Homebirth with siblings

[naturalcrunch]

At the conclusion of my pregnancy my toddler son will be about 23 months. I am curious if anyone had  siblings present during thier homebirth, particuarly at such a young age and how that worked out? I will likely have a friend to help out at our home but I am not comfortable with the idea of someone taking him elsewhere as he has never been left with any other people other than my husband or I.

[Voondrop]

My son was 29 months when our first daughter was born. Daddy kept him occupied that day & left me alone & not having back labor, I didn't mind. Son took a longish (4 hour) nap & baby was born & woke him up w/ her cries. I was comfortable w/ a good friend picking him up for a couple of hours while we cleaned up & settled in, she had children who were his friends he liked to play w/. I would have someone on call during the day to come over if you can and if baby comes at night that might be an ideal situation. Unless you still co-sleep, in which case you might want to birth somewhere else in the house?

[1babysmom]

At my last unassisted homebirth, my younger daughter was 22 months and my older daughter had JUST turned 4. (7 days prior...)  Both were in and out of the bathroom during my labor (the room I choose to remain in).  They were fine just occupying themselves most of the time, but I did have family there to entertain them if needed (my mom, MIL, and hubby at first...but DS took so long to come out that by the time he DID, my SIL, grandparents and aunt and uncle had showed up too! LOL).  They did come in when I yelled that I was pushing, which was (as always, for me) a very quick process...a couple pushes in about 2 minutes.  I was in the bath so they didn't "see" anything really, but DD2 did want SO badly to get in with me after he was out (DH was grossed out! LOL) and eventually I let her.  Birth isn't very "traumatic" for a child to witness in our home...I'm a very quiet birther, it happens rather uneventfully, there's never been any blood (until I birth the placenta), etc.  

With my first unassisted homebirth my daughter was 27 months but wasn't really around (just did her own thing the whole time, despite it being the middle of the night and me hoping she'd fall back asleep!) until after the baby was born.   

[Renaissance31]

DS was 14 mos when DD was born unassisted at home. She was born at 3:50 am and he slept thru my two yelps (one for each push). It worked out really well. My mom was there and got him up and fed later that morning before he came in to meet her so it all went really wonderfully. I'm very interested to hear how others did it so we can have and idea for our next one.