Childcare while you're in hospital

Who watches your older children while you're in the hospital? My SIL has watched the kids the last three times. The last time though I wasn't happy with how she handled things. She's not exactly excited for us since we're expecting baby 6 & 7. I have no desire to ask her again nor do I think she'll offer. I'm thinking of lining up a babysitter for part of the time and ask my IL's to watch them the other time. It would be an early c/s and overnight for Dh and as soon as I'm walking I can take over in the hospital. I have SO much time to think about this though. Just wondering what everyone else does.

 

I had a scheduled c/s with Annabella. The boys were 19 months old. My mil took that Wednesday off of work so she watched the boys. Then sil watched them on Thursday and dh would go home and spend time with them, etc. Mil would get out of work and sil would go to work. We made it work with his sister and mom and my mom. It wasn't an issue with the scheduled c/s, which is a big reason why we went that way again.

 

Yea, as much as a c/s makes me nervous (had one twin vsginal, on c/s first ever) I love the idea of it being scheduled ahead of time. I'm hoping maybe I can get a babysitter to come over that morning of and spend a chunk of the day, then the il's can come over and spend the night. They will hate that it's better for the kids to have their own bed. Then I'll get up the next morning and dh can go home. If I can walk that night then he doesnt even need to stay. I just need to be mobile to take care of the babies.

 

Do you have any friends or other family in the area? When my parents did a marriage encounter, my sister and I stayed at two different 'neighbor's' houses. I can see where expecting one family to take care of all the kids could be a lot. Would it be possible to split them up for the night? Just putting it out there. That said, my mom and dad watched the twins for the two nights that I was in the hospital with the birth of Evan. They lived 4 miles away from our house at the time and the twins knew them.

 

My Inlaws stayed at my house with the kids when I had Easton. It worked out perfectly! Travis stayed with me the entire time!!

And the scheduled c section worked out in my favor too!

 

My mom watched the twins. I also had a scheduled CS bc baby girl was transverse. When I thought I was doing a VBAC the plan had been to have a local friend come over until my mom could get here (she lives an hour away).

 

I ended up scheduling an induction for my third so my Mom took off work and stayed at our house with the twins. If I had actually gone into labor (like I was supposed to!! Stubborn baby!!) my in-laws were on call and so were a couple of my neighbors.