We have done a lot of work in preparation for this baby’s arrival! We also did a lot before Kye was born…but this time around we kinda waited till the end to do it all. Something about a second pregnancy, having a toddler, and just not feeling rushed! I originally wanted everything completed by my birthday (Nov 1st) then it got pushed back until I was full term (Nov 11th) then until Thanksgiving. As long as it was all done by Thanksgiving I was good…and it was!!! Yay!
Here are just SOME of the things we did in getting ready to welcome our newest addition…we also did a TON of stuff to get the house completely DONE but that’s really more house related and not-so-much to do with the baby (the baby coming was a good deadline though since a lot of people will be coming over and we wanted them to see our completed home vision when they come!).
As Kye grew out of his baby items we took them all apart (especially took batteries out…you know to ALWAYS remove batteries before storing stuff right?!?) and put them back in their original boxes. I know that may sound stupid to some but I liked the idea of everything feeling new again for the next baby. And it all does! We still got some new items for Blitzen (since we moved I wanted new stuff to match the new house since all of Kye’s stuff matches our old one)! The kid’s nursery seriously has nothing in it but all of these baby items all lined up and waiting for a baby to put them to use 🙂
Putting it ALL together!
A BIG thing we both wanted done before baby arrives was the storage shed…that thing took AGES! When it finally got finished it meant we could clean out the garage and be able to park both cars in it for the first time since moving in!!! Yay!!!
Garage pre-shed
Garage after-shed!
I’m one of those people who like to “stock up” on stuff. For example, the beginning of 2011 I made it one of my “resolutions” to not purchase any more lotion until I used ALL the lotion I had. Guess what? I haven’t bought any lotion at ALL this entire year…and I still have more left. I’ve gotten better about stocking up on stuff as it can create storage space issues as well as issues with things expiring before we even use them! However, before Blitzen arrives I want to have a decent amount of stuff stocked up. I know people will be willing to run to the store for us for necessaries, but I hate to ask them to look for specific stuff.
We only go grocery shopping once a month (and Zach will make another mid-month quick run in for fresh stuff) so the month of Oct and Nov Zach had a LOT of buying to do. I not only stocked us up on the stuff we use the most, but I also had him get things I know I’ll need during the postpartum stage, and get ingredients for me to make meals to freeze. Here’s just ONE of the lists! Zach is actually going today (only a few things to get though) for what we hope will be the last pre-baby trip to the store. I’m thankful to him for doing the shopping for me these past several months. Since we only go once a month our cart is HUGE and HEAVY and it got to a point where I simply couldn’t do it anymore. I’m proud of myself though for making so many meals. I have 35 home made meals in the deep freezer and many more frozen dinners, boxed meals (like Hamburger Helper and such), and pasta bags we can easily make. I’m hoping that people will also bring us food (hint! hint!) so we won’t have to mess with cooking for a long time!!!
I may be a stay at home mom, but one thing I do not do is iron. I can’t stand it and am horrible at it. The last time we had to buy a washer and dryer we invested in the kind with the rapid refresh feature where it helps the clothes not be wrinkled. That’s as close to ironing as I get. Until Kye! Little boys shirts have to be ironed. Those little collars and the bottom of the shirts…so annoying!!! I tend to just not put Kye in a lot of his shirts b/c I don’t want to go through the hassle of ironing them so I decided to take ALL the iron-desperate clothes out of his closet and have one big iron fest. I ironed 46 shirts!!!! What’s crazy is that when those shirts were taken out of his closet, he still had a full closet…if we have a girl we’re in TROUBLE in the clothes department!!!
It was a pain to iron it all but now he has TONS of clothing options which will make it easier on us when deciding what to have him wear 🙂 I’m doing laundry every Monday right now until Blitzen arrives and have been just going ahead and ironing the shirts of his that need it as I do the laundry. I know it won’t stay like this for long, but I like that all of his shirts are ready-to-wear!
After the Sibling Class we took at the hospital, I thought it was a cute idea for Kye to make the baby a card to bring with him to the hospital. Mom thought of the idea of having a picture of Kye on it and I thought instead of just using the one he made in the class, that he’d enjoy making a new one. I was right! He had a GREAT time making this card for “Isis” and I took this video of him talking about how excited he is for the baby to get here!
working hard
so proud of the finished product
ready to be a Big Brother!
Since we had a lot of battling in the delivery room last time around, I wanted to do something to help things go smoother this time. I thought if I brought some treats up there it would help everyone to be more on board with our birth plan and, hopefully, more supportive! I found the idea for these cute little favors on Pinterest (of course!) and wrote up how you can make them yourself on my sister blog (you can read the instructions HERE). I am very proud of how well they turned out and I think they will be a big hit at the hospital don’t you?
A big thanks to Chickabug who designed the labels for me!
Here are some other things we’ve been doing in preparation for the baby’s arrival:
- Deep cleaned the house (who wants to be cleaning when you have a newborn?)
- Packed a bag for the delivery room (last time around I packed WAY too much CRAP so I minimized the list this time, hopefully I’ll be posting on what I recommend packing sometime soon!)
- Packed bag for hospital stay (I plan to stay 2 nights so I brought plenty of comfortable pjs, nursing bras, and other essentials…like my stuff to blog haha)
- Packed Kye’s things for the hospital and wherever he stays (I have a diaper bag FULL of snacks, toys, games, and books on being a big brother ready to go for while he’s waiting at the hospital)
- Got out all the stuff I’ll need during postpartum (found all my leftover HUGE pads from last time, Epsom Salt, breastfeeding friendly clothes, tv table things to put beside the nursing chair for snacks and such for me, etc)
- Wrote lots and lots of instructional lists to minimize the questions that people will have to ask me who are helping out (including Zach!) I thought this was a GREAT idea. I have lists all over the house as well as a notebook that has a copy of each list in it. Some of the items I made lists for include: how to use our washer and dryer, how to care for the animals, where all of Kye’s stuff is stored in his room, how to clean up the playroom, how to clean up the living room, food options for Kye, Kye’s schedule, our meal options, how to manage our money/bank accounts (last time around I actually had some late bills b/c it’s tough to remember to pay them with a new baby!)
- Wrote up a “schedule” for both Kye and the baby. I read about doing this on the babywise blog and I have their schedules side by side so we can see who is doing what when. Sure, the schedule may not be set in stone but it helps us to have a good idea of where we’ll be once Blitzen is around 2 weeks old and allowed me to plan ahead when I realized I will HAVE to have help getting Kye to and from school for awhile since both drop off and pick up times fall during NAP!!! Yikes!
This time around I did not prewash all of Blitzen’s clothes. I did that last time and then I couldn’t return them when Kye didn’t wear them! Plus Blitzen literally has 3 outfits. Haha. I also haven’t decorated the nursery. We have the furniture, the walls painted, and themes decided. Once we know boy or girl then we can finish (well START) it all. I’ve been working with a friend of mine who is going to make the bedding/window treatments for us and have been selecting fabrics and such for each sex!
Needless to say, all this preparation has made it even MORE difficult to wait around for Blitzen to arrive. We are SO ready 😉
What are some things you recommend doing in preparation for a new baby??? Anything I forgot to do that you recommend?
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I'd love for you to post a blog on this one or your sister blog about how you plan/budget to shop once a month. I want to try this but literally have no idea how to do so!
If you're taking requests (haha) I'd be interested in hearing about your vacation lodging through timeshares. I've done it once and the presentation/sales talk took almost half the day, we didn't get our promised gift and just felt uncomfortable. I you love to save money staying this way but how do you make it work to be worth it and also not feel bad that it was nevertheless got intent to buy? I think you would have an even deeper perspectiveon this with a husband in sales… Just something I've been curious about! 🙂 And this is my first ever blog 'request' and it feels a bit odd, please don't think I'm weird!! 😉
Oh my goodness. You are so freaking prepared. Like, whoa! You have everything down to a science. So ok, I need your words of wisdom. I am SO not a stay at home person. Like, even with a baby, or now, with my 15 mo old, I would much much rather run errands and do silly little things like wander around Target over staying at home. I kinda go stir crazy. And my biggest bad habit is that when I'm sitting around bored at home, I eat. I snack constantly. It's terrible! How do you keep from doing that? And how do you occupy your time??Also, I want to friend you on facebook! I'm anxiously awaiting Blitzen's arrival!
MeganRay tried finding you on fb and couldn't…here's my direct link https://www.facebook.com/emily.s.parker so request me!!! i get checked in the morning so tomorrow ~could~ be the day 😉 I totally fall guilty to snacking some too…it's hard….now that kye is older i have trained myself to only eat when he eats. it makes it a TON easier. i can't eat junk in front of him b/c he'll want it and i eat breakfast with him at 7:30 each morning so i start the day off pretty full! i feel like the days fly by! kye gets up at 7 and we rush around to get ready for the day then take him to school and i run errands while he's at school then pick him up rush home for lunch and he goes down for nap. During nap I blog (it typically takes me an hour – 2 hours per blog entry…I edit EVERY picture!!!) or lay out if the weather is nice or do other things (bills, phone calls, etc). After nap he has roomtime (plays alone in the playroom for 40 min) then movie time (30 min) so i have MORE time to get things done, including dinner. He's usually done with that around 5:30ish which is when Zach is home so we are all together for dinner then kye gets a bath at 6:45 and goes to bed by 7:15! On days he doesn't have school i use the time he would be at school for "us time" and we play together or do chores together (clean, laundry etc). with the new baby coming i know it'll make things more hectic but i'm hoping to fall into a good solid schedule pretty quickly. when they sleep a lot at that young age, the babywise mom recommends that i sleep during one of the naps and during the others kye will be awake so i'll be spending time with him! he's getting a LOT of new toys for christmas for us to play with haha!
@d2a43194637ef11909844ad8f9b04c90 great idea! i'll port one here about it sometime soon!
I was laughing at your ironing post, because I feel the SAME way. I really can't stand to iron. To prevent Bro's shirts from getting icky, I put them on the low cycle in the dryer for about five minutes and then hang them out to dry. They end up being soft and nice. It's a little extra work but better than ironing. Can't wait to hear about Blitzen!