When to call PILs when in labour?

[Badgerwife]

I'm due in a couple of weeks and we have planned for the PILS to come and stay at ours to babysit DD1 whilst I am at the hospital with DH. They live an hour away.

I know I should call the hospital and tell them I am coming when contractions are every 4-6 minutes and last 1 minute each. But when should I call for the PILS to come over? When the contractions are 10 minutes apart?

Trying not to panic and think ahead.

I'd get them over sooner rather than later, you don't know how long those 10 min apart contractions will last, could be an hour or more or just half an hour! Do you have a plan b if you need to dash off, a friend who could sit until your PIL arrive?

Personally I would call them as soon as you are sure you're in labour. It could be an extremely quick labour or a long drawn out one but you just don't know.

Get them to come as soon as possible. I gave birth to dc2 a fortnight ago, and was woken by contractions in the night only a minute and a half apart.
My parents who were going to look after dc1 didn't have time to get to our house as they live an hour away, so mil came round until they arrived.
The whole labour lasted 90 minutes! I honestly thought I would have loads of time as my last labour was about 18 hours.
Agree with pp that you need a plan b for who can watch your dd.

Yep, you need a local plan b. we had a friend on standby for almost month poor thing!
You need somewhere you can drop dc1 then your Pil can collect them from there when they arrive.

I would say as soon as you can - because apart from anything else, you want to be able to labour with your DH supporting you, not entertaining your DD - who might be upset to see you in pain.

I'd also second (third?) the local standby, any friendly neighbours who'll have DD incase things are moving quicker than last time and you need to leave in less than an hour?

Thank you! Because I had such a long labour last time, it would not have occurred to me to call them as soon as possible, and I also hadn't thought about DD1 being around and witnessing the build-up. I agree she would probably struggle with it.

We do have a back up for middle of the night and a couple of friends who could easily come over to babysit (although one of them is nearly 36 weeks pregnant so also likely to start her countdown soon).

Phew, I am so trying not to panic about this, remind me why why why did we think it was a good idea to have another one?