13 Things I Have Been Working on to Prepare for the Arrival of New Baby

I am 38 weeks pregnant now and am wondering how much more time I will have until baby arrives. Baby could be here this weekend or it might be a few more weeks.  Right now I feel like I am sort of holding pattern.  I make plans for the weekends knowing that things could change at any moment.  I find useful tasks for myself to do in the meantime but not tasks could not be put aside if baby were to arrive today.

As you might gather from some of my more recent posts, a huge part of what I have been working on right now is getting ready for the arrival of our new baby.

What is February for anyway?  I grew up in a mountainous area where there are several ski resorts, but I don’t downhill ski, so I feel like for me February can be about indulging in your indoor hobbies and getting your life in order.  I don’t think it is such a bad thing that once a year you are given the opportunity to stop constantly moving and take some time to put things in order.  (Also the Winter Olympics  opening ceremonies are on TV tonight.  What is February for if not for watching the Olympics?)

Many of the steps I have been working on have been directly baby related–like sorting the baby clothes that Mr. Man wore. Some of them of my tasks are only tangentially related to the baby–like getting my portion of the documents ready so we can do our taxes.  Both pieces of the puzzle fit together so we can make life more easy on ourselves once baby arrives.

My list consists of both labor and delivery preparation tasks and general life management tasks, if you prefer to not hear about labor and delivery feel free to skip numbers 1-3. [I might have broken this post up into a few different posts but who know when the new baby will come so those posts might not have happened.]

13 Things That I Have Been Working on To Prepare for the Arrival of New Baby:

1.  I went on a hospital visit last weekend at the hospital I will be delivering.  This is also the hospital where Mr. Man was born.  The tour my husband and I took 2 years ago wasn’t very thorough.  This tour was much better and the hospital has changed some of it’s procedures in the past two years so I am glad that I went. Also it gave me a chance to ask some questions to the nurse who was giving the tour because–
2. I have been reading tons of information about how to have the a more favorable labor.  Some might tell me, “The only thing you should hope for in labor is the arrival of a healthy baby.”  I agree that is very important and I hope and pray for a healthy baby. However, it is also important to me that this birth experience goes more favorably this time than it did last time.  I know that many people had far more intense and scary labors than I did with Mr. Man yet I still feel like it could have gone better. I had a number of interventions last time and I when it was all said and done I felt a little steamrolled by the hospital experience. It seemed like many things happened the way they did because of hospital policy or risk management instead of what was best for mother and baby.  I ended up feeling rushed and as though I needed to hurry up and get my labor in before time my allotted time was up.  This time I have taken upon myself to educate myself more about how I would like the experience to go and I have been reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin.  I have also been swimming at the YMCA twice a week and walking with Mr. Man and Husband whenever possible. I might be taking my preparations too seriously but I want to be prepared and in good health for the big day.
3. I have been learning about essential oils and which ones can assist me on the big day.
4. I have scheduled a haircut for tomorrow since it has been a while since I got it cut and it is harder to slip away and do that when you have a tiny baby.
5. I have been taking lots of pampering baths with the bath bombs I received for Christmas.
6. I have been ordering tons of things online ranging from diapers for Mr. Man and new baby, to a new sheets set, to a new vacuum cleaner.  It seems as though preparing for a new baby makes me feel like a blizzard is about to start and we will have limited shopping opportunities.  Seriously though, my reasoning is that it is easier to fix our half broken vacuum cleaner problem now than it will be when we have a toddler and a tiny baby.
7. Cheering my husband on as he puts together the IKEA furniture we bought on our Thanksgiving Weekend shopping trip to IKEA.  He has made great strides and I applaud his hard work.
8. Enjoying our new playroom/ television room.  We now have access to television when on the first floor, which means we can watch TV when Mr. Man is awake.  This will help tremendously with entertaining Mr. Man while when baby is very small and needs my lots of attention.  [I think it will also come in hardy for Olympic viewing where we watch more TV than normal.]
9. Putting our new parent’s room/ office into order.  The furniture is all in and the room is really coming together.
10. I am putting together some shadow boxes to display special mementos that would otherwise be living in a drawer.  I just made one with Buddy and Bailey’s collars and pictures and I plan on making one to commemorate Mr. Man’s baptism.

    

11. I am updating some of the picture frames in our house to show some updated photographs.  This is funny in a way because very shortly these pictures will be out of date since they do not contain our entire family, but still they capture a moment in time.

    

    12. I am getting my tax information together to give to my husband so we can file our taxes before we get too caught up in new baby life.
    13. I am working on compiling a list of all of my internet passwords and logins so that I do not have to use the Forgot Password link every time I need to access something I don’t frequently access (which is my current method of keeping track of my passwords.)

Thank you all for reading!  If this is my last post until after baby is born, I promise I will keep you up to date with how it all went! If not, I plan to write again soon!

What kinds of task have you been up to this winter? 

If you are looking for tips about to handle your business, check out Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps by Kelly Williams Brown.  [I read it in my 30’s and found it helpful for figuring out how to navigate everything from Thank You Notes and RSVP’s to organizing personal documents.]

[This blog contains 2 Amazon affiliate links, if you choose to click on the links and purchase anything from Amazon, I will receive a small amount of the dividends of your purchase, no pressure though, I borrowed both of these books from local libraries.]