What worked - older children

This is about where your older children go when you go to hospital/ birthing centre. Who do you get to watch them? Does this include overnight stays while you're in hospital? How did your kiddies cope with this?

Does your DH/DP stay overnight with you, if that's an option, or come home to look after your other children?

When did you bring the other children to meet their new sibling?

Would anything have differed if you went into labour naturally vs. scheduled induction/ elective c/s?

Thanks for answering my questions, just wondering how on earth we're going to manage.

right well i was booked in for an elective on the monday but he came on the friday..so because it was 330ish am we rang my parents and then they came and looked after him..which was stressful for me as they hadn't done that before!! but he was fine.. they started having him nights right after that occassionally...

In chch you can't (hubby) stay overnight so they have to be out by like 9pm but are pretty good about it.. i found it so hard he couldn't just hang out with me and stressful when E came to visit as i hadn't been away from him before:( so he was home at night which was good for Ethan.. but also the reason i came home after 3 nights cause i needed to be home with Ethan..

Ethan came in later on the same day he was born.. if i had of had an elective like i planned only different would be that he wouldn;t have woken up to mum and dad.. i was really pissed i had to go through labour again and they made me wait deliberately and nearly ended in another emergency:(

in short your worries are totally normal and if you have any other questions feel free to ask me:)

I had DD2 when DD1 was 13months. I went into hospital at 9am she was born at 330pm that afternoon. My MIL came to look after her. I was worried sick the whole time as she had never been left with anyone before! DF went and picked he up at about 6pm for a visit, was so lovely to have her there for a bit as I missed her so much, lol! I was out the next after noon, and didnt need DF in hospital with me, so not too complicated.

C was easy, she stayed at my dad's...I laboured at home for most of it and didnt want her concern at seeing me in pain to stress me out.

My mum took her into see me the next morning

This time I actually have no idea what im going to do (cutting it a bit fine I know ) I don't know if dad will be around, and its not just C but Ty,who has never spent the night apart from me and is going through a clingy stage, so that will be fun for whoever gets to look after them.....

My parents came down for Xmas and hung around while we watied and waited for J. Finally DH took me across to Dunedin to relax leaving T with my parents (first time I had left him..he was 17mo). J was born 2 days later and I really wanted T to come visit that day so mum and dad brought him over. DH went home that night and I was left alone in Duendin for the next 3 days. Not ideal but DH couldnt leave work either.

Depends on region/hospital and their individual policies as to whether dad can stay that first night or not. I was told (if it had been a VBAC) that if it was a late evening birth, then dad can 'room in' but would be on a recliner rather than a bed, but if it was a daylight birth then dad had to leave at 8pm like everyone else. I had an elective so it was an early morning delivery, and DP stayed until about 2pm when he went and picked up B from a friends place as visiting hours for anyone other than partner isnt til 2pm (he'd stayed the night there as we had to be in by 7am). B then left when his grandparents picked him up for the weekend, and DP left at 8pm.

This time around the kids will be staying the night prior to elective at a friends place (the only place Jae has stayed at overnight before, so the only place I feel comfortable leaving her overnight again) so DP and I can go in without worrying about dropping them off on the way, and DP will go and pick them up to meet baby once everythings settled down (looks like things may be a little diff this time as its appearing to be not quite as straightforward a pregnancy as Jae's was)

My DD was in the bath with me at 6am while I was in labour then at 7am when it was time to go to hospital MIL came over to look after her.  It was a kindy day so MIL dropped her to kindy and my sis picked her up afterwards. 

DS was born shortly after 8am and we transferred to a hospital closer to home at midday.  DH got DS and I settled in our room and went home to pick up DD and brought her straight in to meet her new brother, he texted me first so I could make sure my arms were free for cuddles with DD as soon as she entered the room.

I stayed at hospital for 3 days and DH stayed home with DD and brought her in to visit us each day.

Will be tricky here too. My parents live four hours away, and ILs live 2 hours away. Could summon them in the middle of the night, but might be cutting it fine. DS hasn't stayed overnight without us yet, but he would probably cope fine. My Mum says she will come and stay with us beforehand - but before when?? Can't predict these things . And we have only just moved here, so although we know a few people, there's nobody that DS is comfortable with yet. Oh well nine weeks to think about it!

I've been wondering about this too, although we are planning a homebirth so all going well won't have to go anywhere... I'm just hoping I go into labour over night while DD is sleeping so we don't have to worry about it but if not then my dad lives nearby so I can get him to pick her up if she or I are not coping with her being there. And if we do need to transfer to hospital we will just take DD with us and ring someone on the way to come watch her. Hope it all works out!!

My aunty was supposed to have DD for us (my mum was coming to the labour but some family problems meant she couldn't do it.

I was freaking out that we had no one to look after DD then my dad said he'd do it, he'd never looked after her on her own before and he'd only just started changing nappies a month or two beforehand.
We dropped her off the night before the induction, mum was home with them that night and left after breakfast the next day.

Induction ended up going overnight so mum stayed up by the hospital and dad had DD all by himself overnight and he did a great job! DD had alot of fun with her Pop.

I had DS at 3.50pm, dad brought her up to see me about 5.30pm and then he and mum took her home about 9pm.

They kept her at their house until we came home from the hospital when DS was 2 days old, i was itching to get out sooner than that, i missed my little girl!

So they had her from wed night to sunday arvo - 4 nights and it was the longest 4 nights of my life! LOL!