, or leaving her with people, or getting a babysitter in.
If I have someone watch her in hossy, it will mean that I have to actually want that person at my birth. So that pretty much cuts it down to BecG (onhere) my SIL or my mother who isn't just a phone call away. My other SIL I dont really want as the first person to see my child!
If we decide to leave her at home, there are about 3-4 people we could call to watch her.

I dont know how it will all work out. I'm probably the exact opposite to orgnaisation like Lucy (but then I have 13w+ to go), but I figure it will all be alright on the night.

I'm definitly more comfortable with friends I think than family watching Jenna.

We have to take our son to the hospital with us so hopefully I do not go into labour during the night as we have no family that live near us they live 2 1/2 hours away. I have a friend who is going to come to the hospital with us to help us but our son does not know her that well and I think he would get upset if he woke to find us not home.