So far my labors have been 49 hours and 9 days. I can’t pick someone for logistics who is going to have work conflict. I need to make the assumption going in that someone might have my kids for 72 hours.

Even though my labors defy sanity for length… I am not comfortable with Noah needing to take off and drive 1-2 hours to drop the kids off. San Francisco, Oakland, or even San Jose are quite a ways away. I keep being told “third babies fall out of you”. If I have my first quick birth and Noah misses it… I will be pretty freaked out.

Kids can’t go past the lobby so if my kids are in the hospital… Noah can’t be in the room with me. So waiting a long time for someone to pick the kids up is also mixed.

I think Plan A (or at least the person I’m approaching first) is a kind neighbor for whom I have babysat a number of time. She used to live right next door but now she’s a mile away between my house and the hospital. She doesn’t have a job and she has a lot of available time. She would be ideal if my kids won’t cause her to have panic attacks because they disrupt the routine in her house so much.

I’m nervous about Plan B. My first impulse is to ask the neighbor who lives down the street who babysits for us sometimes… but she has a real job.

Plan C is probably going to be seeing if someone is up for spending a few nights here around the due date. Someone who doesn’t work and who would be happy to hang out with the kids for a few days.

Plan D is probably a solid list of people with jobs who might be willing to hand my kids off all over the valley. Sigh. This plan sounds too much like my last labor where EC kept coming home and going out again because no one had much ability/interest to keep her for all that long at once. Folks only wanted her for a few hours at a time then I had to find a handoff. That was incredibly stressful during my nine day labor.

Folks having jobs is a big hiccup. I need to respect the parameters of your life. You only have to offer what you have to offer. That’s appropriate. I also have to figure out how to make sure my kids are taken care of. It’s a balance thing.