Your water has broken, and your husband's speeding through traffic to get you to the hospital before your baby makes his grand appearance. Problem is, there's a carload of relatives trying to keep up, speeding along behind you! The last thing you need to worry about is relatives … or your other kids or pets, the car seat … the list goes on and on. How do you diplomatically delegate to your family so you don't hurt feelings and everybody's happy? What should you do? Write a love letter explaining your wishes and give it out well in advance of the big day! Here's an example:
Dear Relatives and Friends,
We love you. This is a love letter. We know you want to be present when the new baby is born, but we're actually a bit nervous about the delivery. We hope that we don't have additional stress … NOT that you give us stress! We need you to know that it's great if you'll understand your place in the scenario. It's nice to have visitors every now and then, but please remember to "read through the lines" when asking if it's OK to be present at the delivery. Mom or Mom-in-Law? You can help by being a role model for everyone else — patiently wait in the waiting room. Please don't linger in the delivery room with me and don't wait for the doctor or nurse to rush you out of the room when it's time for Baby to come. Please don't bring sick children with you when you come. I DO know it's a wonderful experience for children to meet a newborn in the hospital though, so please DO bring them to visit the baby in the hospital after he's arrived and when the children are well! Man, oh, man we're going to have our hands full for the next several years — I mean, days! Please set up a phone tree of some sort in order to share the good news of our baby's arrival. We love our peeps, but I, for one, don't know that I'm going to want to be on the phone all that much as I'm learning to feed the baby, trying to get some rest and just trying to get acclimated. So, anyway! We know we're ALL excited about the new baby coming! Please just remember these few simple requests and we'll do the same for you someday. Oh, and please use hand sanitizer first! Love, Us and the baby
