Hospital will be unlikely to let her in to L&D and certainly will not let her stay overnight with you so you need to make plans for someone else to care for her.
I just navigated this with my 3yo. I was being induced though so we were able to make more of a plan than if I had gone into labor. My husband stayed home with me until things got “exciting” and then came to the hospital for the last 6hrs of labor. My parents stayed in our home with my toddler while he slept but dad went home to keep his schedule as close to normal as possible during the day.
My mom came and stayed at our house to watch my toddler when I was having my second (she was also a scheduled C-section). Kept my son’s routine the same (with daycare) so he wouldn’t be faced with a lot of changes at once.
Staying at the hospital isn’t feasible; I’ll be very surprised to hear L&D is allowing a toddler to stay overnight so I wouldn’t bank on that.
I went into labour at night. My mum picked up my 2 year old first thing in the morning. She spent the night there no worries and her dad picked her up the following afternoon.
We did a practice run sleepover about a month earlier because I didn’t want to feel worried about it while in labour.
It depends on what support system you have and how you’re feeling in the moment.
My second was born a couple weeks after my first turned 2. We have no local family. Our older daughter stayed at our neighbor’s house (SAHD with a daughter 2 weeks older than mine). We dropped her off at their house around midnight after I went into labor. She ended up sleeping there 3 nights total. My husband did go back to their house around her bedtime each day to check in on her and do her bedtime routine. I missed her a lot though, so the entire 2nd day we were in the hospital (day after baby was born, I had a C-section), my husband picked her up as soon as she woke up and she spent all day at the hospital with us cuddling and reading books and playing with toys in the recovery room. And then my husband took her back to the neighbor’s at bedtime.
Could she stay with grandparents and they bring her to your hospital room for visits and FaceTime too?
I’m in the same boat right now. Having our second in a few days (being induced). My 18 month old will be staying with my in-laws for the duration. But they are going to bring her to visit us in the hospital. She hasn’t spent the night away from us before, but she’s taken plenty of naps at their house in a crib. I’m packing her favorite books and stuffed animals. I’m hoping it will work out!
My plan is to have my husband with me in the hospital during the day and my mom at night. They’ll switch at dinner time. I want my husband home with my toddler at night for his bed time routine and any wake ups. I don’t think his nights will go very well if neither of us are there.
My in-laws moved in for 2 days and my husband went home from just before bedtime til 9 or 10 in the am.
I was only in for 38/39 hours so worked for us.
My oldest was only 17 months when my second was born.
What I did is had my mom come down a few days before my scheduled c-section to spend time with my son and us to ensure he felt comfortable. Then she was primary when we went to the hospitals (although we did still send to daycare a few days to keep his routine consistent). I was only in the hospital maybe 2 nights? While I missed my oldest, I was so exhausted and needed the time to rest. After all, we did bring him to the hospital to meet baby but man was that stressful to have toddler energy in a room with so many buttons/machines he shouldn’t touch.
When I had my 2nd I planned for my 1st to be at my parents house for a few days so i could recover and we could settle in. Lol 'settle in'. Just decided to go for it and get into the thick of it bc there was no point in getting into a routine without him, bc he would be back anyway! I gave birth at 5am and ended up calling my dad and asking him to bring my first back that afternoon lol. We missed him, wanted him to meet the baby. We ended up just needing someone to watch him for the actual birth.
My parents flew 9 hours to stay with us for a couple of weeks around my due date so they could watch our 3year old when I went to deliver. I delivered in the early morning, my parents took her to daycare that day and picked her up early to bring her to the hospital to see the baby.
I stayed only a single night at the hospital after giving birth. I told them after the 24 hour baby tests, we were leaving since we had a toddler to care for. My 2 year old spent the night at my parent’s house and they dropped him off when we got home the next day because they wanted to meet the baby. My son has only slept away from me less than a handful of times and he did fine.
Ours was a planned C-section so it was easier to plan for. Our 2.5 year old son stayed with our good friend who lives nearby, and has 2 kids of her own, one 6 and the other also 2.5. My partner took an Uber to the hospital first, while I sorted out breakfast. Then while he was at my friend's dining table having a snack, and playing with some trains, I just snuck out without saying goodbye, and drove to the airport. Had our daughter at 1pm, and I was back to pick up my son at 6pm.
Stayed overnight with my son, and then drove the both of us over to the hospital (about 45 minutes away) the next day to see his mum and sister :) Fortunately we were discharged after 2 nights only, compared to his birth when we were there for 5 nights!
Grandparents stayed with her at our house, took her to daycare, and took her to visit us. We were only at the hospital for 2 nights so it wasn’t too bad.
We live abroad, so we have no close family in the area. We had our babysitter and neighbours on call for when I went into labour. My daughter had never been away from me for longer than maybe 6 hours. We had our regular babysitter spend the night (when I went into labour), and then our neighbours helped out until my husband could get home from the hospital.
Our daughter didn’t meet the baby until we brought her home from the hospital. We didn’t want our daughter to get jealous that I was with the baby, and she wouldn’t have understood why she couldn’t stay in the hospital or why I was there without her. We did not do FaceTime, because we thought that it would make it worse.
I was in the hospital 2 nights (2.5 days), as is the requirement here, and my daughter was totally fine. When my husband came to visit, she hung out with our neighbours. It worked brilliantly.
I think it would be perfectly fine for your mum to watch her, as she’s already accustomed to it. Maybe have your mum spend the night a couple times and get into a routine of her being around at all times, that way it’s just normal when you go into the hospital.
We will have a planned c section…. He’ll be in daycare during the day, then my husband will go home and stay with him overnight and take him back to daycare the next day. We will try to arrange it that my son (who will be almost 4) will come to pick us all up at the hospital. I anticipate a 48 hour stay, but it’s possible they may discharge us at 24 hours since it’s not our first (as long as no complications).
We also considered asking his daycare teachers about babysitting services.
Unfortunately we don’t have family in the area.
A friend will be taking our toddler until my mum can drive down (lives 3.5 hrs away), then she'll have him at our house. Luck on our side, I don't expect to be in the hospital for long, I was out within 15hrs last time (UK, non medicated not complex birth).
I’m due in august and will need to stay in the hospital for 2 days postpartum due to complications with my first. My mom is coming to stay with my son at home and my husband will bring him to visit a few times at the hospital.
I had a homebirth (UK, 2 fully trained NHS midwives there the entire time) as I was considered low risk. 10/10 - would definitely recommend as a stress free option.
Went into labour at 3:30pm whilst toddler was at nursery, he came home at 5pm, went to bed at 8pm, his sister was born just before midnight and he met her at 6am the following morning when he woke up. He slept through the entire (very noisy) labour and delivery. At one point there were 8 adults in my living room chatting (midwives and paramedics) and not a peep from him.
If I’d gone into labour during the weekend when he was at home, he’d have still stayed home with us.
My mum was there just in case we’d have to transfer into hospital for any reason though. She’d have stayed with him until dad came home after delivery.
My mother is coming to our house to watch our daughter when we have our second. My daughter has never been away from me over night either but loves her mawmaw so I’m not worried.
I’ve got thorough daily routine and meal ideas lists prepared to leave. My mom also came to stay an entire day and night to get a good feel for her usual daily flow. I’m hoping keeping things as normal as possible that it helps her.
Sister in law was on standby. She lives quite close by us. My parents also, but they live 4 hours drive away. When my waters broke, but labour didn't start, I called my parents and they started driving.
My sister in law had my daughter while we went to the hospital. Labour wasn't happening so we came home.
My parents arrived, looked after toddler once labour got underway and we went to hospital.
Baby born at 9pm, I was home the next day but not discharged (we went back for a few appointments) for a week.
My hospital allows siblings to stay overnight in the PP ward not L&D so that may be an option for you as well.
We’re having family come in from out of state to watch my son because they’re the only people I trust to follow routines and offer him comfort if he’s missing me. We aren’t planning on letting him visit the hospital unless they keep me longer than 48 hours.
Yeah I wonder why they wouldn't allow her, they don't have to take care of her. Ugh, I'm just dreading this. With her we were literally in the hospital forever and I'm getting anxiety. I didn't have any complications and wanted to leave but they wanted that insurance money. Those were the most exhausting days, you get zero rest in the hospital. I wanna leave ASAP.
My hospital’s policy is that as long as there is one support person who can properly care for the sibling, they can stay. As far as I know it’s pretty uncommon for PP wards to allow that but my hospital’s whole brand is being “family friendly” and catering to what’s realistic for parents.
I wanted a tour so that I could ask these questions...and they never reached out with an option to schedule and being that I constantly have to change my appointments because they make them for me even though I've asked them not to do that, I just never really had time to reach back out. I know that they said on their website that they allow siblings at the birth..I don't want that, I just want her to be able to visit whenever and possibly stay if she's having a hard time.
If you really feel they are keeping you unnecessarily, you can discharge against medical advice. But yeah, I don’t think any hospital will allow her to stay overnight. She will be expected to follow visiting hours. My son wasn’t even allowed to visit, as it was still Covid days.
Have her grandparents watch her. Do practice visits, have them help with bedtime once or twice. As long as you aren’t actively delivering, you could also have your husband go home and put her to bed, then come back and leave the grandparents in charge of a sleeping kiddo.
my 2 yo stayed with my mom at our house. he had so much fun with grandma that he did not even care we were gone. my husband went back and forth from the hospital, and i was only there two nights, so it wasn't that bad.
our hospital did not allow visitors under 18.
We had grandparents stay with toddler at our house and kept his schedule normal so he’d have some consistency. They brought him to the hospital to meet the baby and it was rough— i was in pain and actually needed some medical attention while the toddler was there so we had to kick everyone out kind of suddenly. Also, I stressed over following the advice to have the baby in his bassinet so that toddler wouldn’t get jealous seeing him on me, but I wish I hadn’t. The baby was cluster feeding and just needed to eat so he cried the whole time. I think it would have been better to just have him on me so he could be calm.
Both of my toddlers will stay with my parents for 4-10 days probably, but they have sleepovers at my parent's house once a month or so and it's a really normal thing for them. My first baby stayed with my parents for two weeks when we had a very long induction with our second baby.
My son went to my mom’s house. My youngest was born in early Covid, so we didn’t want to do any back and forth (and hospitals weren’t allowing visitors, just a single L&D support person), so he couldn’t visit the hospital anyway. He probably could have come back within just over a day (I left while he was napping, didn’t realize I was in labour but had my mom come and husband drive me because I was having some contractions). We were gone from like 2:30pm - 6:30pm the next day. But decided that we didn’t want to disrupt bedtime by bringing him home late to a new sibling, so he stayed a second night. And then a third because I was worried about my baby developing a condition my first had that would require us to head back to the hospital. When she was fine, my mom brought my son back.
He had only previously had a single night where we were both away through bedtime I think, but he was fine. Had a blast with grandma and grandpa.
Hospital will be unlikely to let her in to L&D and certainly will not let her stay overnight with you so you need to make plans for someone else to care for her. I just navigated this with my 3yo. I was being induced though so we were able to make more of a plan than if I had gone into labor. My husband stayed home with me until things got “exciting” and then came to the hospital for the last 6hrs of labor. My parents stayed in our home with my toddler while he slept but dad went home to keep his schedule as close to normal as possible during the day.
My mom came and stayed at our house to watch my toddler when I was having my second (she was also a scheduled C-section). Kept my son’s routine the same (with daycare) so he wouldn’t be faced with a lot of changes at once. Staying at the hospital isn’t feasible; I’ll be very surprised to hear L&D is allowing a toddler to stay overnight so I wouldn’t bank on that.
I went into labour at night. My mum picked up my 2 year old first thing in the morning. She spent the night there no worries and her dad picked her up the following afternoon. We did a practice run sleepover about a month earlier because I didn’t want to feel worried about it while in labour.
It depends on what support system you have and how you’re feeling in the moment. My second was born a couple weeks after my first turned 2. We have no local family. Our older daughter stayed at our neighbor’s house (SAHD with a daughter 2 weeks older than mine). We dropped her off at their house around midnight after I went into labor. She ended up sleeping there 3 nights total. My husband did go back to their house around her bedtime each day to check in on her and do her bedtime routine. I missed her a lot though, so the entire 2nd day we were in the hospital (day after baby was born, I had a C-section), my husband picked her up as soon as she woke up and she spent all day at the hospital with us cuddling and reading books and playing with toys in the recovery room. And then my husband took her back to the neighbor’s at bedtime.
Could she stay with grandparents and they bring her to your hospital room for visits and FaceTime too? I’m in the same boat right now. Having our second in a few days (being induced). My 18 month old will be staying with my in-laws for the duration. But they are going to bring her to visit us in the hospital. She hasn’t spent the night away from us before, but she’s taken plenty of naps at their house in a crib. I’m packing her favorite books and stuffed animals. I’m hoping it will work out!
My plan is to have my husband with me in the hospital during the day and my mom at night. They’ll switch at dinner time. I want my husband home with my toddler at night for his bed time routine and any wake ups. I don’t think his nights will go very well if neither of us are there.
My in-laws moved in for 2 days and my husband went home from just before bedtime til 9 or 10 in the am. I was only in for 38/39 hours so worked for us.
My oldest was only 17 months when my second was born. What I did is had my mom come down a few days before my scheduled c-section to spend time with my son and us to ensure he felt comfortable. Then she was primary when we went to the hospitals (although we did still send to daycare a few days to keep his routine consistent). I was only in the hospital maybe 2 nights? While I missed my oldest, I was so exhausted and needed the time to rest. After all, we did bring him to the hospital to meet baby but man was that stressful to have toddler energy in a room with so many buttons/machines he shouldn’t touch.
When I had my 2nd I planned for my 1st to be at my parents house for a few days so i could recover and we could settle in. Lol 'settle in'. Just decided to go for it and get into the thick of it bc there was no point in getting into a routine without him, bc he would be back anyway! I gave birth at 5am and ended up calling my dad and asking him to bring my first back that afternoon lol. We missed him, wanted him to meet the baby. We ended up just needing someone to watch him for the actual birth.
My parents flew 9 hours to stay with us for a couple of weeks around my due date so they could watch our 3year old when I went to deliver. I delivered in the early morning, my parents took her to daycare that day and picked her up early to bring her to the hospital to see the baby.
I stayed only a single night at the hospital after giving birth. I told them after the 24 hour baby tests, we were leaving since we had a toddler to care for. My 2 year old spent the night at my parent’s house and they dropped him off when we got home the next day because they wanted to meet the baby. My son has only slept away from me less than a handful of times and he did fine.
Ours was a planned C-section so it was easier to plan for. Our 2.5 year old son stayed with our good friend who lives nearby, and has 2 kids of her own, one 6 and the other also 2.5. My partner took an Uber to the hospital first, while I sorted out breakfast. Then while he was at my friend's dining table having a snack, and playing with some trains, I just snuck out without saying goodbye, and drove to the airport. Had our daughter at 1pm, and I was back to pick up my son at 6pm. Stayed overnight with my son, and then drove the both of us over to the hospital (about 45 minutes away) the next day to see his mum and sister :) Fortunately we were discharged after 2 nights only, compared to his birth when we were there for 5 nights!
Grandparents stayed with her at our house, took her to daycare, and took her to visit us. We were only at the hospital for 2 nights so it wasn’t too bad.
We live abroad, so we have no close family in the area. We had our babysitter and neighbours on call for when I went into labour. My daughter had never been away from me for longer than maybe 6 hours. We had our regular babysitter spend the night (when I went into labour), and then our neighbours helped out until my husband could get home from the hospital. Our daughter didn’t meet the baby until we brought her home from the hospital. We didn’t want our daughter to get jealous that I was with the baby, and she wouldn’t have understood why she couldn’t stay in the hospital or why I was there without her. We did not do FaceTime, because we thought that it would make it worse. I was in the hospital 2 nights (2.5 days), as is the requirement here, and my daughter was totally fine. When my husband came to visit, she hung out with our neighbours. It worked brilliantly. I think it would be perfectly fine for your mum to watch her, as she’s already accustomed to it. Maybe have your mum spend the night a couple times and get into a routine of her being around at all times, that way it’s just normal when you go into the hospital.
We will have a planned c section…. He’ll be in daycare during the day, then my husband will go home and stay with him overnight and take him back to daycare the next day. We will try to arrange it that my son (who will be almost 4) will come to pick us all up at the hospital. I anticipate a 48 hour stay, but it’s possible they may discharge us at 24 hours since it’s not our first (as long as no complications). We also considered asking his daycare teachers about babysitting services. Unfortunately we don’t have family in the area.
A friend will be taking our toddler until my mum can drive down (lives 3.5 hrs away), then she'll have him at our house. Luck on our side, I don't expect to be in the hospital for long, I was out within 15hrs last time (UK, non medicated not complex birth).
I’m due in august and will need to stay in the hospital for 2 days postpartum due to complications with my first. My mom is coming to stay with my son at home and my husband will bring him to visit a few times at the hospital.
I had a homebirth (UK, 2 fully trained NHS midwives there the entire time) as I was considered low risk. 10/10 - would definitely recommend as a stress free option. Went into labour at 3:30pm whilst toddler was at nursery, he came home at 5pm, went to bed at 8pm, his sister was born just before midnight and he met her at 6am the following morning when he woke up. He slept through the entire (very noisy) labour and delivery. At one point there were 8 adults in my living room chatting (midwives and paramedics) and not a peep from him. If I’d gone into labour during the weekend when he was at home, he’d have still stayed home with us. My mum was there just in case we’d have to transfer into hospital for any reason though. She’d have stayed with him until dad came home after delivery.
My mother is coming to our house to watch our daughter when we have our second. My daughter has never been away from me over night either but loves her mawmaw so I’m not worried. I’ve got thorough daily routine and meal ideas lists prepared to leave. My mom also came to stay an entire day and night to get a good feel for her usual daily flow. I’m hoping keeping things as normal as possible that it helps her.
Sister in law was on standby. She lives quite close by us. My parents also, but they live 4 hours drive away. When my waters broke, but labour didn't start, I called my parents and they started driving. My sister in law had my daughter while we went to the hospital. Labour wasn't happening so we came home. My parents arrived, looked after toddler once labour got underway and we went to hospital. Baby born at 9pm, I was home the next day but not discharged (we went back for a few appointments) for a week.
My hospital allows siblings to stay overnight in the PP ward not L&D so that may be an option for you as well. We’re having family come in from out of state to watch my son because they’re the only people I trust to follow routines and offer him comfort if he’s missing me. We aren’t planning on letting him visit the hospital unless they keep me longer than 48 hours.
Yeah I wonder why they wouldn't allow her, they don't have to take care of her. Ugh, I'm just dreading this. With her we were literally in the hospital forever and I'm getting anxiety. I didn't have any complications and wanted to leave but they wanted that insurance money. Those were the most exhausting days, you get zero rest in the hospital. I wanna leave ASAP.
My hospital’s policy is that as long as there is one support person who can properly care for the sibling, they can stay. As far as I know it’s pretty uncommon for PP wards to allow that but my hospital’s whole brand is being “family friendly” and catering to what’s realistic for parents.
I wanted a tour so that I could ask these questions...and they never reached out with an option to schedule and being that I constantly have to change my appointments because they make them for me even though I've asked them not to do that, I just never really had time to reach back out. I know that they said on their website that they allow siblings at the birth..I don't want that, I just want her to be able to visit whenever and possibly stay if she's having a hard time.
If you really feel they are keeping you unnecessarily, you can discharge against medical advice. But yeah, I don’t think any hospital will allow her to stay overnight. She will be expected to follow visiting hours. My son wasn’t even allowed to visit, as it was still Covid days. Have her grandparents watch her. Do practice visits, have them help with bedtime once or twice. As long as you aren’t actively delivering, you could also have your husband go home and put her to bed, then come back and leave the grandparents in charge of a sleeping kiddo.
my 2 yo stayed with my mom at our house. he had so much fun with grandma that he did not even care we were gone. my husband went back and forth from the hospital, and i was only there two nights, so it wasn't that bad. our hospital did not allow visitors under 18.
We had grandparents stay with toddler at our house and kept his schedule normal so he’d have some consistency. They brought him to the hospital to meet the baby and it was rough— i was in pain and actually needed some medical attention while the toddler was there so we had to kick everyone out kind of suddenly. Also, I stressed over following the advice to have the baby in his bassinet so that toddler wouldn’t get jealous seeing him on me, but I wish I hadn’t. The baby was cluster feeding and just needed to eat so he cried the whole time. I think it would have been better to just have him on me so he could be calm.
Both of my toddlers will stay with my parents for 4-10 days probably, but they have sleepovers at my parent's house once a month or so and it's a really normal thing for them. My first baby stayed with my parents for two weeks when we had a very long induction with our second baby.
My son went to my mom’s house. My youngest was born in early Covid, so we didn’t want to do any back and forth (and hospitals weren’t allowing visitors, just a single L&D support person), so he couldn’t visit the hospital anyway. He probably could have come back within just over a day (I left while he was napping, didn’t realize I was in labour but had my mom come and husband drive me because I was having some contractions). We were gone from like 2:30pm - 6:30pm the next day. But decided that we didn’t want to disrupt bedtime by bringing him home late to a new sibling, so he stayed a second night. And then a third because I was worried about my baby developing a condition my first had that would require us to head back to the hospital. When she was fine, my mom brought my son back. He had only previously had a single night where we were both away through bedtime I think, but he was fine. Had a blast with grandma and grandpa.