Plans for sibling during birth

[swiesz]

just wondering what everyone's plans are for the older siblings during your birth. I have a (will be just )3 and 5 year old boys. The older one was in our familyroom in our basement with my mom for our second childs birth and now we have moved and just have upstairs /downstairs so much closer. Inlaws live about an hour away, but could be an option. my mom is flying in hopefully for the birth provided timing works with that.
Anyway just wondering what everyone else has planned.

[3for3hb]

we have a midwife and doula on our birth team.
Dh needs to be completely there for me.
So we're having a close friend that the kids (2 and will be just 4) love come over... Hopefully she won't have her foster child yet and it won't be an issue as far as time of day/night
If that doesn't work, I know our neighbors across the street would be delighted to help out (we'd take them there, though my four year old would want to be here... and I'd be comfortable with those neighbors bringing them over for the actual birth.)

[sapientia]

Hopefully this is going to be a homebirth-the kids will just be at home with us. If it's a birthcenter, they'll be there, as well.

[mama_ani]

I'm having a homebirth, my girls are older (they will be 10, 11.5 and 12.5) so they will be pretty much self-sufficient during birth. My son will be just two when the baby comes so I think we'll start working on him to be able to stay with my mom (right now that doesn't work... he cries the ENTIRE time if his sisters aren't with him.) I think the birth would be too much for him but I don't have anyone to come stay here with him. I'd much rather someone just stay here with him but that won't work out.

[sarahmck]

We'll have the midwife, doula, DH and me here. DD will be just shy of 3. My good friend has offered to come over and occupy her. I will take her up on that during the day time. I am rather convinced that I will go into labor immediately after DD goes to bed and will have the baby overnight. I have had stomach flu three times since she was born and on all of those occasions, I somehow managed to have all my puking time be while she was asleep. I think my body just won't allow me to get into a situation where I will have to deal with being incapacitated while DD is awake and needs me. But who knows, we'll see.

[s_kristina]

I'll be having a hospital birth and both children will be there with us. We simply don't have anyone around here they could stay with. Probably pretty pathetic that we will have lived in this area for 2.5 years by that point and I don't have any friends here still. Closest family is in Louisiana so that's not an option either. When I had ds my dh and dd were there in the room and dd slept through pushing. Pretty amazing as I was so loud that all the nurses on the floor were in my room.

[Ironica]

The grandparents are putting in their bids to be Donovan's support person during the birth. ;-) It will be up to him whether he's present for the birth or not. He's got a grandpa and two grandmas local to us, so it's pretty easy to see who will hang out with him.

[milosmomma]

We don't have a concrete plan yet. I'll be having a hospital birth and if Amelia is there, she'll need somebody else there to be responsible for just her. I'm just not sure...I don't really have anyone who I'd feel comfortable being at my birth, but still feel comfortable asking to leave if Amelia was uncomfortable. I'd like her to be present as much as possible, but we may just labor at home for as long as possible and then drop her off with a friend when we head for the hospital. I guess I need to figure this out

[kate.first.babe]

I am feeling guilty about my dd. It will be so strange to be focused on another baby so completely fr a few days. We are having a hospital birth. My mom and step-dad are nearby and they could be with her. Last time i had my mom with me in the room and she was wonderful. I think this time I may ask her to be with my dd (2yrs old). But I'll miss having my mom with me.

[3for3hb]

Originally Posted by kate.first.babe

I am feeling guilty about my dd. It will be so strange to be focused on another baby so completely fr a few days. We are having a hospital birth. My mom and step-dad are nearby and they could be with her. Last time i had my mom with me in the room and she was wonderful. I think this time I may ask her to be with my dd (2yrs old). But I'll miss having my mom with me.

i felt the same way when I was getting ready to birth my second. Dh took ds to work for a couple weeks here and there and gave me the chance to really bond with baby. And ds loved all the extra attention from daddy. I think they really bonded during that time too. He went from being a mama's boy to really enjoying both of us as parents.

[Mommy Kahdib]

The grandparents here are all hedging to be with Emmie but I just keep thinking the quicker the labor the quicker I can get home to my baby (will be 22 months) and introduce her to her little brother. I think this the part I am dreading most...

[cmi]

We're trying to line up multiple options for our almost-three-year-old son. So far we have two neighbors, his friend's family, and hopefully our friend/massage therapist who helped me labor last time (he has an hour drive to get here). At first I had thought we'd need to keep him away, thinking he'd be traumatized by me making all kinds of "scary" noises (based on his reaction to my public fainting/vomiting incident at 6 weeks). Then we talked to someone who had been the person in charge of a 3-year-old girl at a home birth, and he said they showed her YouTube videos and talked about what would happen, and she was fine with the whole thing. Now I'm more worried about him bugging me than about freaking him out, so I guess we'll see what happens.

[counterGOPI]

im still not sure i want dd there but then im afraid she'l be bored etc so im still debating. my best friend may stay with us and watch her..

[Jennisee]

I absolutely do not want our families knowing when I'm in labor, so I'm hoping that a friend of mind will watch DD. If not, we'll try to get my in-laws to take DD under the guise of a regular visit. They babysit a lot any way, so it wouldn't be a far-fetched story.

[counterGOPI]

oh goodness yes! my MIL will not know until the babe is born mayeb even a few hours later b/c i KNOW she will get in her car and try to drive doen here for the birth : :irkeD: so she wont know til babe is already here. im babymooning for a least a month to before she can visit.

[Meksmama]

we are having a birth center ( in a hospital) birth. My dh will be there for me and a close friend will be there for dd (3.5 yo) She is allowed to stay the night if we need to stay. I want to be discharged ASAP after the birth.

[pixiepunk]

we're having a homebirth, and my mom lives about 2 hours away, so she'll be on-call and ready to hop into the car at the first sign of labor. based on my last two labors (8 hours and 7 hours) she should have sufficient time to get here before things heat up to the point that i really need DH's attention. but honestly i tend to mostly labor in my own little world, and mostly need DH from transition on, so i don't think it'll be a problem.

i would love for DD to be there to watch the birth, i don't know if DS will be able to handle it or not. we'll just play it by ear at the time.