6 Steps To Prepare For Your New Baby
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Preparing for baby in advance will make the arrival of your infant easier because you won’t be running around last minute trying to take care of everything. It’ll help eliminate some of the stress so you can concentrate on your newborn. Here is a simple, easy to follow guide that can help you prepare for your baby.
Preparing the Nursery
Getting the nursery ready is one of the biggest ways to get prepared for your newborn. When you bring her home from the hospital, she’ll need a place to sleep that’s warm, comfortable and safe. If you need to do any major remodeling such as painting or putting up wallpaper, do this before the baby arrives.
Once the room is ready, then you can start adding the furniture. You don’t have to completely furnish the nursery before your baby arrives but you do at least need a crib with a mobile so she’ll have somewhere to sleep that’s safe.
Set up the baby monitors and have everything put up and ready for your baby. It’ll be a lot more comfortable for you if you include a rocking chair or glider in the baby’s room for those nightly feedings. This way, after you feed her and she falls back to sleep, you can lay her right over into her crib and return to bed.
Stock Up On Supplies
When preparing for baby, you’ll need to stock up on supplies. Having the necessities will make the transition go much smoother when you bring your infant home from the hospital. You can concentrate fully on taking care of your newborn.
Here is a list of the main supplies you’ll need to buy before your baby is born:
- car seat
- diapers
- baby wipes
- diaper cream
- crib sheets
- baby blankets
- swaddle set
- warm bundle set (if not a summer baby)
- bottles (and milk storage if pumping)
- breast pump
- breast pads (nursing or not, you’ll need them at first!)
- diaper bag
- bath tub or baby bath sling
- washcloths and towels
- digital ear thermometer
- nasal aspirator
- baby nail clippers
Having these items on hand before your baby is born will make it much easier on you. It can be difficult taking a newborn shopping plus, you may not be up to it for several weeks after giving birth.
Put Together a Wardrobe
Your newborn is going to need a new wardrobe and having one put together before she is born will make things so much easier. The thing to keep in mind is that your baby is going to grow fast during these first few months, so you don’t want to go overboard with the newborn outfits.
You’ll need some to get started with but only buying four or five shirts, pants, sleepers, etc. is recommended until your baby is born. If she ends up being a large baby at birth, these won’t last very long before she’ll need a bigger size. A layette set, some pants or sleepers, and some nightgowns are a great way to handle the newborn stage.
When putting together a wardrobe, it’s a good idea to buy several outfits in the 3 to 6 month size, some in the 6 to 9 month and even a few in the 9 to 12 month size. This will give you a variety of sizes on hand so you won’t be caught off guard one day when the newborn clothing just won’t fit anymore. Don’t be afraid of hand me downs!
There is no need to buy a lot of clothing at first. You just need a few outfits on hand to accommodate for those growths spurts so your baby will have something to wear until you go shopping.
Prepare for Baby’s Health Care
Before your baby is born, you’ll need to choose a physician. This will give you time to go over your different options and choose the doctor that you feel the most comfortable with. In many cases, your prenatal doctor can give you a list of the baby doctors in the area for you to choose from, if you’re not sure where to start.
Prepare for Your Hospital Stay
Part of preparing for baby involves preparing for your hospital stay. You’ll need to pack a suitcase with your pajama’s, under garments, robe, flip-flops or slip on shoes, two or three pair of stretch pants and t-shirts. Stretch pants are recommended because you’ll still need some time before you’ll be able to squeeze into that favorite pair of jeans you love so much.
Don’t forget the personal items like your hairbrush, toothbrush, cell phone, MP3 player and so forth. In addition to the things you need, bring along a couple of outfits for your newborn and a couple of swaddling blankets. You’ll need one to have her hospital photo taken in and one to wear home.
Here are a few more of the things that you can take care of in advance to help you prepare for your new baby:
- Discuss your birth plan with your doctor so they’ll know exactly what you want. Print out a copy to take to the hospital with you in case something happens and you end up with a different doctor.
- Know how long it’ll take you to get to the hospital during high traffic times. Depending on where you live, it could take you a lot longer to drive to the hospital during rush hour than it would in the middle of the night and you don’t have any idea when you’ll go into labor.
- Bring some snacks so you can have something to munch on when you get hungry in-between the meals served at the hospital.
- Have all of your information such as insurance card and doctor’s name and number in a place that is easy to access. This way, it will make checking in at the hospital much smoother.
- Before you can even leave the hospital, you’ll need a newborn car seat and it must be properly installed in your vehicle. Go shopping before your baby is due so you can look at the different ones and pick out the one you like the best.
Prepare Yourself
When you think about getting ready for a new baby you may not think about getting yourself ready but that is one of the first things that you should do. When the new bundle of joy arrives, everything will change. You’ll have someone depending on you 24/7 and it’s your job to change your schedule to meet baby’s schedule.
This is a life-altering experience for both parents and that’s something you need to be prepared for. At times, it may even seem like your life is turned completely upside down but things will level out with time.
It’s no longer the two of you and this can sometimes be hard to get used to. You can’t run to the store when you feel like it or go shopping or to dinner as easily as you did before. You have to plan in advance and make sure the environment is suited for a newborn.
She will need to be fed and changed on a regular schedule both day and night so you won’t be able to go to sleep anytime you’re tired. Instead, you’ll be napping when baby naps. You need to be prepared for this so it won’t be such a shock. Lack of sleep may cause you both to be a bit irritable so have patience with one another.
New mothers often overwork themselves because it’s natural to feel like you have to do it all. Many women feel like they have to take care of all of baby’s needs because no one else can do it right. It’s important to let others help you so you can get the rest you need. Fathers often feel like they can’t do anything right and this causes them to get frustrated and give up. Paragraph
They may also feel neglected and unloved because new mothers are too exhausted to spend time with them. Talking about these situations in advance and coming up with a plan to deal with them when the time comes will help make the transition a lot easier and less stressful for everyone.
Preparation Is Important
Preparing for baby will make things go so much smoother and easier for everyone. You can spend time taking care of your newborn instead of worrying about all of the things you need to do to make sure baby is properly taken care of. In addition, it’ll help to keep you occupied so the time will go by faster.
