How long did u stay in hospy after your 2nd/3rd etc birth?

[only1mica]

Hi all

Well after having my planned homebirth moved back to a birth centre...I am just wondering how long I should stay in hospy...

For my first I was in hospy for 2-3 days...but now I am going to have a 24 month old at home and I dont want her to be too disrupted by the whole 'birth'.

I really wanted the homebirth so now I want my DD to be at the birth centre with us...but I am just confused.:o

Part of me thinks I want to be back home the same or next day. But then another part thinks I should stay at hospy a little longer so I can recover a little.

How long were you away from home for your 2nd/3rd births and was it enough/not enough?

Thanks!
Mic

[Kells]

2nd birth - Came home day 3 - missed my 19 month old too much, and like you, felt guilty at disrupting him. Had a nurse out for days 4 and 5 to check on me though (and should have stayed in cos I had a hormonal breakdown during this time! :p). I also dont think I recovered as quickly 'downstairs' cos of the bending and lifting with a toddler.

3rd birth - Bub needed to have surgery so we waited around for 5 days. My other two were 4 and 6 though, and it was a great rest. :yes:It really allowed me to bond with the new baby straight away. (I didnt do this at first with the 2nd baby as I felt too guilty for no 1). My other kids came in every day to see us, and they had a great holiday with Nanny!

4th birth - tomorrow :smiliedance: I am going in at 8am and plan to come home hopefully on Sat or Sun, all going well, preferably Saturday. This is mainly cos I again feel guilty for my toddler! :rolleyes:

Motherguilt hey!

[MumOf4Monsters]

I had my 3rd ds at home. I had planned for the other 2 kids to be there for the birth but unfortunately they were asleep and missed it. It was great to be home with the other kids.

I can remember being in the hospital after dd2 was born and just balling my eyes out because i felt so bad for leaving ds. I felt like he would think that mummy had left him to be with the new baby, which is one of the reasons that i chose to have ds3 at home.

I had ds4 in the hospital but i only stayed in 4 hours, which was the minimun stay. I was nagging the middies to let me go home straight after the placenta was out:laughing:. They all (doctors & midwives) thought that i was mad for wanting to go home so early. I told them that i had three other kids at home, and that i wanted to go home to be with them. They thought that that was more of a reason to stay in hospital:confused:

You will know once you have had bubs weather you are ready to go straight home or if you need a couple of days to recover. You don't need to set anything in stone at the moment, just take it as it comes.

Oh and i think it would be a lovely experience for your dd to witness the birth. Are you planning on having anyone else at the birth other than your dh?

[MumOf4Monsters]

2nd birth - Came home day 3 - missed my 19 month old too much, and like you, felt guilty at disrupting him. Had a nurse out for days 4 and 5 to check on me though (and should have stayed in cos I had a hormonal breakdown during this time! :p). I also dont think I recovered as quickly 'downstairs' cos of the bending and lifting with a toddler.

3rd birth - Bub needed to have surgery so we waited around for 5 days. My other two were 4 and 6 though, and it was a great rest. :yes:It really allowed me to bond with the new baby straight away. (I didnt do this at first with the 2nd baby as I felt too guilty for no 1). My other kids came in every day to see us, and they had a great holiday with Nanny!

4th birth - tomorrow :smiliedance: I am going in at 8am and plan to come home hopefully on Sat or Sun, all going well, preferably Saturday. This is mainly cos I again feel guilty for my toddler! :rolleyes:

Motherguilt hey!


Kells - :hugs:Wishing you luck for the arrival of number 4 tomorrow!!!:thumbsup:

[only1mica]

**bump** :D

[Seekrit]

Thank you for making this post :p Me, the over-planner extraordinaire isn't even TTC or pregnant BUT have been thinking about this..
Like you, I want to birth centre and be home the same or the next day... but I do worry... I didn't have real problems BFing Cobes in the early days, but I did make a trip to the nursery in the middle of the night as he wasn't feeding from one side that as day 2 I think... I also remember being a bit distressed when he wouldn't sleep day 2... but my concern was more for the nearby people trying to sleep than anything else. :p

So I'm no help at all, just wanting to put in my 2 cents, my thank you and now am subscribed so I can watch :p

[only1mica]

lol seek....we will see if anyone else replies :laughing:

[bluey]

DD2 - I had to stay a week after delivery - she was early and I wasn't going home without her.
DD1 - 5 days - the older girls were big 10 and 13, so it wasn't an issue - they were at school all day anyways.
DD3 - 36 hours, I'd had enough I wanted home.

I think it depends on the situation, how you feel at the time, how you recover, so just take it as it comes, and decide after bubs has been born.

[jayisa02]

with DS i stayed 7 nights
with DD i stayed 5 nights (but would have stayed longer if they let me because i didnt feel ready and was having trouble bf)

DS was 4 1/2 when DD was born and stayed with Nanna. I didnt worry about him as he would move in with nanna if he could!!

I had 2 c/s though so its probably different if you have a natural birth. :)

[Mirad3k]

With DS1 12 years ago I stayed for the 3 days
With DD 9 years ago I stayed for 1 day
With DS2 1 month ago I went home same day.
All kids birthed at a public hospital.
I found it was much easier to come home early and get settled using all our own stuff. However I wouldn't have done it if I knew that I wasn't going to be able to relax and recover properly. I had lots of support from DH and the older kids which let me and bubs just rest and get used to each other

[ThisIsLiving]

I stayed in hospital for 5 nights with both my children. Both were c-section deliveries so I really needed the extra days to recouperate, establish breastfeeding and make sure my scar etc was healing properly.

If I were you I would try not to rush home too quickly, as when you have other children at home to care for you are going to be very busy very quickly. :yes: I really used my hospital time to rest and bond with bubby, especially loved the quiet time I had with my second child as my firstborn wouldn't let me out of her sight once I got home!

Like a previous poster said it really all depends on how you and bub are, how recovery is going, feeding etc, so I'd just wait and see how you feel after bubby is born. You will know when you are ready to leave hospital.

Good luck!

[twotrunks]

only1mica:
I have had 3 hospital births and stayed 4 nights with each. I loved the rest, although there was a bit of guilt about leaving the others. I think what I focused on was bonding with the baby... those first few days are crucial and you can never get them back, and I wasn't going to waste them feeling guilty. Especially if you plan to BF, I think you need at least a couple of days to focus on the new baby and have lots of skin contact. Having a few days away from home means you can get lots of one-on-one time with bubs, and the kids at home shouldn't really miss out too much. Mine loved having their dad to themselves for a while too, and I figured there would be plenty of time to be with them once we were home and bubs was asleep most of the time. Of course, if you were considering a home birth, you have probably thought of ways to get time alone with the baby at home... as long as you get enough rest and are happy, it is really up to you!
Good luck.
TT

[funnyfarm]

With DD2 i was only in hospital for 48 hours. As soon as the heelprick was done, i was out of there. Get much better sleep at home in my own bed and i had no complications so no need to stay longer.

With DD1 i was in for 5 days but only because the doctor didn't want to come in over the weekend to discharge me. On the upside, because it was my first, i was still finding me feet with being a new mum and also i had the whole maternity ward to myself with midwives helping me non-stop as they were bored (small country hospital and a very quiet week, the following week was soooo busy)