Bring son to hospital when having second child?

[Childcare18]

Hello everyone , Im currently 12 weeks pregnant and trying to get a plan together for the birth. I have a 5 year old son ( who will be 6 at the birth). I have a planned C-section due to medical reasons. So I will need to be in hospital for at least 2 nights.

I realy don't want to leave my son for that extent of time , and I also want to include him as much as I can. The hospital is about 10 min drive away from home.

I'm unsure if I should be getting someone else to look after him for the full 3 days , or do a bit of both? Half at the house , half in hospital with us? Or should he stay with me and my husband the whole time? Just to add , I live in turkey, and our private hospital rooms are very spacious and there would be the space for him to bring toys along etc.

Anyone have any ideas?

Have your son stay with grandparents or someone else you trust. They can bring your son up to the hospital for brief visits once you are settled and you know everything has gone well.

Thanks for the replies ( even though some where a bit judgemental) , getting someone else to look after him seems like the right thing to do.

Everyone who has more than one child has this problem. Imagine if they all brought their children to hospital with them?

I had my second in September when my daughter was 5. I had two admissions during pregnancy due to complications. My partner brought my daughter to one of the visiting hours and it was hard work. It was lovely to see her but we decided it wasn't in her best interest to see me in hospital so we did video calls after than.

I was brought in for induction and was in for 2 days after the birth and we had grandparents support but my partner spent as much time at home with her as feasible. She went to the grandparents the day I was due to be induced and they brought her home for bedtime. My partner went back for bedtime and once she was asleep came back to the hospital. My mum did the school run the next morning as I was in labour baby was born during school hours and after that my partner was at home before and after school and with me in the hospital when she was at school. It worked out best for all of us this way.

Of course it is! You obviously didn't have a section for your first birth or you would know that you'll likely be incapacitated for weeks afterwards...

I had two sections - child 2 and child 3. I’ve also been in hospital with a sick child, and as soon as he was even a little bit better he was climbing the walls in the hospital room. I think your 6 year old will find it very tricky being confined in there all the time.

My children were at school/ nursery, my husband was in with me for the section and until pick up time, and then at home with them. I was in for two nights both times, and was absolutely fine overnight on my own with the baby.

I understand your hesitation; neither of our three year olds had been away from me overnight at that point. But they were absolutely fine; I did a good night video call with them every night.

Good luck and enjoy your new baby!

… and I really wasn’t incapacitated for weeks!

Ds3 was with us for most of the time after I had ds4. He was 2.5. Inlaws looked after him for a few hours on the day of my c-section, then dh picked him up at lunchtime and brought him and the older 2 to visit me after school. We got into a routine of dh dropping older 2 off at school, coming with ds3 to visit. We would go down to NICU until lunchtime and I would shuffle back to postnatal and dh would take ds3 home. Then dh would come back with the others after school and ds1 would read his school reading book to me and ds4. Then they would go home for tea.

If you don't have someone to take him as presumably your DH will be with you? then hire a nanny for a few days. Thats what we did........