Cat

Not sure what to do about Noah when I go into labour.

The options are my mum, who works round the corner, so during office hours will be able to come stright over to get him, but on the minus side she isnt always answering her phone, and being the manager she often has meetings and commitments etc. She drives and lives about 45 mins away, but will come and pick Noah up imediatly, if and Isay if, another concern is that she drinks, not like an alcoholic but within a couple of hours of being home from work she has had a couple of glasses of wine and cant drive, but I wonder if I called her at the time she might not want to let me down, and say its fine to get him even if she has had a little to much, which I do NOT want, but I guess I would never know if she had. Its not like I can give her a set date for this either, so she would have to not drink in the evening for about a month, just waiting.

The other option is OH's mum, again a 45min journey away, she doesnt drive but her partner does, they are normally very easy to get hold of and dont drink, but he is a very nervous driver, and even when they did child care for me, he would never take noah out in the car with him, and they have only driven to ours in Norwich once, cause he doesnt like driving to the city, or driving at night, or in bad weather etc.

So I dont know how reliable either will be, although we could drop Noah off at either ourselves, both mums live in the oposite directions from each other and the hospital, so it would mean 45 mins to one, 45 mins back home, then 45 mins drive to hospital, whilst Im in labour!!! Or I send OH on his own to drop Noah off, but then I dont want to be on my own in case something happens, or things progress quickly.

Anyone else have this problem with your kids when having another baby? what did you do?

I wish their was some sort of emergency on call baby sitting service for these cases!

Kina

I was lucky because I live next door to my mum. I also went into labour before she left for work so she was able to call in sick. Which was a good job as Alex arrived before she would have been back from work! Ella actually slept through me giving birth and all the kerfuffle (my mum brought her back in for a nap in her own cot, and to think I normally creep around the house trying not to wake her!).
Even if your labour did progress quickly if you made your way to yours or OH's mums after the first few contractions then you should be ok to get to the hospital, how fast did things happen with Noah? (My labour with Ella from the first contraction was 14 hours and with Alex it was 7 hours) Could your OH's parents look after Noah at your house seeing as they're nervous drivers?

Imi

Well my plan is ...

Charl is hving maddie, either she coming here or i get gav to drop her off / fetch her and lynnie is going to pick me up and take me to hospital as i have a prob as my mum lives an hour and a half away and his dad is an hour away also lol!!

Have you and OH got any close friends near by than can do this untill parents arrive???

Tis a pain when you don't live close to family ... but you don't think about things like this when you buy/rent a house lol!!!

xxx

TryingAgain

I had a bit of a worry when i was having my DS, as i didn't have anybody to look after my DD. All of my family live 200 miles away & i didn't know anybody well enough nearby that i'd trust to look after her.

My poor mum took time off work & arranged to come & stay with us for 2 weeks around my due date, & luckily he made his entrance the day before she was due to go back home, lol. So everything worked out ok in the end!!

I'd hope she'd do the same when the time comes that we are able to have baby number 3.

I hope everything turns out ok for you when the time comes!!

Caroline

With dd we had family friend look after Gabriel but I don't like to ask her to lookafter 2 of them if needs be as Alisha is a bit of a handful. I have three good friends from work (2 who have left now, and are f/t @home). Hopefully being induced on Tuesday and MIL is coming down from Yorkshire for a week so will look after los and do school run. Bit stuffed if don't induuce MW is confident they will having already had 2 lo and both of them being early.

Cat

Wouldnt it be good if labour wards could have a creche facility!

Although my last labour took ages, I didnt fancy the idea of spenidn around 2 1/2 hours in the car ferrying noah and me around. I did think about OHs mum and partner coming here and looking after Noah, but Iwill stay here till as late as possible before going to hospital, and I really dont want to have guests round while in labour lol! I really want just OH, not his mum getting involved, and her husband feeling like a spare part etc.

I think I will sit and have a serious chat with my mum about it when I see her this weekend and tell her my concerns. Althoughn Im now wonering if Iwill end up going the section route now, if this bub is going to be big again, cause I have found that over the last few ays my tailbone is becoming sore gain from where Idamaged it last time, and their is concern from both OH and mum that Imight do even worse damage this time. Im guessing recovery from section isnt as long and as bad as recovery from coccydynia.

Caroline

I'd talk to consultant and see what he says if nothing else they may try to induce at 37 weeks if cocerns over size. It does make a difference planning everything if you have a fixed date. Knowing my luck i'll go into labour either tomorrow or Saturday b4 in laws arrive I found my mw pretty unhelpful then when i'd seen consultant she was different again. She came to house to do birth plan and was here for nearly an hour, although she couldn't decide if lo was breech or just very low as she couldn't find head, said well consultant will decide when he sees you. Instills confidence NOT!

Cat

lol surrounded by incompetance.

I havent really thought about the induction option, Im concerned causedoesnt it cause more intense and painfull contractions? cause Icant have an epi, and Iwont have pethedine, hot water agrivates my hip pain, so I only have the option of gas & air!

can they not teleport this baby out?

Imi

I was induced at 35+6

I ended up having Epi as pethdine affect maddie and caused her heartrate to drop ...

Found contractions before pain relife were ok-ish started getting a few bad ones around 3cm ....

desision is yours hun only you know what you can handle

xxx

Caroline

All being well i'll be able to tell you by the end of next week. I've decided to take things as they cme with reards to pain rlief. Can't have watrbirth due to SPD and mobility, don't want pethidine was forced into it wih Gabriel to help me sleep over night nd made me feel spaced out and in pain. So it may well be gas and air, may go for epi if pain too bad but really unsure now.

Keep fingers crossed they can induce and it works next week.