When did u start to be at "battle stations"

[mrsnlw]

Got the bag packed, everything ready at home but when did/do you start to think about getting to hospital etc? Like keep an eye on traffic, road closures (I live in West Yorkshire and Tour De France is passing my house near enough). Another thing, when did u start to stay near home and your partner be on alert for that phone call and not have any alcohol incase the time comes as he will need to drive?

Er, never did any of that!
Dh was working away (about 3 hours drive) an I just rang when I'd had a days worth of contractions.
Packed back just before leaving for hospital.
Drove to seaside during early labour (2 hour drive) day before dd was born whilst having contractions all day.
Dh wasn't on an alcohol ban but doesn't drink much anyway.

My hubby doesn't drink a lot or anything, maybe a glass of wine an evening.

I suppose we will hopefully have fair warning

Dd was my first and it went on for 3 days (!!) so we had plenty of time.
I'm hoping things happen a lot quicker this time!

Nope, none of that.

DH didn't drink and I just randomly chucked stuff in a bag when I went into labour 4 weeks early. I got DH to bring anything else I'd forgotten when he visited the next day.

We walked to the hospital, and I think the only time I didn't go out for a planned dinner was the day my waters broke. I worked until my due date too.

I was terribly overdue, with no hint of labour before - so I just didn't see the need to be at home. I was trying to distract myself...

I didn't do any of that! You don't have to stay near home - just take your notes with you if you go far. I was in another city 200 miles away a week before my due date. Husband didn't get hammered or anything but he still had the odd beer and if he'd not been in a fit state to drive and needed to we'd have called a taxi. Never checked traffic or road closures.

When you first feel contractions, take 2 paracetamol and go to bed and try to sleep. Don't waste valuable energy thinking 'battle stations' when you could be up for another 48 hours....

I never did any of that either. DH doesnt drive so he didnt have to worry about not drinking etc, and I just assumed that when I went into labour id (1) see if my dad was free to drop me at the hospital or (2) get a cab.

As it was I was due a week before Christmas and the only plan I made was asking someone at the christmas lunch to stay sober incase I needed taking that day - there were 15 people there and most of them volunteered in advance! Dd arrived before christmas so my one and only plan was redundant.

I was just considering it at 39+1 when I went into labour :)

I just like to be organised but now feel silly :-/ Want it to just hurry up and happen!

I packed bags at about 35 weeks with dd1 and 2 but packed them last weekend (29 weeks) with dc3 as I'm at risk of early labour. I haven't done anything more than that.
I wouldn't worry about traffic as that is something that changes but I'd probably want to know about major road closures anyway.
DH covers quite a large area for work and will arrange his appointments so that he doesn't go more than 2-3 hours away from 38 weeks and will keep his phone with him instead of leaving it in the car.
I dont worry about drinking. DH might drink too much to drive (in which case I'd get a taxi if needed) but doesn't drink enough to be a problem in terms of birth support.

I didn't ban DH from drinking but I did ask him to consider that he might need to drive me to hospital with not much notice.

Um, never!

To be fair, a massive road closure for an annual event occurred just after my due date, so we did have back up plans on that day (literally could not have got from our house to the hospital by road that day). Certainly never kept an eye on traffic!

I didn't stay home at all. Very few people go into labour incredibly suddenly, especially with their first. I happily travelled up to about an hour from home regularly even when I was overdue. My DH continued to travel up to three hours away for work throughout.

DH did keep his alcohol intake to a level where he could drive if needed from about my due date.

I'm 34 weeks and planning to get my bag packed in next week or so. DH has decided he won't drink from about wk 36 (but he's not bothered about drinking much anyway). Haven't thought about road closures but as we're in Edinburgh and the festival is in full swing on my EDD we might have to!

i'm nearly 36 weeks with my first. dh works away a lot but has organised himself so that he will be at home from about 38 weeks. and when he isn't around, my mum is going to be available just in case (dh takes the car with him when he works). my hospital bag is packed but apart from that, I think we'll just see how it goes.

the thing I am most concerned about is that we live in a very busy seasonal tourist town and I am due on the first weekend in august. we live right on the main tourist street, in a flat over a shop. there is no parking to speak of outside, so if I suddenly need to go to hospital, dh (or whoever) is going to have to negotiate a load of people, park on double yellow lines and heave me into a car (with a coach load of Japanese tourists staring at me). I'm sort of hoping I go into labour in the middle of the night!!!

Bestnames - Probably not. It ain't like the movies. He pulls up outside. You wait for a contraction inside the front door, get through that one, walk fairly normally to car and are away before the next one. It's not normally hobbling screaming woman half walking, half being carried. Especially not for a first. You've probably got 2-3 minutes to get from door to car between contractions.

penguins that's the problem... if he can't manage to park outside, (even on double yellows) which is a very real possibility if it happens on a Saturday afternoon in August, then it is more than a 2-3 minute walk under normal circumstances to the next nearest place he can park. could be fun!!

Then I would say that the back up plan is that he doesn't park. He makes like a taxi and pulls up outside wherever he can, even if this is double parking and blocking traffic. You jump in, he grabs bags, job done. The worst that can happen is a few people honking.

I think that's what we will end up doing. or I may just set up camp at my PIL's lovely big house with lovely big garden and demand to be waited on hand and foot

Didn't. Just stayed at home. Easier.

We had a hospital bag sort of packed around 38 weeks and the number for a taxi comapny recommended by the hospital (no car) but that was it. I still went out and about both during the day and in the evening if I felt like getting out. DH did the same - still saw friends after work etc. I did ask him to keep his mobile on from about 38 weeks, but he couldn't always answer anyway (meetings etc). In the end my waters broke as I crossed the road outside a cinema one evening, 3 days overdue, on my way to see a film - cue comedy taxi ride to hospital, then a walk home to wait for labour to start...and a walk back to hospital a day later to be induced after literally nothing else happening. Definitely glad I didn't wait around at home - and no one noticed the wet trousers, though the taxi driver was quite excited by the (totally unnecessary) dash across town to the hospital.