Childcare for labour - what did you do?

[Julia0]

I’m 35+2 and trying to get my head around how we will look after my daughter (age 4) when I’m in labour. The basic plan is for my parents to come at the first sign of things happening. The catch is that they will take approx 3 hours to get to us, so I’m lining up plan B/C/D etc for if it heats up quickly. I’ve enlisted some local friends who say they’d be happy to help but they all work so won’t always be available. I’ve also asked one of the teachers at DDs nursery if she thought any of her colleagues would like to earn some extra cash by being ‘on call’ including overnight to help if needed. She very kindly said that she would be willing to do this.
Two questions I’d love your thoughts / experiences about:

• what arrangements did you make in a similar situation?
• what is the going rate I should offer to the nursery teacher for being on call?

Any thoughts appreciated!

My mil came straight over first time and my dad came at 3am when I woke up pushing the third time. Lucky they were close and came straight away at they were very fast.

Id likely ask the nursery teacher what her rate is as she will likely know what she wants per hours.

Good luck.

MIL.

When a friend was pregnant, we (school moms) had organised it between ourselves, that one of us would always be around. We did not ask for or expect to be paid. When friend was 38 weeks pregnant, I asked my BIL (not hers, mine), to pick up her kids from school and take them to the park, just to give her a couple hours break. Friends are the family we make, who help us when we need it.

I did roughly the same. Didn't occur to me to offer nursery staff extra unless needed, but then I would have used a neighbour if necessary until my parents arrived.
Nursery were fab at letting us swap days in the circs, so after I got home after a night in hospital, my parents came by the next morning with ds to meet dd, and then took him to nursery so he could announce the news (aka be out of the way).
If your parents are that far, see if nursery staff could cover morning or evening emergencies until a working friend can take over, but basically call them early - I waited until 7am despite knowing I was in labour by 5, and it hadn't occurred to them it might happen that day, so they faffed and only turned up at 10 as DP was trying to find a neighbour. (45 min drive...)

We don't have family help so I arranged with our childminder to have DC1. I also arranged with several friends to take her if the CM wasn't able to for whatever reason. The friends also all worked but figured (hoped!) at least one would be free if the need arose.
As it happened the CM was fine to have her. She ended up being in one extra day and an overnight during labour, and a few extra days post-birth as I was kept in for 5 days. Extra days were at normal day rate (£50/day), and overnight stay was £60.

DD went to my aunt's. She'd already gone for a sleepover at her best friend's house on my due date.