Has anyone had a homebirth with other young DCs still in the house?

[Thankyouandgoodnight]

And if so, who looked after them?

I had ds2 at home while ds1 and dd were asleep. At the time we were lucky enough to have a lovely au pair who was hoiked out of bed that night and sent to sleep in with dd so she could look after her and stop her wandering around if we were still going in the morning. As it was, it was a v fast labour and we were all done and back in bed by 3am. Older kids allowed in to see me and ds2 at around 9am. Bliss. Do you have anyone near by who would be happy to come in and look after kids or sleep in with them if you are labouring at night?

That's the trouble - the place is small and I really think that I don't want anyone else here.

I've had three homebirths, so two with children in the home. DS2 was born at 20.15h, and while DS1 went to bed at 19.15, he slept blissfully through my moaning. It was DH who put him to bed while two midwives looked after me.
DS3 was born at 5.30am, and again the two boys were asleep and did not wake. If they had, then my DH would have to look after them, and then sadly miss the birth, but it never came to that.
Should I have given birth during the day, we had various friends lined up, that would take the boys to their home for a play. We also had friends available who would babysit in case I (andDH) needed to go to hospital.

I've had three homebirths, so two with children in the home. DS2 was born at 20.15h, and while DS1 went to bed at 19.15, he slept blissfully through my moaning. It was DH who put him to bed while two midwives looked after me.
DS3 was born at 5.30am, and again the two boys were asleep and did not wake. If they had, then my DH would have to look after them, and then sadly miss the birth, but it never came to that.
Should I have given birth during the day, we had various friends lined up, that would take the boys to their home for a play. We also had friends available who would babysit in case I (andDH) needed to go to hospital.

I had dd at home (unintentionally!) in little 2 bedroom house. It sounds ridiculous but knowing my ds was asleep and not wanting to scare him stopped me shouting - was lucky as it was an easy delivery though. She was delivered by my dh and mum, and midwife arrived 20 mins later!

Ds was shocked next morning though, as we'd prepared him for whole hospital, nana looking after scenario!

I had number 2 homebirth while DD1 ws in house. She woke up and my best mate / DD1's Godmother came over as soon as I went into labour. The 2 of them curled up in her bed and sang songs, read stories etc. Then as the head began to crown I got DP to go and get her and bring her in. She sat at the end of the bed said 'hello mummy' and sat looking like she's explode with excitement. Then once DD2 was born she crawled over and cuddled up with s, it was lovely.

Birth no 3 was a daytime home water birth and the 2 of them running around being all manic and wanting to get in pool they went to mums for the day but were back in time to see their new sister when she was an hour old.

I had 2 home births. DD1 was 2 and there was noone here but dh. Luckily our neighbours, bless them, offered to look after her for a bit when it became a bit awkward! I had ds1 at 2:30 in the afternoon!
When dd2 was born my MIL was here and she just happened to take them both for a walk as dd2 was born at 9am, good timing!
I was going to have ds2 at home and dd1 was 8 by then but unfortunately things went a bit pear shaped and poor dd1 was a bit shaken up.
With hindsight i think I would have arranged a definate place for them to be when labour was established as none of my births were convieniently overnight!

Starlight - my older two sleep like logs and rarely wake, so I'm pretty sure they didn't hear anything - also they were two floors above (we have a tall, thin house) so that helped. Not so sure about the au pair, although, bless her, she pretended she hadn't heard anything. Still, I reckon I made a valuable contribution to her future - she certainly won't be taking any chances with contraception any time soon.

Thankyou - do you have a near neighbour who could tiptoe round and get dc when you go into labour?

To be honest, unless he walked in on you mooing and cursing, he probably wouldn't be bothered by odd noises (unless you live somewhere that is usually v quiet). It's just finding someone to be in charge while you and dp/dh are busy elsewhere.

Hi, I had DS at home while DD was upstairs asleep. labour started about 11pm and DS born 5.30am and DD didn't even stir.. but we do have dog so M&D came to collect him and where oncall should DD wake up.

I do have a friend who will willingly take her - it's just when to make the call and could we get away with it and she sleeps through......I guess it depends on random wake ups and emergency transfers to the ozzy!

I had 2 homebirths and DS (20 months at the time)was shipped off to inlaws at 7am. DD was born at 3pm however if she would have been born at night we would have left him asleep and would have brought him to inlaws when he would have woken up.

I wanted to be alone during both homebirths and an active 2 year old would not have helped me concentrate on giving birth

My youngest two were both homebirths. Ds3 was born at 5.30am, having laboured all night, the other two slept through it all (the first night ever DS2 had slept all night ) and woke up very shortly after their new brother was born. just me, Dh and the midwifes. By the time DS4 was due we just assumed he would be born at night like all the others so had a bit of a shock when i went into labour at 7.30am!
We rang my mum but she took hours to arrive (she only lives 75 mins away and she arrived at 1 pm when it was all over) so we left the other 3 playing in the playroom and dh popped in and out to check on them which I didn't like much but there wasn't much option.
I think by the final stages they must have all been stacked up outside the sitting room door, because as soon as DS4 was born I said to Dh "oh let them in now" and they were in in seconds and very pleased to see the cord was still attached - they were 7, 5 and 2.5 at the time.

Hi thankyouandgoodnight. I've had two homebirths with the kids in the house. During the first they were downstairs watching Toy Story and they ran up the minute he was out to look at him, still attached by the cord. It was lovely.

The second time my three kids were all asleep and managed to sleep through my baying like a donkey noises, bizarrely.

I worried both times about who would look after them. A few people offered so I had a contingency plan but never needed it in the end.

I think the body chooses good times to go into labour on the whole. After all, we don't often hear about babies being born supermarkets do we?

my two were asleep when DS3 was born - although DS1 had only just dropped off.

My sister was here and put them to bed and then sat on the top stair until DS3 was born

As planned, I had DD at home ten years ago this very evening. DS1 and DS2 were in the house and mil was looking after them.(Bless her, she was terrified that something would go wrong and it was 30 years since she had done her medical training!) Anyway, it was all quite quick but I do remember thinking I didn't want to make a loud noise to scare the boys so I sort of channelled the effort and noise into concentrated pushing...must have been near the end.

It was wonderful afterwards for the boys to meet their sister so soon and for dh to spend the night with a newborn, which he hadn't done before as they were hospital births.

I had DD2 at 3am - DD1 was in the next room and slept through. It was such a lovely surprise for her in the morning.
DD3 was born about 9am - my mum was staying and took the children downstairs to watch a video when things started getting well underway. I think she turned up the sound quite loud. If the children did hear anything though, they weren't bothered by it.