Stay at Home Moms
blushingbride_08
member
Labor emergency plan
blushingbride_08
member
I'm trying to get an emergency plan together for when I go into labor. I currently have a 2 year old ds. The plan is to have a family member or dh come to the hospital to get ds if I go into labor immediately. Depending on the time there could be traffic and it may take time for someone to get to the hospital to watch my ds. I called the hospital I'm delivering at and they don't allow kids beyond the waiting room. What did you do if you don't have anyone nearby to watch your LO and you go into labor?
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Re: Labor emergency plan
I'm new to the area and don't know/trust many people with LO.
FWIW, with A. (so, second labor/delivery) from the first "this is labor!" contraction (I'd been having sporadic, irregular ones for a few hours, but honestly didn't think it was time) to holding her was 2 hours.
And with S. I had 3 hours of consistent contractions. They were super short and far apart (30 sec. long, 10 min. apart). We had talked to my MW after 1 hour of consistent contractions. She said to let her know when things picked up. As luck would have it, she called to check in when I had the contraction from hell (in retrospect, a pushing contraction that I fought) and yelled "I can't do this!" to survive it.
I was so excited, as I knew it meant things were finally progressing. I told DH that I wanted him to fill the birth pool after the next contraction. Then the sensations I felt changed. And I about had a heat attack as I realized S. had just descended through the birth canal and would be crowning/head coming out with the next contraction. I told DH "scratch that...just catch the baby!"
And he did. Time from realizing things were progressing to holding LO? approximately 3 minutes.
Moral of my stories: Don't rely on far away childcare. Childcare 2 hours away is much, much too far away for 2+ labors in my opinion.
Now is the time to make friends, even with being new to the area. Heck, even finding a teenager you could use if it's during the day could be good. (Then you may even be able to have a date night again!)
What about church members, DH's co-workers, anyone??? Do you have any social friends yet? I'm sure someone would be more than happy to help out. Everyone seems to love being involved in people's labor. lol
Plus if it's the middle of the night do you want to pull your child out of bed and drag them to the hospital? I went at midnight with all three, so wouldn't have wanted to wake the others.
I definitely wouldn't have wanted to worry about my other child while trying to labor. You don't need any distractions you know. Good luck finding someone!
Natural M/c 12/13/08 at 8w5d
However, the 4 years we lived in our last house, I made very good friends with 3 sets of neighbors and when I became pregnant with Nolan, I flat out asked them if they would be interested in being my "on call" to take care of Emily. Granted, she was 4yrs old and that's very different from 2 years, it was all I could do.
I went into labor at 1:30am with Nolan and called my neighbor who was the most interested (also didn't work and would inconvenience her the least) to come over while Emily slept. DH called my family, who got on the first flight out, hours after Nolan was born. Once they arrived and got a cab to our house, they stayed with Emily until my husband was ready to drive home to pick them up and bring everyone to the hospital.
Care.com is a great place to find sitters who are clean, back-ground-checked, etc. if that makes you feel a little more at ease.
Good luck!!!
eclaire 9.10.06 diggy 6.2.11
IMO - you tell the hospital "FU!" your kid is coming with you if that ultimately ends up being the case until someone is available to take them for a handoff. Seriously. Not all women are blessed to have immediate childcare available, and they aren't going to have someone on staff who will babysit, so that means they're coming with you if the need arises.
Granted, my L&D's were super long inductions (even if 18 hours felt like a breeze after DD's 36 hours)... But if you're one of those who has the 2-hour L&D's it's a different situation anyway. Just like anything else L&D, you deal with it as it happens, fretting about it will only stand to make things a bigger challenge. The worst is when family is that far away false alarms can turn into real issues. OTOH, if you get to the 41+ week mark you might consider a week-long trip to the GP house...