Young children visiting newborn

[Rachiie]

Dc due in a few weeks. Dh has 8 nieces/ nephews (2-8y).
Aibu to not want them all to visit at once? Dh thinks I'm wrong to not want all 8 kids coming to our house within a day or so of having dc.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the children, and would never say they can't come visit. My issue is more them all turning up at once when dc is 1 or 2 days old. We have a relatively small house, and it will be very cramped if they all come together. I'll also be breastfeeding (hopefully) and wanting to bond with baby. Is it really horrible of me to kind of dread all 8 kids descending on the house making a mess, being noisy and all over the baby when the baby is so small?

We had some bonkers rules about visitors with dc1. By dc2 we'd got over overselves and had no such rules.

I think you'd be fine, unless they are unwell with colds etc in which case you'd be sensible to defer. Newborns are very vulnerable to bugs. Any parent would understand that, so unless your guests are very unpleasant they won't mind.

Tell him he runs the visitors side and you'll be the one sorting the baby

I actually quite like the thought of them all coming at once for max an hour then nobody for a few weeks!

I can’t imagine telling people they can’t come for weeks or a strict one hour rule. All my friends and family know if I’m tired or it’s a bad day they can come back another time but I wouldn’t set out ‘rules’ before I’ve even had the baby and don’t know what I will be feeling like.

It wouldn’t be the noise and the amount of people that bothers me, it would be the risk of infection. 8 young kids who probably go to school/nursery/preschool etc bringing various germs over. Definitely make sure they haven’t recently been ill before they come and to wash their hands before touching the baby.

Hopefully the parents of the 5 will be considerate enough to realise that it might not be the easiest for you guys to have the whole family round at once I wouldn't dream of imposing like that on someone with a newborn!

Party bags?!?!? Really?

Yanbu at all. Split them up.

Personally I'd just get it all over and done with at once. If it's cramped and uncomfortable they might not stay very long

With Dc1 SIL and 3 young kids arrived on day 2. They had been cooped up in the car for 2 hours so were almost literally bouncing off the walls. Our house wasn't at all childproof so they broke an ornament, found an axe in the downstairs loo and nearly knocked over the Moses basket with baby in. I remember feeling a bit shell shocked when they left. With Dc2 they stayed quite a long time (playing with Dc1), left the house in a real tip and got a bit miffed when we told them we couldn't provide lunch. But at least it was all over in a couple of hours!