Also thought I'd share my new stressor - my mil just suddenly tried to invite herself to stay at our house starting tomorrow, I guess until baby is born, be in the delivery room, the whole shebang. She lives several states away so it'd be full on house guest. Now, keep in mind this is way, waaaaay out of left field! She has never even mentioned wanting to be there, and up until last night hadn't even committed to come visit baby until after thanksgiving! So she put DH in a very tight spot, but he held his ground even though she brought on the tears and started proclaiming she was "unwelcome" and all this.
It really hurts my feelings. We have (and by we, I mean "I") have always been sooooo inclusive of her; I invited her to our 20 week ultrasound, wedding dress shopping for our wedding - you name it! She usually doesn't even want to go or be a part of things. We have given everyone carte Blanche to come see the baby immediately after birth, to stay in our home. But now we are suddenly unwelcoming? Ugh. The real issue is, i think, that my mother is here. But that has always, ALWAYS been our plan, and my mom has been extremely involved in my whole pregnancy - not just the "fun" parts.
DH tried to tell her that we have a whole birth plan in place that is based on calm and relaxation - hypnobirthing; that we aren't sitting around partying with my mom - yesterday DH and I worked on our computers from home all day yesterday while my mom Read and knitted, and that it's just not going to work to shift the dynamic at this point

. And MIL would NEVER be able to blend into this sort of situation. She has to constantly have tv on, is on her cell basically 24 hours a day, and demands DH's (and everyone else's) attention. I am quite sure I would be told and retold every horrific detail she could embellish up about her pregnancies 50 times if she was here (which huh, no, not what I'm looking for, but which has been the topic of conversation every time we have seen her since I've been pregnant). I can imagine being in active natural labor and her hounding me about how I should just get the epidural

etc, as she already has. My mom on the other hand is super low key like DH and I, and had two wonderful natural births. THAT is what I need to hear about right now, not the tale of how you had 300 stitches after delivering 2.2 lb DH (also not even sure that is possible)...
All this said I totally love my MIL and get along with her! But this is just not appropriate. And it is just sad because despite how inclusive we have always been, I know this will just become a story she tells her friends about how she was dying to be at our birth and to "help out" and we wouldn't "let her"