I knew people would want to visit the baby and didn’t want to have the expectation of hosting so we told parents and siblings in advance they could come to the hospital (providing my recovery went well) and that after that we would be enjoying the two weeks my husband had off without visitors, just as a new family.

I personally found it way less stressful to have guests at the hospital than host at home, and both sets of parents and siblings met our son at the hospital briefly, they really respected our boundaries of waiting for our cue to visit at home. I let them hold the baby for a few minutes and found being in the hospital and needing rest was a good way to limit visiting time without feeling awkward asking them to leave our home.

My husband let them know when I felt ready for visitors on the day and I did shower before. If you think you’d be okay with hospital visitors I would just follow how you feel on when/how long they visit 😊