Baby prep is in full swing around here! I thought I’d write a quick post as an update on what we’ve been up to lately.
Things I can check off the list:
- Hire a doula. I’m cheating by adding this to the list. I did it at week 12.
- Find a maternity/birth/newborn photographer. This gal is a friend of our doula and is quite affordable. Here is our approach to each session:
- Maternity photos: I’m not 100% sold on the idea of maternity pictures (besides not feeling all that photogenic these days, I think a big belly picture hanging in our living room would be weird), but she is offering a package deal for a maternity and newborn shoot, so I figure I’ll put a belly shot or two in the baby book. After all, I’m not sure I’ll be doing this pregnancy thing again.
- Birth photos: I know birth photography seems a little weird to some people, but I think when it is tastefully done it can be really beautiful. Plus, our photographer is just breaking into this genre of photography, so she offered to photograph the birth session at no charge. Again, probably not for the living room wall, but as a keepsake? You bet.
- Newborn photos: This one is most exciting to me! I can’t wait to send out birth announcements.
- Sign up for birth classes. We’re going with the Bradley Method and we’ve already completed the first two weeks. Ten more to go!
- Attend first Centering appointment. Centering Pregnancy is a form of group care offered by our hospital instead of traditional pregnancy check ups. Read more about it here. I first heard about Centering through Emily’s blog, and eventually came to love the idea of meeting other couples going through the same stages of pregnancy as we are, especially since we’re new to this city and could use more local friends!
- Make room. We spent the whole of Sunday morning rearranging the entire house to turn the guest bedroom into the nursery and the office into the guest bedroom.
- Start a baby registry. Holy crap, this is overwhelming.
- Buy some fun stuff. Once we found out that Baby is a boy, we just had to go out and buy some clothes! Additionally we’re trying to knock out some big-ticket baby items each month. This month we bought the crib, the pack ‘n play, and the majority of the crib bedding.
I’m doing my own mix of bedding from a few different collections at Pottery Barn Kids. Despite my original insistence that I wanted an all white/cream nursery, we have now decided to go with a nautical theme! Matthew is a passionate and qualified sailor, and anchors are the symbol for my sorority (good times that I’ll want to remember when I’m up at 3am nursing), so it seemed like the perfect fit. I’ll do a nursery post later, but for now, here’s the sheet and quilt I ordered from PB Kids’ Regatta Nursery:
Remaining tasks:
Oh, there are so many. From small things (I’ve been really lousy about taking weekly belly pics and keeping up my pregnancy journal), to big things (create a birth plan, read more about birth, breastfeeding, and newborn care), we have our work completely cut out for us. Some of the tasks that really stand out:
- Sign up for infant CPR and/or other newborn care classes. I figure it’s the least we can do since the little guy is putting his life in our hands.
- Start preparing Lulu and Pippa for the little one. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on this because we have two VERY high-maintenance dogs, and I know it will be quite the adjustment for them to share the attention, have more visitors, hear weird noises, etc.
- Figure out our lease situation. We were originally hoping to buy a home by the end of this year, but with so much going on, that is off the table for a while. We need to figure this out soon so we’re not roaming around Seattle, homeless, with two spoiled dogs and a newborn.
The list goes on and on. For anyone out there planning to become pregnant or in the early stages of pregnancy, I HIGHLY recommend the planner 40 Weeks +: The Essential Pregnancy Organizer. It has been a lifesaver for me.
Moms, what are your best tips for preparing for baby?
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
i love love love the birth photography i’ve seen lately. seriously very moving stuff. so, while i agree it’s not for the living room wall LOL, i think you will be so glad you did it! also, i’ll bet you end up loving the maternity photos as well.
the nursery bedding is adorable. it is so hard to be neutral when you know the sex. i think you made a great choice 🙂
…good luck with the spoiled doggies LOL
Thanks Kellie!
I just armed my mom w/my camera during delivery and WOW holy crap those photos are ridiculous. Still can’t believe my body birthed a human! But I can definitely see why you’d want a pro for such an important moment.
Registering is so hard. I’d say to just ask for the essentials that you don’t mind having to buy yourself because almost everyone just gets you clothes & toys anyway….
I probably wouldn’t pay for a pro to be honest, but she’s offering it for free, and my mom/family is in another state, so it seems like the best option 🙂
Your posts about baby products have actually really helped me with some of the items on our registry, so thank you!
Congrats on having a boy – I love my little boy, and there is nothing wrong with having a mama’s boy. I have to laugh though – because they attributed my hives to being allergic to the testosterone being produced by having a boy – and possibly your skin went wonky due to the same thing?
My little bit of advice will be to not wait to take the infant CPR class when you’re 36 weeks pregnant, it makes it slightly uncomfortable. Not that I’m speaking from experience……
Thank you! Funny you say that about the hives…I did read online that women who get them are more likely to be carrying boys. So interesting! I completely forgot about that until I read your comment.
wow that is such a long list! comprehensive but I can only imagine. 🙂 makes me excited for whenever the time is right for nate and I.
Good luck with Lulu and Pippa!! I’ve heard some dogs take really long to get accustomed to getting less attention and high pitched baby voices, but I hope everything turns out well and they’ll both have a great time with the baby 🙂
I have major all white cream and a hint of blue or pink for my one day nursery too.. haha. we’ll see how it goes. I love pottery barn kids tho, my girlfriend a baby and she’s doing the hungry caterpiller theme. It’s cute! Sailor is super cute!
Sounds like you have everything planned! 🙂 I remember being slightly stressed when I was pregnant with the kid because I thought I had to get “everything” before he as born. Then one day I realized that I could always go get things once he was born… 😉
Get as much sleep/rest as you can right now, and do things you want to do! It’ll be a LOOONG time before you’ll have your own schedule again… 🙂
LMAO because I remember in my ninth month FREAKING out on my husband that we only had 2 sheets for her crib (one plus one extra). I insisted he go and get 3 more so we could have 5. He told me, “Babies R Us is TWO minutes away; if we need more, we’ll get more.” I was infuriated with him; how could he not see my need for 5 sheets?!?! Anyway, we ended up with two sheets we alternated. She slept on these http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3613458 the first 6 mths and didn’t move EVER til she rolled over on her 6 mth birthday. So any potential mess didn’t end up on the sheets, anyway!! Anyway, moral of the story, HAD we needed more sheets, we could have gotten them after baby.
We also returned a LOT of things we didn’t need. And I’ll say the best burp cloths are disposable cloth diapers (the white Gerber ones). Who knew?!
Good to know, Lissa! About the crib bedding: do you think we also need more than one mattress cover? Right now I’m registered for two, but they’re pricey, so if I can get away with one, that would be great. And yeah I think we’ll just start with two sheets because I imagine I’ll be doing laundry daily anyway 🙂
Honestly, I think one mattress cover is enough–especially if you’re swaddling your little one and then putting them on sheet saver. She seriously never moved for 6 mths from the sheet saver! We used one on the changing table, too, so we wouldn’t need to take off and wash the pretty changing pad cover every single time there was an incident. LOL … yes, daily laundry –and figure at least 2-3 clothing changes per day. 😉
And this is totally random BUT I wish someone had told me this: Bring a blanket to your first well-baby visit. It sounds like a big “duh” but I can’t tell you how many people I know forgot, self included!! I packed everything under the sun BUT a blanket and they strip baby down to diaper for the whole visit. OOPS. Fortunately her NB clothes were enormous and served as a makeshift blanket but we felt pretty incompetent!
WAY late to the party – but i’m so happy for you!! Such exciting news to see in my reader!!!
Thanks lady!
Were you DG, Lara? I’m Chi O 🙂 Too funny! Love the nautical theme, and if we have a boy next, I am SURE my officer and a gentleman hubby would want a nautical theme — a tribute to his wonderful navy days 😉
Sounds like you have quite a lot done already! I was hesitant about maternity pics, too (I worried it was vain) but I put them in a book and I’m so glad I did … Maya loves the two pics we have of me with her in my belly in her nursery. 🙂
I brought the Boppy to the hospital (or My Breast Friend, if you prefer that) and am SO glad I did … it helped make nursing easier in the beginning–especially since our peanut was SO tiny and it was hard to position her — newborns are so fragile and spaghetti-like and anything to help make that initial few nursing sessions easier is a good thing!!
My only piece of advice (in my 15 mths of motherhood experience 😉 is to be flexible about all the “plans” moms-to-be make — and to have alternative options for pretty much every aspect of motherhood. I said “no pacifiers,” for example. HA. That didn’t last long 😉 I said no sugar water in the hospital. Well, when they were pricking her heel and doing jaundice tests later … we were all about the sugar water! Same with the nursery. I said, “I’ll keep her with us at all times.” But when the nurses offered us a 2-3 hour reprieve to sleep … we took them up on it!! (The benefit of a C-section is you get a few extra days in the hospital and that means some extra hands to help out before heading home). I also said I wanted to exclusively nurse if I could. Well, I could nurse, and did … but I didn’t produce enough … so I had to supplement anyway. I’m still proud I made it nine months nursing/pumping … but still.
I’m sooo excited for you guys!
Thanks for this Lissa. Yes, I’m a DG. How fun that you’re a Chi O…we didn’t have that chapter at my school (we had A Chi O, but that’s different, right?).
I’m going to try be darndest to be flexible with our plans! I know there are SO many things that could influence the birth, breastfeeding, etc., so I’m trying to keep an open mind while also doing my research and thinking about what we would IDEALLY like to happen, if possible.
Yup, my sister is an A Chi O (she graduated from Syracuse) and Chi O is not the same but better than A Chi O (don’t tell her that!)
YES … and I think it’s good to have the ideal scenarios planned out, too. Good you have a realistic head on your shoulders!!! It’ll be awesome!
One more thing re: the dogs … definitely let them sniff all the toys, carseat, stroller, nursery stuff as it comes into the house. Rocco is a horse and was not even a year when Maya was born but we let him into the nursery all the time and showed him her things before she was born. Today he still takes her toys from her (or she gives them to him … and food, too … oy!) but I think it helps them feel more comfortable about the impending change. Also, before you come home from the hospital have Matthew take a baby blanket or something with your son’s scent on it. Your pups will do great! 🙂
Thank you! I’m collecting all these tips about dog/baby introduction, and just hoping that something sticks 🙂
ahhh i LOVE your bedding 🙂 so cute!!!