Well, for daytime on weekdays, Holden went to a nanny. We figured we’d keep that pretty much in place. We checked with her schedule and asked if early-arrivals or late-leavings were possible. Also asked about any weekend availability just in case.

For nighttime on weekdays, we designated one person to come over and sleep at our house before the morning nanny arrived. We’d arranged that Nanny could come early and Person-sleeping-over could be a single friend or half of a couple.

Weekends were trickier to plan for. Instead of the regular routine, we looked for friends with kids who would welcome Holden to glom onto their existing plans and routines.

We are lucky to live 3 miles from the hospital so we imagined that my husband, Alec, could fill any of the gaps between shifts of care. This is actually not practical but we were able to fool ourselves.

About four weeks before my due date, I emailed the whole team with the “shifts” and each other’s contact information (probably most important) along with Holden’s regular routine and dos and don’ts inviting any feedback.