You have 9 months to prepare for a newborn but it's not always that easy to know how to prepare. As a first time parent I've now learnt some ways you can prepare for a newborn, they're some ideas to make life slightly easier once your little one has arrived.
1) Sports bottles - stock up on water/drinks in sports bottles because getting a drink with one hand can be tricky. I've also found that it's impossible to reach a drink that's sitting on the coffee table when breastfeeding, so having a sports bottle of water next to me means I can still stay hydrated.
2) Take things out of wrappers - we bought some cartons of juice but they came in that plastic wrapping to keep them together. So when I came to have one after our daughter had arrived I couldn't because I was holding her in one hand and it was too hard to open the plastic wrapping with the other hand. Also things like bags of crisps, I now empty them out of the multipack wrapper so that I can easily grab a bag for lunch.
3) Stock up on supplies - going shopping with a newborn baby isn't always very easy, it certainly isn't as easy as it was before. Stocking up on food, make up, toiletries etc makes those first couple of weeks a lot easier, as you don't have to worry about venturing out for mundane supplies.
4) Make meals and freeze them - due to our kitchen being renovated I couldn't do this but since having our daughter I really wish I had been able to. Getting the time to make meals is hard in those first weeks, sometimes we would have to skip dinner in favour of precious sleep. After two weeks of this I was sick and tired of not eating properly, so I made the effort to cook 'proper' meals. However it took a lot of time - 7 hours to cook a lasagne is a long time!
5) Get a breastfeeding pillow - even if you're not planning on breastfeeding a good breastfeeding pillow can really help to prevent backache. We give Isabella one bottle a day and I breastfeed the rest of the time, so I know what it's like to do both - it hurts your back after a while. It feels like I'm always hunched over feeding, all while my body is trying to adapt to not having a big heavy bump too. The Original Theraline Breastfeeding Pillow has been getting a lot of use since Isabella was born! I reviewed the pillow here.
6) Buy thank you cards - people will inevitably bring gifts when they come and see your baby, which is lovely. I'd recommend making a note of what people have bought you because otherwise when it comes to sending thank you cards it can be hard to remember who got what.
7) Clean your house - there's little time for cleaning in those first few weeks. Babies completely consume your time, in the nicest way possible but if you like having a clean, tidy house it's worth doing a deep clean before the baby arrives.
8) Find out where and when support groups are near you - there are loads of baby groups around, especially breastfeeding support groups. These can be invaluable for advice, support and getting to know other new mums.
9) Line up some good tv programmes/films/tv series - there's a lot of time sitting down with a newborn baby, whether its because you're feeding, uncomfortable after birth or just tired!
10) Make sure your camera is fully charged and that the memory card has lots of space - if anything is going to make you want to take lots of photographs, it's a newborn baby.
Do you have any other ways to prepare for a newborn baby?
Feel free to leave me a comment :)
Helen x
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