Where to live when give birth

[Ljhunt]

Baby due early September. We’re renovating our house so cant live there. Currently renting a flat round the corner but it’s tiny and very dark/cold (we had to turn the heating on on Friday even though it was boiling outside!). Not sure where pram would live.

we’re very fortunate in that we do have other options. One such is to move in with my parents for the first two months until our house is ready, there’d be much more space and much more comfort but it’s outside London, about a 1.5-2 hour drive away. Two things I’m worried about - is this going to be complicated in terms of midwife/hospital appointments / registering the birth etc? Will we find ourselves constantly having to drive into London with the baby? And is this a huge undertaking with a new born?

secondly, my parents often aren’t there and once my husband returns to work (it could be remote working at first), I worry that I will feel quite isolated in the weekdays alone with the baby? In London we would have had people popping in every now and then. We’d have visitors on the weekend but unlikely any during the week. In London I could just pop to the shops or for a coffee with baby in sling but here it would be a drive to get anywhere which I imagine is a lot more complicated?

any advice much appreciated, I’m a FTM so just can’t imagine what it will all be like!

Registering the birth is very easy. You choose online where to do it, and there are tonnes of places, so you certainly wouldn't have to go into London for that.

Health visitors come to you for the checks, you don't travel. So as long as you man it clear what your address will be, they will be able to sort it.

Babies usually love a short trip in a car seat. They usually fall asleep, and as newborn car seats can usually be carroed or attached to pram (depending on what you get) you don't need to wake them when you arrive so they snooze in the seat while you have your coffee.

Might be a bit isolating. Depends on how you feel about that. You may just want some time to relax after the birth. If you breast feed, you'll be spending a big chunk of time on that in the first week or two, and its not much of a spectator sport! I felt much more like visitors a few weeks after.