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@raspberries: This has been stressing me out no end. My family live in a different country and my in-laws are all several states away, so I had hoped that someone from my family or DH's would travel to help us out with this but no-one is willing to actually travel so basically the cavalry is not coming. So I have asked one of LO's daycare teachers who also babysits him sometimes if she could be on call and stay with him over night for night or two. So that is our plan for now. Plan B is one of our friends - but like you, most have little kids/jobs/lives of their own and it's tough to put them in that position. Plan C, which is my least favorite plan but I have to prepare for it is, if we just can't find someone and I have to go it solo and DH will stay with LO. I will be having a c-section so at least we will have a certain date but have to prepare if I go into labor before that date. I thought about hiring a doula for support in the event that DH can't be there but I think I have decided against it as I'm not sure how helpful it would be in a c- section situation. Having kids far from family is TOUGH - but my advice fwiw is hire people and just get into a mentality that you can do this!

I posted a thread like this a few months ago. Ultimately, I ended up with a scheduled induction, so we just had my in laws come the night before. But before the induction was in the game plan, I had a big spreadsheet of friends, family, and babysitters. I organized it by there general availability on each day of the week (ie, Babysitter has a regular job from 4-6 on weekdays, and takes a class from 8-10 on Tuesday AM -s so she's never available those times) and a calendar showing what specific dates people were not available (ie, Friend B is out of town x through y). That way, anyone who was helping me when I went into labor could look at the spreadsheet and quickly see who might be available without bothering to call people we already knew weren't.

We had a few different friends on call to watch DD until my parents could get into town. One was a family in our neighborhood, if I had gone into labor middle of the night I probably would have just suggested one of them come over to our house until the morning rather than try and resettle DD in an unfamiliar bed. I also had a coworker/friend who has no kids and would have been very flexible.

But I went into labor at 10 am on a Sunday (very considerate of DS) and so we dropped her at the neighbor's house at noon and it was no big deal.

We had some close friends that we hang out with often after bedtime so DS was already used to sleeping at their houses. They both agreed to take him at any time day or night till my in-laws could come.

Everyone who has kids knows what it is like. Don't underestimate people's willingness to out of their way to help you! One night of less sleep to watch your kids while your in labor likely is no big deal, but an honor.

This was the most stressful part of having my second baby. Our plan ended up with my BIL and SIL as our first call- day or night, we planned on trying them first (they lived very close to us and worked in the city near us, but I was worried they wouldn't be able to leave work quickly or answer their phones, or take a day off with no notice). Back up plans were three different mom friends who offered. They all lived locally and if I had gone into labor in the middle of the night, the mom probably would have come over to our place and stayed the night with my LO, then brought her back to their house to watch her with her own kids during the day, while their husband would have stayed home with their own kids. And some combination of those people could have traded her off day and night depending on schedules. It helped that all of these people were walking distance from us so we didnt need to worry about car seats. I would have felt like I was burdening the mom friends but I also knew that I would have been very happy to do it for them, so I was OK with it.

As it turned out, labor started in the evening and my BIL came over and stayed the night with LO, SIL came over in the morning and spent the day with her, and DH went home and spent that night with her while I stayed in the hospital.

I agree that as a friend I would be happy to leave DH home with the kids in the middle of the night and go watch someone else's sleeping kids if they went in labor. NBD in my book. I could probably snooze on their couch even if needed until other care arrived.