To ask DH to book the time off work from my induction date?

[Bitchfromhell]

Ftm, being induced in a couple of days at 39 weeks due to medical complications and big baby.

DH really wants to spend two weeks off work once baby is here at home as a family (all being well).
On my induction date he intends to be with me in hospital but bring his laptop and phone and get on with work while we wait.

We've been warned it might take days. I had an examination yesterday and whilst my cervix was closed it was very soft and everything is in the right position.

Aibu to tell him to just book the time off from that day so he can support me? Or am I crazy to imagine I'll be moving along quite quickly and actually baby might not arrive for 4+ days?

Any advice, experiences gratefully received.

I was booked in for induction at 9am on a Monday. It didn’t take place until Wednesday afternoon (lots of emergencies etc) and DS was born in the early hours of Thursday (40 + 17). DH ended up going back into work for two days.

I’d save the leave if you can.

The alternative with the dog is to get our occasional dog walker organised for at least the first day. Then dh could come home and spend the night at home with her if things are slow.

Our hospital will allow him to stay but only in a chair. I'll only let him do that if really necessary. We have to stay in one night after delivery for tests on our baby so I'm thinking I might ask him to stay with us that night if things are difficult but send him home otherwise.

Induced Monday am..Baby born Saturday pm..Home Sunday pm and DH back to work Monday am..Massive waste of his 5 days off..3rd DS too..not 1st. Let him work until you really need him and good luck..This is in no way a horror story, just lots of stopping and starting, no room on delivery so next pessary not given, staff shortage etc..NOT 5 days in labour!

First time mum, I'm gonna say it's more likely to take a while and be slow so go prepared.

Chill out with your DH. Let him work and just go with the flow. Don't overthink it as it's out of your control really.

Get dog walker on it.

Yep definitely get dog walker sorted and let dh save his leave. Its different for everyone but for a ftm these things can take time. They started inducing me on a Thursday morning. 2 pessaries later I was only 1 cm dilated and ds was born by emcs on the Monday afternoon!

Dh wants to tell his parents and take the dog to them the night before. I'm inclined to get dog walker round (she'll need to come to see to our cats anyway).

If he needs to stay with me he can ring his parents to collect dog (they already have keys) anyway. I don't think they'd mind. It's just that I don't want them knowing what's happening. (I don't want to worry them, they don't know about the complications and reasons for early induction and I want dh to be able to surprise them with a lovely announcement).

We've been warned that if first pessary doesn't work after 24hrs we'll be sent home for 24hrs before they'll administer another one.

The dog walker sound marvellous!
I found it quite hard knowing people were waiting for news of our induction process - I’d rather have announced the baby’s arrival after the fact rather than have them all watching their phones for news

I think the trouble is you never know with induction. So I think your DH is

My induction went like -

Propess inserted and monitored for an hour. Told it would be in for 24 hours and probably nothing would happen.
1 hour later contractions start regular and two minutes apart - no one believes me
3 hours later tell Midwife I am pushing. Midwife shocked to discover I am fully dilated. Transfer to labour ward
2 hours of pushing DD is stuck so taken to theatre for trial of forceps, given spinal, sign consent forms
1 hour later DD born

I have a very intense and quick labour therefore DH didn’t even get time to read a newspaper let alone do any work. I was convinced nothing would happen so once the induction was started I sent him home and then had to call him back 20 minutes later!

Everyone i

I had my induction cancelled twice as labour ward full! Ended going into labour on my own 3 weeks past due date

I've been induced twice, both times it was 12 hours from start of induction to birth. Both times my cervix was soft.

DS1 induced at 35 weeks due to leaking waters for over 24 hours and no contractions.
DS2 induced at 37 weeks due to large baby (he was 9.5lbs) and required an episiotomy due to large shoulders.

I was in for monitoring and the woman in the bed opposite was being induced. Her husband brought his laptop for work but was still very much present and supportive. As long as your partner is the same then I wouldn’t see it as an issue.

I would have been over the moon if my self employed DP could have "worked from home / hospital".

I was meant to be induced on the Tuesday, so he took that day off and we waited for the call. In the end they told us to come in at 8pm and then we waited in the corridor until Midnight for a room!! I had the pessary at 2am into the Wednesday and despite continuous niggles, nowt happened until we went into Thursday..... so he could have worked from home / hospital on the Wednesday too.

It's all a moot point as DP is a tradesman so can't work from home, but my experience is just an example of timelines.

As it happened I went from niggles to baby in an hour despite being in hospital for 28h but it was DC3.

Best of luck to you