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There are plenty of things that you should be doing before giving birth, but these things are all the things you need to do before giving birth to make your life with the new baby easier.
Things You Need to Do Before Giving Birth
1. Setup Baby’s Area
No matter if it is in your room, or in their own room. You won’t want to deal with it once your baby has arrived.
I had my husband put the crib in our bedroom because I knew I’d want the baby in our room for the first few months.
2. Buy All Your Necessities
You might not want to or be able to go out immediately after birth to do any grocery or other shopping. It is a good idea to buy all the necessities you will need for the next 3 months after your due date.
Try to think of anything you will need to replace or repair around this time as well and get it handled now, because you and your partner probably won’t want to do much except spend time with your little one.
Also consider that you or your baby might have a health issue that might cause you to visit the doctor frequently and you don’t want to have extra things to deal with.
3. Wash Up & Put Away 0-3 Month Clothes
It will make life so much easier for you if you already have the baby’s clothes washed up and organized before giving birth.
All clothes are shipped to the store with fabric starches on them so they will stay nice looking while you are shopping, but they dirty from being dropped and touched excessively while they are in the store, so you definitely don’t want to put unwashed clothes on your baby’s skin.
Babies have sensitive skin just by being babies, but if you or your partner have sensitive skin, your baby will have even more of a chance of having sensitive skin. If you are looking for a soap that is good for sensitive skin for babies, check out this one here.
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4. Have Diapers Ready
I would suggest that even if you and/ or your partner don’t have sensitive skin, you should buy a brand of diapers that is as natural and skin friendly as possible. If you are looking to research diaper brands, start here.
Have at least 1 box of Size 1 disposable diapers or 10-20 Cloth Diapers and a wet dry bag already prepped and in an easily accessible area. You don’t have to have a changing table unless you really want one, but it is a good idea to put all the diaper changing items in the same area so you don’t have to hunt for things.
I mostly cloth diapered my son from the time we got home from the hospital, until I had surgery when he was about 3 months old. I did use disposable diapers while looking or a diaper brand that wouldn’t irritate his skin while he was staying with family during my surgery. He has a large bladder and often pees in large spurts, so that was another factor in deciding on a diaper. We finally settled on Seventh Generation diapers, but we have some back up brands should they be sold out while we are shopping for more. Check out my article about The Best Diapers Brands for Sensitive Skin here.
5. Prep Meals
I loved having precooked or ready to bake meals ready for us to use once my son was born. I was so glad that I got all of that ready ahead of time so I didn’t have to worry about what to cook especially since I knew that I probably wouldn’t want to cook at all.
I love using these Pyrex Bakeware containers (They replaced the old lid style that I have with this lid style. You can still find the old lid style but is more expensive and it isn’t worth it.) to store prepped or cooked meals in.
I also use these Pyrex food storage containers to store leftovers that aren’t taking up enough space in the bakeware containers. I think I will order some of these Pyrex food storage containers next time I need some because they are rectangular instead of circular, so they will be more space efficient.
If you are looking to buy one set of bakeware and food storage containers, here is a bundle that has both and it also has dessert cups.
Just be aware that the food you crave before giving birth and after giving birth may be completely different. Try to have some of your favorite comfort foods on hand including chocolate, coffee, and tea, but also make sure you have plenty of healthy foods prepped up too.
I would also suggest that you invest in a good water purification system, especially i you plan on breastfeeding. You will be drinking water like a fish and you want to make sure that your water tastes good and doesn’t have any toxins in it.
I like this water purification system by Berkey and I love how long the water filter cartridges last. Depending on the quality of your water and how much water you filter, the filters can last for years. I bought the water purifier after my son developed fluoride damage on a couple of his teeth from drinking the water and I evaluated my water on ewg.org and found that the cause of his tooth damage was the high levels of fluoride in the water.
6. Pack Your Diaper Bag
Do this before giving birth, because depending on how you and your baby are doing once you leave the hospital, you might want to go visit family and show everyone the new baby.
Even if you have no intention of going anywhere after leaving the hospital, you will definitely want to go ahead and have your diaper bag setup so you won’t forget anything should you need to go out in a hurry.
7. Practice with Your Breast pump
Don’t actually try to pump any milk, but you should read the instruction manual before giving birth to make sure that you know how to work the machine and to ensure that everything works correctly. The last thing you want is for your pump to have an issue or you can’t operate it and you don’t realize it until you have a hungry baby to care for.
8. Pack Your Hospital Bag
You never know when you will go into labor, so it is best to go ahead and have everything ready, so you won’t have to scramble last minute to get things together. Plus doing this before giving birth will help you relax better because your body will know that you have one less thing to worry about.
9. Install Car Seat
You must have the car seat already installed before they will let you go home with the baby.
It is a good idea to make sure that the car seat you chose will actually fit your car. Not all car seats are compatible with all cars, plus you want to make sure that you are comfortable operating it and that it isn’t damaged.
You should also practice checking for the baby in the car before you even have the baby.
I highly recommend this jogging stroller system because it comes with the infant car seat. I also highly recommend this convertible car seat for when your baby is too big for the infant carrier.
10. Wash Up Baby Bottles
Go ahead and wash up the baby bottles and put them in an easily accessible place so you can grab and go and not have to worry about washing them up first.
Even if you plan on breastfeeding, it is a good idea to introduce your baby to bottles because you never know if you will need to be away from your baby and you won’t be able to feed them.
Even if you don’t have an emergency that could pull you away from your baby, you might just decide you want the night off for your birthday or anniversary or any other reason.
You’d want your baby to be able to eat without being traumatized by you not being there and also having to drink milk from a foreign object.
If you are researching baby bottle brands for your baby and have been considering Boon Nursh bottles, check out my review of their entire system here.
11. Make Sure to Submit the FMLA Forms
This will ensure that your and your spouse’s jobs know that you will be taking time off for the baby. This is a legal document that the Federal Government requires in order to protect you or your spouse from getting laid off just because you are taking time to be with your new baby.
You can usually get the forms from your HR Admin and they will be able to inform you about any other company specific information at that time. You can also get the FMLA form from the Department of Labor, but your company may have a different style of form that they have created that they prefer to use. However, they can’t refuse your form if you print it directly from the DoL.
12. Decide on Your Health Insurance
If you and your spouse have been using separate health insurance, or if the health insurance costs or benefits have changed, you’ll want to compare the pricing and benefits now that you are becoming a family.
Once you decide on who’s health insurance it will be best to use, put all the open enrollment dates in your Google Calendar so you don’t forget them. Also, it is a great idea to make an ongoing event in your Google Calendar about adding your child to the health insurance.
You only have 30 days from the birth of your child to add them to your health insurance or you will have to wait until open enrollment and all of their early appointments won’t be covered. It would be terrible to miss this deadline, especially if your child is born shortly after the normal open enrollment closes.
If you miss open enrollment, you will have to wait until open enrollment during the new year. So don’t miss this!!!
13. Draft an Email to your Benefit Specialist
The Benefit Specialist is who you would inform of your child’s birth so they can add them to your health insurance. It is a good idea to go ahead and draft this email with all of required information which is usually just the baby’s name, date of birth, SSN, and gender.
Once your child is born and you get their birth certificate and SS card, you can easily just add this information to the drafted email and send it off.
14. Check Register of Deeds and the SS Office
They might require you get an appointment in order to get the birth certificate or SS card for your new baby. If so, you might want to setup an appointment for about 2 weeks after your due date so you will still be within the deadline to submit all the health insurance information to your employer.
