Searching for Advice on What to Do with Toddler During Upcoming Delivery

I'm sure your friends would be honored to watch your son and would feel really bad to know you are worried about asking them. Sit down and have a conversation with them about it.

Since you have so much lead time before you go to the hospital, you could call them to give them "heads up" and maybe your son could go there to go to sleep.

Let them make the choice about whether or not your son will be too much for them- and trust them to give you honest feedback on what will or will not work for them.

I recommend contacting sittercity.com ahead of time, screening babysitters and get one in place for at least one shift...they are background checked, fingerprinted etc. Im only 20 wks but its what we plan to use, and they are just all around awesome for when you need them.

Best of luck and congrats!!

We also had a hard time making a plan for what to do with our 22 month old when I went into labor. Are the grandparents available for a late night or early morning trip. I know labor can go fast, but it seems more likely you will have some warning.

Like yours my first labor involved hours of contractions at home before heading to the hospital. The second time around was definitely different because my water broke first, but nothing happened right away. My water broke around 10:30 p.m.. Call me crazy, but what I ended up doing was driving myself to the hospital around 2 a.m. while my husband stayed home with our sleeping toddler until late enough in the morning to drop him off with a friend. It all worked out. I didn't have my baby until the next afternoon, but it is true that I only had about three hours of intense contractions before he was born.

You do still have time to find a babysitter you like and who would be willing to be on call and come to your home to watch your sleeping boy if necessary.

would it be possible for grandma to come and stay with you the week you are due? or for the friend to meet you at the hospital and sit with your son until the grandparents arrive? have you asked the people that you would ask during the day about their willingness to help if it's in the middle of the night? it doesnt hurt to ask, if they're close enough that your husband could just run over and get them and not even wake your son at all, they could just crash on the couch until the grandparents show up. my sister has 4 children and each labor was shorter the fourth being born within half an hour of getting to the hospital and she was only in labor at home for half an hour. good luck and enjoy your new baby!

I don't know what your Grandma and Grandpa's work situation is, but what we did was to send our daughter to stay with my parents the week before the baby was due. They took her to do all kinds of fun things and made her feel so special. And when I went into labor I didn't have to panic about where to take her! My first child came after 14 hours of labor, and my second arrived in less than 4 hours - so it was a lot faster the second time. Anyhow, if you are ok with having your child stay with the grandparents for a couple of days, why not go that route! (Use the time to catch up on your sleep! =)They can bring him to meet the new baby once you're both cleaned up, and you don't have to worry about your child seeing you in pain and suffering through labor (that's what worried me the most, anyway).

Best of luck!!

I think you should ask the friends that you are comfortable with. Don't think of it as an inconvenience: under the circumstances, I'm sure they would be honored and happy to take your little one so you can have your baby.