HeHe Stewart
Planning for a baby can feel overwhelming. Between creating a registry, designing the nursery, ordering the newest baby gear, baby-proofing the house, and all the prenatal appointments, where do you find time to pause and think about what life will be like once your tiny human comes home? Often times, parents get so caught up in trying to check off all the boxes, they forget to think about making life easier once baby arrives.
Minimize Your Belongings
Having a baby is one of those life events that cause people to shower you (and your new baby) with gifts which means your home will soon be filled to the brim with fun gadgets and baby gear. Over the next nine months, it is a great time to evaluate if there’s anything you can get rid of and clean out before baby comes. It’s also a great time to think about what gear you will purchase before the birth and what you will wait to purchase if you need it once your baby is born.
Peri Bottles
Here is a tip that no one shares, yet it may be the most beneficial tip you’ll receive! The game changer? Purchase three to four peri bottles and store them in every bathroom in your home. When you are learning to navigate life with a newborn, you will not want to have to be mindful of which bathroom you can and can’t use. Immediately following birth, you will be given a small bottle of warm water to squeeze onto your perineum and vaginal area while you use the restroom. It keeps things clean, plus helps with stinging that can occur as your downstairs heals.
Create a Feeding Plan
Whether you are planning to breastfeed, exclusively pump, formula feed, or a combination, you will have to make shifts in your daily routines to sanitize the things needed to feed your tiny humans. All bottles, pacifiers, and pump parts will need to be boiled at the end of each day.
Create Mini Baby Stations
This is one of HeHe’s tips that literally changes her clients’ lives: put a basket in all the rooms that you frequent. In the basket, keep all the things you might need within arms reach at any moment like pacifiers, diapers, wipes, burps clothes, swaddles, bum cream, baby moisturizer, nose Frida, nipple cream, extra onesies, and socks. Rooms that you love being in can continue to be a room you hang out in a long as that room can meet your baby’s needs, too.
Food Prep
This is one that many people don’t always think about when they are planning for a baby. However, it is one of the most important things to prepare when you’re expecting a baby. When your baby is born and you’re discharged from the hospital, cooking dinner is going to be the last thing on your mind. One of the top tips I can share with you is to dedicate one afternoon pre-baby arrival and stock up the freezer with yummy food that you can whip up in a matter of minutes with minimal effort.
Before your baby arrives is the perfect time to make these small changes so that once your baby does come home, everything is in place. When your baby is born, the first month is going to pass in a blink of an eye and we want to make those first few days and weeks as glorious as possible.
One last tip for new parents: let go of all expectations. The best tip you can receive is to go into everyday with an idea of how you’d like the day to play out, but if it goes off path, so what. Roll with the punches. Your new tiny human is learning every sound, every touch, every poke, every bump, every kiss, every bath for the very first time. There’s no way you can predict what is going to happen, but you can prepare. Once you prepare, know that you have done everything you can do and no matter what, you will love this baby and be the best parent you can be.
Look at you, your baby isn’t even here yet and you’re already crushing this parenting thing. Way to go.
Preparing for baby? Here's How to Take the Ultimate Pregnancy Selfie.
