XP: those without family in town

melaniedel

Wdyd or What the heck are you doing? I'm so nervous about this. My mom lives 3 hours away and MIL lives over an hour. I just hired a sitter (she comes 3 days a week for a few hours while I get some wok done), but not sure I will be comfortable leaving DS with her for a stretch and of course unsure when I'll go into labor. My OB offered induction after 39 weeks, but just not sure i could do that. Would  help since my mom could me night before and I wouldn't be so stressed, but I feel guilty entertaining it. I am actually breech right now so this is assuming he turns vertex.

 

What will you do/ did you do?

jesselayne8

I think 1 to 3 hrs is plenty of time for your mom or MIL to get there when you go into labor unless you have super fast labors. My mom is 13hrs away and my MIL physically is unable to watch DD. I am not sure what I am going to do when the time comes.

Monsieur_et_Madame_Ha

My mom lives 2 hours away and she came over and watched DD1 when I gave birth to DD2. And she will again be watching the girls when I have this LO.

The sucky part is I have to take a cab and go to the hospital on my own while DH holds the fort until she gets there. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not really that big of a deal. 

melaniedel

Monsieur_et_Madame_Ha:

My mom lives 2 hours away and she came over and watched DD1 when I gave birth to DD2. And she will again be watching the girls when I have this LO.

The sucky part is I have to take a cab and go to the hospital on my own while DH holds the fort until she gets there. But in the grand scheme of things, it's not really that big of a deal. 

hmm, taking a cab is an idea if unable to drive. I just don't know who could come in middle of the night and just worried about DS being scared at a friends.  

sosoph

I would ask your sitter if you can call her any hour when you go into labor to watch LO until MIL gets there.

Monsieur_et_Madame_Ha

melaniedel:

a cab is an idea if unable to drive. I just don't know who could come in middle of the night and just worried about DS being scared at a friends.  

My mom came in in the morning, so DH was there when DD woke up. I am not gonna lie: I was really anxious for DH to get to the hospital, but everything worked out in the end as active labour didn't start until early afternoon. 

luvmyducks

My dad is 3hrs away.  My little sister does live here in town but she works 2 jobs and I don't think she would be able to help.  I'm hoping to just call my dad once I know I'm in labor--I labored at home for 8 hours last time before I went to the hospital and hope to do the same this time.  I'm thinking it will be plenty of time for my dad to get here.

But if not, I have a couple friends that will help out until my dad can get here.  Nothing set in stone because I have no way of knowing when I will go in labor and who will be available, but I've talked to numerous friends so I have a lot of options. 

btsrc5

I am worried about this too.  I am not sure what we are going to do and I had a very quick labor with DD (barely made it to the hospital). 

MammaBear81

This is going to be VERY unpopular, but all of my children (except the one that came on her own at 36 weeks 5 days) were induced.  My labors go VERY fast (think under 5 hours from start to finish) so having someone 3 hours away when labor started wouldn't be the best idea.  My mom does live locally, but she was working FT until 2 years ago (and she still subs now) so it's not like she could drop everything and run when I went into labor.  The kids have school, activities etc, and we couldn't just hang out in the house until I went into labor, KWIM? My inductions went well, but obviously that's just my experience. GL with your decision.

jf198400

I didn't have this problem b/c my IL's live 5mins away, but even so, my next door neighbor offered that we could call her in the middle of the night if we needed someone to watch DD.  I would just ask all of your friends and neighbors if they would be available for a few hours until your mom or MIL can get there.