If you had a homebirth what did you do with your other children while it was happening?

[Picante]

I have a ds who will be 3.4 when I'm due with my second in August. I'm hoping for a homebirth but not sure what's best to organise for ds.

If it happened in the night, did you transfer your older child to another house or did you just hope they didn't wake up? Did you let them stay for the beginning of labour if it was during the day?

I had ds at home in november and luckily he was born at 3.15am so both dd's were in bed. dh was at work so my mum and dad came over and mum looked agter me while dad was upstairs with dd's

Did it put you off knowing they were upstairs? Did you feel less relaxed? I don't think I'll be making too much noise as we're semi-detached, (!) but I think I'd be worrying about waking ds.

Well my IM is going to bring one of the other mw's with her to my birth so if needs be the 'spare' mw can watch dd.

Before I booked my IM the plan was to have a doula who would either watch dd if needed (otherwise support me) or she could support me while dh watched dd, depending on how dd & I felt at the time.

We did have a friend who said she'd look after dd whatever time of day it happened but it would mean dh driving over there while I was in labour and as I laboured quickly last time I wasn't sure about it.

i didn't really think about the noise factor. but because my dad was upstairs i knew they wouldn't come down at all. they slept through any noise i did make.

They slept both times

My sister was there as an extra in case they woke.

DD1 slept right through it (contactions started at 9pm, DD2 born at 3.15am), woke up in morning to meet her sister - was lovely. We had best friend on standby to come get her if needed. Midwives said very common for HB's to happen in night with other siblings asleep - mother's subconcious or something??!

Oh well here's hoping! Maybe I should worry more about the neighbours...

I live in a flat and no one heard me (or maybe they're just too polite to say!)

my neighbours claim not to have heard mine, even though we live in tiny adjoining houses with almost no backyard. i also suspected they were being polite...

am also just hoping for the best regards ds sleeping through my yelling and mooing. if he does wake up, we should have dh, midwife and doula here, so hopefully someone can distract him with some bob the builder on dvd or something!

My DH looked after DS1, who was 4 when DS2 was born. They spent an inordinate amount of time at the other end of the house making the world's most complex Lego spaceship. This was very useful for DH, who I think had a nasty time of it during my first labour, so he found it helpful to have an alternative role instead of standing around feeling powerless.

Most of my 5 hour labour was during the day, and for about 2.5 hours of it I screamed my heart out, but DS1 came down to see me a few times, and seemed reassured that although I was screaming during contractions, I was quite normal inbetween. On reflection, it probably wasn't that different from a normal day for him, brief periods of normality interspersed with irate screeching being pretty much my standard mode in parenting.

gizmo. i really hope that ds can process it okay if he's awake for any of it. i'm just terrified about him being worried about me. he seems overly concerned even if i just stub my toe or something.

I'm sure it helped that DS1 was a relatively big boy and I was able to say to him: it's going to hurt mummy and she will probably yell, but it's well worth the pain for the end result. As it was, he got to see DS2 5 minutes after he was born and spent the rest of the afternoon snuggled up with all of us on the sofa, so he processed what I'm sure was actually quite an anxious morning for him quite well.

ds will be 2 3/4 so might be harder for him, but i hope he can be reassured about it. i'm trying to involve him in the process as much as possible so he can understand in his own way. the idea of them snuggling up straight away with new sibling is just gorgeous

I think my DD will be there for mine as well, possibly with my mother acting as crowd control/tea lady.

My worry is that the DSDs will be there and need to be 'got rid of'. My horror is that their EVIL mother will come and collect them while I'm in labour and I'll murder her be not at my best.

I'm the third person now to say DS2 was born at 3.15am (how freaky is that Tegan and BelleBelle).

DS1 slept through it, he was 4 at the time. Only you can know how good a sleeper your own child is.

I would also say it seems to be the case for a lot of people that they don't go into labour at home until they are relaxed enough about their other DC, that is why so many births seem to be at night. With DS2 I had contractions at 5pm but they went away after an hour. Labour proper started at 1.30 am and DS2 was born at 3.15 am.

Nothing compares to DS! getting up in the morning to see a new babyhad appeared while he was sleeping

For the first HB (born around 11am), his grandmother took the older child to town and to the park for the last two hours. Second time around the baby was born at 11:30 in the evening and they were both asleep.

I had all 4 DC around whilst having my home birth..... It was mothers day last year!! So it was fine. My dd age 12 was helping midwives, making tea etc. And my eldest was poking head round the door as baby was born ' mum, it's a boy!' she said! Better than hearing it from a stranger. Birth was fab, really enjoyed it. Kids were there, it was relaxed and easy. They all had a positive experience.

Oh ILoveTIFFANY that sounds so ideal!