3 Tips for Preparing for a New Baby!

Courtney-

We’re welcoming a new baby in just a short time and I am beyond excited. On top of the joy and excitement that a new baby brings to our life and family, I’m also looking forward to experiencing labour again and to not be pregnant anymore (I don’t specifically enjoy being pregnant). There are lots of changes and preparations that will occur (or have occurred) in this next season for our family and I want to share some tips about three specific areas where I’ve focused on preparing for a new baby!

Nursery Prep

Everyone loves a cute little baby nursery/room. While I understand this really is not a necessity to have a happy or healthy baby, I do really enjoy preparing their room and filling it with all their clothes and supplies. It’s a very exciting time and I look forward to it every pregnancy. This time around, I asked my husband to help me do a little renovation in our baby’s room to give it a fresh look and feel. With my other boys, the furthest I went to decorate their room was to paint an accent wall and add various wall decorations. And so, I really wanted to do something different this time. And my husband helped me make that dream come true. If you haven’t checked out that post yet, click here! But a nursery is just a room if there’s nothing in it! I went through all the clothes we had from my other two boys and washed anything that had spit-up stains on it (anyone else have babies that love to spit-up?). Then I filled up the dresser and closet. We set up the crib, put some pictures up on the wall and voila! It’s ready for our new baby (although he won’t be sleeping in there for a little while anyways). 

Meal Prep

This is something that I have come to appreciate more and more as time goes on—specifically when welcoming a subsequent child into the family. While I want to just sit and soak in all the newborn snuggles, my family still needs to eat! And so do I. So I try to have meals and snacks in our freezer to allow for good meals without the work—so I can do more snuggling and less cooking. It also makes it easier for my husband to help out with that side of things! Some of our favourite meals to stock the freezer with are lasagna, enchiladas, and various casseroles. For snacks, I try to have muffins, cookies, buns, and protein balls. Stay tuned for a post going into more detail about freezer meals and snacks and what I prepared this time! This way, I can easily bring something out of the freezer (or my husband can) and we only need to pop it in the oven!

Postpartum Prep

This is something that is being talked about more and it’s awesome. This baby brings such a sweet newness to your family, but they can also bring some not so fun things! Everyone’s recovery and community is so different so don’t take my experience and think that yours has to be exactly like that! We live different lives, and our situation is different. The most important part is preparing in some way for the “fourth trimester” as they call it. I do believe that if we are prepared (at least in some way), it can and will make it easier. One thing I always prepare is my “bathroom bin”. This is a bin filled with all my bathroom necessities for recovery. This includes the FridaMom peribottle, EarthMama Herbal Perineal Spray, and adult size diapers. I don’t want to touch more than I have to down there, so the peribottle is glorious! The spray has so many good ingredients like witch hazel and lavender to promote healing and to ease any discomfort from swelling, tears, or hemorrhoids. The diapers I think speak for themselves.

Preparing for postpartum can also look like asking people to help you out in some different ways. I’m planning on implementing the 555 rule this time around because I really want to make the most of the first days with my new little one as well and prioritize my healing. The main idea of the 555 rule is the first 5 days IN bed, the next 5 ON your bed, and the next 5 BY your bed. As you can see, little by little, you increase your movement over time without sacrificing taking care of yourself or your baby. Obviously this will depend on whether or not you have help at home! My husband won’t be able to take that much time off, so I plan to ask other women in my life, like my mom and sisters-in-law, to help out in some way, even if just for a few hours everyday. I have a feeling that it might look more like a 333 schedule instead, but my focus is just to be intentional about my recovery. I also plan to implement core and pelvic floor exercises right away to help my body recover. I love that there are so many resources for postpartum ab and pelvic floor recovery out there. I will also be booking an appointment with my Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist for a checkup around 8 weeks!

Something else I’ve found helpful for the first few weeks and even months is having a nursing cart. I did this with my other two and it was amazing. I fill a rolling cart with all the necessities I would need during the day (and night), specifically during nursing, so that it’s only an arm’s reach away. This way, whether it’s in the middle of the night or the middle of the day, I don’t need to be running around my house to find a diaper or a change of clothes (perfect for the first few days after birth because you’re not going to want to be running anywhere…) because it’s all conveniently in one place. This is what I have filled mine with:

• diapers and wipes

• burp cloths – my babies like to spit up, so I need to have good size burp cloths. The Copper Pearl brand has fun patterns and they have great absorbency.

• soothers (this is the kind we plan to use!)

• hair clip

• water bottle

• Hakaa - manual breast pump

• change of clothes for baby

• Kleenex box

• replacement bassinet sheet

• nursing pads

• blankets/swaddles (I love the Copper Pearl brand. They have such cute patterns and they’re great for swaddling newborns!)

• small garbage can

Bathroom bin

Where I plan to feed during the night for the first few weeks!

My nursing cart

Conclusion: How are you Preparing For a New Baby?

I hope this can help some of you as you prepare! Anyone else in this season of preparing for a new baby? What else are you doing to get ready?