If you are now spending time at home and expecting baby, its the perfect time to start prepping your home for baby’s arrival. There will be no better time to start planning and preparing, if nothing else it will hopefully take your mind of all the real world crazy that is going on right now.
Here are some things to think about before baby arrives which will hopefully make life a little easier when baby does make an appearance.
Spring clean, de-clutter and organise
Get started on a bit of spring cleaning and reorganising. Its helps to clear the mind and make you feel ready, as well as making room for all the baby gear and gadgets that are about to take over your house!
Batch cook for the freezer if baby due soon
You will thank yourself later for doing this. Having some wholesome cooked dinners in your freezer will save so much stress when baby arrives. It can be difficult to get the time to make a dinner with a new baby, let alone even getting the time to eat it. Being able to just lift a home cooked and nutritious meal out of the freezer that can be heated quickly will be such a big help and comfort to you as you care for baby during those first few weeks. Especially at a time when you need to keep your energy levels up as much as possible.
The kinds of food that are great for freezing are lasagne, chilli, spaghetti Bolognese, homemade curry and soups.
Plenty of ‘me time’
Take the opportunity to carve out some time each day for yourself. Some pampering time, reading time or just some quiet time with a cup of tea. It will be hard to get some of that time once baby arrives.
Baby Proofing
Although most safety precautions around the house start to apply as baby starts to move around themselves it’s a good idea to start looking around the home and identifying the areas that need to be baby proofed and start to do those things before baby arrives while you have time.
Make sure things like the blind chords are all secured, think about where you will place baby’s bed in your room and the living space and what hazards there might be. Organise locks for cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom and think about where you store your medicines and cleaning products. If you start to make changes now and form new habits around where you store things, it will help to feel normal for when baby arrives.
Packing hospital bag
Make a list of all the items that you will need for your hospital bag. Its important to be prepared in advance as you just never know when baby will want to make an appearance. Also as we are in lockdown at the moment it may take you a little bit longer than usual to gather all of the items that you need. Check out our previous blog post which covers items for your hospital bag as well as essential items for baby https://shnuggle.com/baby-pregnancy/baby-essentials-checklist
Gentle Exercise
While at home its important to get some daily exercise to keep your mind and body healthy and active, whether it’s a gently walk or follow some gently pregnancy related exercises. Its important not to overdo it and judge what you can do based on how active you would have been before pregnancy.
Get Familiar with how to use baby’s Gadgets
Have a go at putting the car seat in and out of the car, follow the instructions on the steriliser, set the pram up and fold it away. Doing all these things before baby arrives will help make you feel more confident about using them when baby arrives.
Decorating the nursery
Take the opportunity now to clear out the spare room that will eventually be the nursery. If you have some free time now its great to start gathering ideas and start to plan out what you would like. Baby won’t need to go in to the nursery for the first 4 – 6 months as they will be sleeping in your bedroom but its always nice to start thinking about the nursery and even getting it ready while you have some free time now.
