Preparing for baby can feel overwhelming. Well, because it is! Between preparing the nursery, stocking up on supplies, and the exhaustion you may feel from growing a human, there is no doubt that being pregnant is a challenging, yet rewarding time.
I love lists and used them throughout my whole pregnancy to ensure organization – plus, hello pregnancy brain and easily forgetting things!
I have compiled a list of things that I did, and a few that I wish I did, before baby arrived in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. After all, those first few weeks postpartum are a time for you and your baby to get to know each other – you probably won’t want to do anything else, and that’s okay!
1. Prepare for Birth
You may be thinking… “I just found out I am pregnant, I don’t need to worry about birth for a while!”
In all honesty, preparing for birth form day one is SO important, and something I wish I would have done sooner than I did.
Many mothers are nervous about birth, many are excited, and many are a little of both; however, no matter what your feelings are toward birth, preparing your body for this time is an essential part of pregnancy.
I was excited to give birth and didn’t have many fears going into both pregnancy and birth. Throughout my pregnancy, I kept trying to remind myself that my body is made to do this and it knows what it’s doing.
Keep in mind that birth is 50% physical, 50% mental.
There are so many techniques and strategies for preparing your body and mind for birth. For the sake of your time, I won’t go over all of them here, but I do have a few awesome resources and ideas below to help get you started.
Mama Natural
This is a wonderful resource for pregnancy, birth, and even parenting! I used her very informational and detailed book throughout my pregnancy and continue to use her website. She offers lots of courses and even has her own supplements. Side note: I took the Mama Natural Prenatal Probiotic throughout my entire pregnancy and loved it!
The Baby Academy
This resource offers various classes, both free and paid options. The awesome thing about The Baby Academy is that they will work with your insurance for some of the available classes in order to get them to you for free! I took several of their classes while pregnant and found them very informative.
Contact Your Hospital or Birthing Center for a Tour
I toured the hospital I was to give birth at around 32 weeks pregnant and I cannot recommend doing so enough! Instantly after the tour, I felt several of my anxieties lift. Since I am a planner, I had many questions in mind, and with this being my first birth, I wasn’t too sure how everything worked. The tour allowed both myself and my husband to see everything first hand, get a feel for the things we will need to bring, meet some of the staff, and ask any questions we had.
Create a Birth Plan
Making decisions about your birth, before birth will help not only your mental state during the process, but, of course, your physical state as well. Your birth is YOUR birth, no one else’s. You have the right to choose what you want.
A birth plan does not have to be a fancy document typed up and laminated (but can be if you want!). It can be as simple as telling your partner or provider what you do and do not want during your birth experience.
My best advice? Have a birth plan, but go into it with an open mind because you never know how it will go – whether this is your first time, or tenth time, EVERY birth is different.
Always remember, birth is a marathon. Be prepared for that marathon!
2. Create Your Baby Registry
This one seems obvious, right?
I recommend doing this sooner, rather than later because pregnancy goes SO FAST!
Early on in my pregnancy, I was very nauseous. I’m talking all day, every day, for the first fourteen weeks, then slightly less until 20 weeks – what a hard season of life that was!
Since I was so nauseous, it was so hard to do anything besides sit on the couch – going for walks and exercising was close to impossible, eating out, or eating anything in general, was a thing of the past, and even using my phone or watching TV made me sick.
So, needless to say, I did not start my registry until the nausea subsided, but I really wish I could have started it sooner.
Researching the right products to fit your family’s needs is VERY important when deciding what to put on your registry. Yes, most registries have checklists and suggestions available; however, finding products that fit your lifestyle is most important.
Not sure where to start? I created this Ultimate Baby Registry Guide to help finding baby products easier, but, again, make sure the products fit what YOU need.
In addition, I promise that your new bundle of joy does not need thousands of dollars worth of items. They grow so very quickly, and simpler is easier in those first few months!
3. Stock Up on Diapers
Whether you have a diaper raffle at your baby shower, or slowly purchase various sizes throughout your pregnancy, having a decent stockpile of diapers is something that I would recommend to any mom.
Now, you may be asking… Why is this necessary? Don’t most stores sell diapers?
I recommend a stockpile of diapers for a few reasons.
First, your baby may arrive bigger or smaller than expected as measurements are only guesses!
I was measuring average until about 32 weeks, and then I started measuring bigger.
So, just when I thought I was going to need a decent amount of newborn-sized diapers, I ended up needing more size ones.
Second, all babies are different, and, in my opinion, all diapers fit babies differently!
Before having a child that wore diapers, I figured it was pretty much a one size fits all scenario – you just go based off the weight ranges, right? Wrong. My son wore size three diapers by the time he was two and a half months old, while his cousin, who was seven months old, also wore size three diapers in the same brand! Obviously, my son and his cousin were different weights, so going based off of baby comfort is the easiest way to tell what size diaper baby should be wearing.
Third, babies grow at different rates and hit growth spurts at different times. Just when I thought I had the diaper size figured out, my son would hit a growth spurt and immediately need to size up – at first, it seemed like a never ending battle!
All in all, you won’t know what size your baby will need until they get here, and having a stock of multiple sizes and brands will save you lots of time and headache in the long run. You will find a diaper brand, or two, that you like most and stick with it, eventually making the sizing challenge easier.
4. Prepare Your Home
When you think of preparing your home, you probably think that I mean the nursery, but that’s only a small part of it! While the nursery is important, don’t forget to focus on the other parts of your home as well.
Here are a few things that I did to prepare my home for baby.
– Deep Clean
I did my best to deep clean all parts of my home before baby’s arrival. Did I get all of the cleaning done that I wanted to? Nope!
Between both my husband and I working full time, along with everything else we were doing to prepare for baby, there just wasn’t enough time to get everything done, BUT we did accomplish a majority of it. I made a list of all the things I wanted to accomplish and labeled in order of importance, ensuring I would get the most important things done before baby’s arrival.
Although it can seem like there is SO much to deep clean, don’t stress – it will only make things harder on yourself and your family. Instead, make a plan and do your best. You got this!
– Room-Sharing Set Up
Room-sharing is something that I knew I wanted to do from the get-go for baby’s safety, and my sanity. Also, it makes those first weeks and months much easier. I set baby’s area up in our room a couple months before he was born to ensure we had everything placed where we wanted it and got used to the layout. Now, that is not a necessary step, but we have a smaller home, so we have to use our space sparingly. Plus, it gave me enough time to get everything organized and think about the placement for easy access to everything that I need.
Initially, we used a bedside bassinet – this made middle of the night feedings and soothing much easier. There are so many bassinets out there to fit all kinds of needs.
Near the bed/bassinet was a three-tier storage cart. This held several commonly used items such as blankets/swaddles, extra sheets, baby care items, breastfeeding supplies, burp cloths, sound machine, and thermometer. I will be honest, the organization of this cart seemed to change weekly as my and baby’s needs changed. So, if you do decide to build out one of these carts before baby’s arrival, don’t stress too much about the layout as it will most likely change.
The last thing that I set up in our room was the diaper changing station. This did not come until after baby’s arrival as I wasn’t sure how everything would play out. Again, limited space!
I simply placed a travel baby changing mat at the foot of our bed – it has pockets to hold diapers and wipes, so everything stayed in one place and was easily accessible. These travel mats are great because they fold up and can allow for changing virtually anywhere!
– Prepare for Feeding (Bottle Cleaning Station, Bottle Warmer, Etc.)
This was something that we purposefully did not spend a lot of time on until after baby arrived, for a few reasons!
First reason, I wasn’t sure what baby’s feeding preferences would be. Would he strictly want to breastfeed, or would he prefer the bottle? Would I be able to produce enough for him, or will I need to use formula and do combo feeding? As a first time mom, it is SO hard to know what to expect.
I knew I wanted my baby to have mainly breastmilk, and luckily, I was able to produce enough from the beginning; however, due to a tongue tie, and him being a very greedy eater, he preferred to have a bottle. So, within a week of him being born, I became an exclusive pumper – and I was okay with that! Fed is best.
Luckily, I came into it prepared for any scenario.
We had several different types of bottles on hand, along with a bottle warmer, bottle sterilizer, wash basin for the sink, and a bottle drying rack.
My best advice? Be ready for anything, especially if this is your first! All babies have different preferences.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to buy or register for lots of different items, but being prepared for different scenarios will help you out tremendously!
5. Order Your Breast Pump Through Insurance
This one seems to surprisingly be skipped over! Typically, most soon-to-be mothers order their pump around 30 weeks. I ordered mine around 25 weeks to ensure everything would go through correctly with insurance.
Insurance is just so fun, right?
Luckily, there are several websites out there to make ordering your pump as easy and seamless as possible.
Personally, I used Aeroflow Breastpumps to order my pump and had a great experience! They have a super simple process that allows you to check your insurance eligibility, select your needed products, and have it shipped straight to your door. After your baby is born, they will follow up with replacement pump parts and more storage bags if needed – typically all covered by insurance!
You can also give your health insurance provider a call to see what the process looks like for receiving your covered breast pump.
6. Get Postpartum Ready
It may be hard to imagine, especially as a first time mom, what life will be like once your new bundle of joy arrives. Trust me, I had no idea what it was going to look like and could only guess based off other people’s experiences. So, I can’t really say whether it was easier or harder than I expected because I didn’t really have any expectations.
That being said, I can definitely recommend some things I did [and didn’t do, but wish I did] to ensure an easier postpartum experience.
Prep or Buy Meals Ahead of Time
This is one of the things that I wish I did more of. I prepped a few baked goods and breakfast sandwiches, and bought a couple easy to make meals; however, ensuring I had more meals on hand for myself and my husband would have made things much easier those first few weeks. Honestly, one of the last things that you will want to do is cook!
Stock Your Postpartum Essentials
If you are birthing at a hospital, they will typically have everything that you need for postpartum while you are there, so you most likely won’t need to take any with you, unless you want to! I chose to save my supplies for home-use and even took some of the things from the hospital that I liked.
Ensuring you have enough supplies for at least the first week is crucial because you, or your partner, won’t want to run to the store – this is a time for rest and getting to know baby!
Check out my post on Postpartum Essentials for a complete list!
Educate Yourself on What to Expect in the Postpartum Season
This is definitely something that I wish I would have done. Don’t get me wrong, I knew that I would be physically tired, but the mental exhaustion is something I did not prepare for as much as I had wished.
I listened to and read birth stories during my pregnancy; however, I didn’t think to research any postpartum stories. Everyone’s postpartum experience is different, just like every pregnancy and birth is different, so, take in as many experiences that you can to be able to prepare yourself for any outcome. There are so many empowering women out there that have an abundance of knowledge!
7. Plan for Returning to Work and Daycare
Not all mom’s are going to return to work after baby is born, and that’s okay!
However, many are going to return to work and having a plan is very important to ensure both mom and baby are comfortable.
This is something that is often overlooked. I mean, you typically have 12 weeks to get this figured out, right?
Well, yes, you technically do, but, many daycares have a waitlist that require you to get your name on it 6 months, or more, before services are needed. Honestly, I recommend this to be one of the first things parents do when they find out they are pregnant.
There are so many things that take into account when deciding on a daycare – comfort level, teaching style, expense, distance from work/home, etc.
Much of the time, you can request a transition period for your little one. This means that they start out for short periods of time at daycare before going full time – helpful for both mom and baby!
Discussing your plans, concerns, and everything in between with your partner can also help to make the transition easier. After all, leaving your sweet baby can be so heart-wrenching!
Final Thoughts
Although this post only covered a general overview of the things needing to be done before baby’s arrival, I encourage you to do what you can and don’t stress – everything will fall into place, mama!