I have 4 weeks left, and I know I'm not lasting that long! It was at this same point when I was pregnant with my daughter that I knew my body was almost done and my water broke at exactly 38 weeks with her, but it was in the middle of the night on a Saturday. I have a back up worker and my main assistant will take my place while I take a whopping 3 week maternity leave.

My main fear is: What if I go into labor while working? What if I can't get a hold of my replacement right away? I don't wanna freak the the kids out. I have preschoolers and afterschoolers only right now, and I don't want to have to answer questions or scare them. Anyone ever have this happen to them?

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You know your body the most, I had planned on working until my due date, I was due October 5 or 9th...around the 2nd I knew I couldn't do another day with daycare kids so I told parents, and October 4th I went into labor and had my son at midnight October 5th....so again...you know your body....have everyone prepared to pick up right away or a trustworthy available neighbor or someone...usually u will start to feel the contractions first or you will have some time between the water breaking and the actual delivery (3rd stage of labor) . How fast was your previous labor?

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Relax. Be in touch with your replacement daily and let her know your concerns and how you're feeling each day.
Get a backup replacement
And. Relax. It's hard to do at this point, but it will all work out.

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I have been thru three pregnancies while expecting. Two babies born on the weekend, last one I took off the week before he was born....it was a very long off and on again labor! the main thing is to listen to your body. dont be afraid to ask for help if you need to take a break and see if what you are feeling is actually labor. also, if you go into natural labor on your own, the vast majority of women will begin at night. thats proven, there is a lot of science behind why.

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Yes, with my twins. It was weird bc I didn't know I was even in labor til I went to my OB for my routine visit. I had my husband (licensed as backup) keep the DCK's since it was nap anyway, thinking they'd just send me home. I ended up going to hospital due to my cervix was dilated/effaced (3/85%) and it was too early so they wanted to stop labor. The thing is, it seemed to have stopped and I got sent home, so resumed working and figured that I'd just finish out my shift. My OB called and asked me back in to do a re-check at 5pm. Unfortunately, TWO of my families were LATE! I could not make it at 5pm (both were to be picked up by 4;30pm) and so my OB had to wait til I could get there. At 6pm I finally got done with dc and when I got there, before you knew it, I was sent away back to the hospital due to one twin had a foot-breech presentation (and that's unsafe for the baby) and had a crash c-section.

Really, if I had felt labor, I would have realistically made my DH watch the kids or brought them with me until they could be picked up by parents/emergency contacts or even if a friend could sit with them until the parents/someone could come get them. If the WORST happened and I had no one, I know our hospital security guards would have sat with the children. This does not happen in all hospitals though, but many many will help in a dire emergency case. I seriously just didn't feel anything and so didn't think much of it at the time but when I delivered again in 2011, I had SEVERAL backups available at a moment's notice.

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Yes, but it was the end of the day. I started having "gas" pains at around 2, asked my assistant if she could help me finish the day by 3:30, and left at 4:15 with my last kid. He was born at 5:50, it all went fast! Pretty much my whole labor was transition. (when I left at 4:15, I was still not sure if I was in labor...)

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For my third my water broke at 4am... She was born (at home/not planned!) at 5:30am! It can go fast! With my other two my water was broke for me so I didn't know once my water breaks its go time!
So just don't wait - once you feel like your possibly in labor or your water breaks get someone there ASAP- maybe if you have more than one poss sub you can have one on call per day or one on call in am and one for pm...
And congrats on the new baby!!!

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If I hadn't closed three days early due to THINKING I was going to have him by morning, I would have gone into labor during daycare and probably would have had my son at home accidentally with all the kids there before parents would have had a chance to arrive. And yes, I had a back up plan for such an event! (I have no problem with the idea of delivering at home...and no problem with the idea of delivering unassisted, either) The back up plan involved phone calls to my sisters, and knocking on the neighbor's door and having her come supervise kiddos while they watched a movie, if need be.

Seriously though, when I finally gave in and went to the hospital to get a bit of pitocin help after THREE FREAKING DAYS of mild labor that was driving me bananas, the pitocin still did very little for me until 2:15. At 2:10 I was checked and was still 4 cm, completely effaced, but DS was still at +2 with his head bouncing up out of my pelvis. Then at 2:15 I felt an actual pop (that was not my water, still don't know what it is....DS rotating into place maybe?) and then a contraction hit that still didn't feel "pitociny" (they had me at a low, low dose as requested) but I knew was the real deal... my sister arrived at the hospital as my doula at 2:45ish and had to leave at 4:15, didn't expect to get to see DS born...but he was in my arms at 3:45. My water broke with the first push, and I think I only pushed for twenty minutes or so. I don't remember.

Looking back, while the pitocin *may* have helped, i don't think it did much. I think things would have progressed pretty much as they did even if I hadn't been in the hospital already...and if I'd been at home, I don't know that I would have had time to get there.

But as I said, I'm cool with that Just not cool with daycare kids being present.

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I'll add this though--if you do go into labor with daycare kids present, don't worry too much about the answering questions. If your water breaks there's nothing wrong with saying, "no, I did NOT wet my pants, the baby is just saying it's ready to be born. Babies float in water in mama's tummy. Now, please go pick a book...I have some phone calls to make..." and elicit the help of those afterschoolers you mentioned. "Big kids! Each of you grab a little buddy and go find something to play! NO FIGHTING!"

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I completely understand being nervous about this. I am as well (I'm 32 weeks).

I had the parents fill out an "Immediate Pick Up" form that stated how quickly I expected them to be here and that they needed to have THEIR emergency back-up people on standby in the event that they were unable to make it in that amount of time. The late fee is higher than normal.
I had them provide their cell phone number, their e-mail address, their child's other parent's cell phone number, and their e-mail address directly on this piece of paper. I have this stack of papers in an easily accessible location so that I can get to it upon going into labor should it happen during the work day.

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I'll add this to anyone who's worrying about it:

TALK TO YOUR BABY!!!!!!

I'm serious! You have no idea the power that just talking to your baby about what you want/need can have!

"Hey, baby, I know you're really warm and comfy in there, but it will be time to come out soon, and I really would appreciate it if you would choose to come out when it's nice and quiet, and NOT when all those noisy yelling people are here, okay? on the weekend, or at night. Not during the day. Or at least, give me enough warning to get ready, okay?"

or if your baby is breech/transverse/posterior...."Sweetie, I really need you to turn head down/turn head down, turn around...it's so much easier on both of us if you come out that way..." and you might want to add having their chin tucked and hands out of the way....

It sounds silly, but certainly can't hurt to try, eh?

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Yeah, it happened to me. I actually had my dad watching the kids while I went to a doctor appt and I ended up having an emergency C-section 3 weeks early. Dad just called everyone and told them to come pick up. You gotta do what you gotta do! Good luck!

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I also recommend having your bag packed and emergency numbers posted and have a couple people that could be there asap. even a neighbor that could just wait with the kids till parents show up. I wouldnt worry at all about introducing this person to the parents or anything like that.....just pick a few people YOU trust and if you use them, the parents are just going to have to deal and if you dont need them, thats cool too.

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That's usually how it works isn't it? You are expecting therefore pregnant?

>>Sorry....I'm being sarcastic (in nice way )

I know what you meant...but couldn't help adding a comment after catching the typo

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Wouldn't it be pregnant therefore expecting?

OP, following on Cheer's suggestion--you could even have nametags made up to slap on the kids in the event that someone unusual has to stay with them.

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yep.... guess it HAS to work that way doesn't it?

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well, YEAH I expect lots of things but (thank the maker) am not always pregnant while doing so!

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Yes it happened to me. Not full blown labor, but the beginning stages. I was working at a center, luckily in the office, and I kept feeling what I thought were contractions. I called my doctor's office and they told me not to worry, that it was just Braxton Hicks contractions. Sure enough I went home and that night went into the hospital. Come to find out, I was having real contractions all day-although they weren't that bad at that time so I stayed at work.
With my second child I also worked at a center. I felt little "gas pains" and went into work that day. I had an appointment that afternoon on my lunch break and sure enough the little "gas pains" were contractions. They said I could still work if I wanted to, but wanted me to get induced 2 days later because of low fluids-so I just left work and actually went in the hospital the day after.
Like other pp's have said, It's your body, listen to it! You know when you are done! I know if my water had broke at work that I probably would have had both of my kids at work. They both came within 2 minutes of my water breaking!
Congratulations

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Yes, was working at a center at the time. I was doing a bus run and started getting pains every couple minutes. My director could see it in my face as soon as I walked in the door. She told me to go lay down on the couch in the school room for a few minutes to see if it got better. Btw, I was convinced it was NOT labor pains because I was only 28 weeks I kept telling them "just another minute, it'll go away" and they said nope, called my husband, and told him to take me to the hospital. They ended up having to stop the contractions and told me that I needed to cut out some stress so they recommended I either go on early maternity leave or take a break from school and boy did I love that early maternity leave

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I did. Was working right through labor and didn't even know it. Thought it was braxtons and just kept working. Finally at lunch I mentioned it to my husband and he told me to time.....4 min apart! I am lifting kids and climbing baby gates and didn't even know! I had my daughter about two hrs after arriving at the hospital!

My friend was a kinder teacher....went into labor early and was on the school room floor when the ambulance arrived! I would say she wasn't prepared either!

I say don't worry. Have a plan and just go with it. There is no way to predict what may or may not happen. You could go on the weekend or tomorrow or two weeks late! There is no way to be THAT prepared. Have people to call and it will be fine. No sense worrying about it.

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I am due tomorrow. I have had several nights of contractions, that almost got to the point of going to the hospital. On Sunday night I was up with contractions every 5-7 minutes for nearly 2 hours - real ones, not BH. Then it stopped. Monday, I felt I may have had a very small leak of amniotic fluid, just drops when I sat down or changed position. Monday night went to bed, woke with wet underwear and a saturated pantyliner. There was no room in the Inn (at the hospital), so they asked me to stay home until labor actually started. It never did, I went in at 6am and they weren't able to detect any amniotic fluid, it had gone back to the very slow trickle I was experiencing on Monday. They sent me home, here I sit. They say I may have a tiny tear up high or baby's head is engaged.

My original plan was to close for 1 week, to have the house to ourselves. Well, we already called off daycare for the rest of the week. My assistant will takeover starting Monday. I'll go in whenever it is determined to be time...

Having a plan is always good, but knowing it will probably morph into something else is reality.

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