Our new baby, installment #13

After the home birth midwife and my husband and I discussed the logistics of who would watch the kids when I went into labor (like, on a Saturday afternoon)I called my parents.

"Do you want to be there?"

"Of course," they said. "We would love to."

"Can you check your nervousness and negativity at the door?" I asked.

"Yes," they both said.

So I went and reported this back to my husband and the midwife, who both looked at me skeptically.

Then, a few weeks later, having Sunday dinner with my parents, we discussed this plan some more.

"Well, just tell me what to do if you say you want an epidural," mom said, knowing that such pain relief would require transfer to the hospital.

That was the deal breaker. It was clear that the default setting in her brain was THIS WILL BE UGLY AND MY ROLE IS PROTECTOR.

I called mom later to tell her she and dad were off the hook. We now had no plan B for childcare.

Mom admitted to being relieved. I guess I was too.

There was one phenomenon working in my favor, however. It is a statistical fact that the majority of women tend to labor through the night. (For nocturnal creatures, the opposite is true.) In my next post I will explain why.