5 Last-Minute Things to Do Before Baby Arrives

Are you getting closer and closer to your date of birth and wondering what you need to do for your baby to arrives?

You’ve taken birth and neonatal care classes, the nursery is fully painted and ready to use, and you have plenty of stocks of diapers, wet wipes and baby supplies.

But it’s time to crack, mom. It’s time to complete your third trimester checklist and get all the last-minute items to prepare for your baby’s arrival.

In this article, we’ll cover 5 important last-minute jobs you need to do before your baby arrives to make the end of your pregnancy and the first weeks after birth a little softer.

Pin this checklist so you can return later!

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Create a Postpartum Recovery Kit

Whether you give birth vaginally or by caesarean section, childbirth can be quite damaging to your body. Alleviate your postpartum ailments by having the best recovery tools at hand.

The last thing you want to do after giving birth is run to the grocery store, so make sure you stock up on these essential ingredients before your baby arrives. If you’re giving birth in a hospital, you might want to check out what the whole hospital is providing to save yourself some money.

Some of the key postpartum features I find most useful include:

• Maxi pads per night
• Do-it-yourself pads: made with Aloe and (non-alcoholic) witch nuts
• Earth Mama Perineal Spray
• Witch nut pads
• Coconut oil: works great as nipple cream, anti-crack, all-natural diaper cream and more.
• Comfortable donut chair

Install The Car Seat

Attaching a car seat to your vehicle is one of the most important things you need to do to prepare for the baby you may have forgotten. The hospital won’t even let you leave the hospital, so go there and install it.

Be sure to place it firmly. Here’s a video to help you get it right.

Don’t forget it! Wearing a car seat can be harder than it looks.

Make sure that both you and your husband know how to fit your car seat properly, and that you know all the do’s and don’ts about car seat safety.

For example, the straps need to pass the compression test, the chest clip rests on your baby’s sternum, the fluffy coats certainly will not, and please do not put your car seat on top of the shopping cart.

Car seats for Littles are a great source for car seat safety. They even have a useful Facebook group you can join.

It is also a good idea to have your installation checked by an authorized car seat technician.

Consider mounting the base in the car, but keep the baby seat on the way to your place of birth. This way, unfortunately, if there is an accident before that, you will only need to replace the base, and you can still wear the seat with a seatbelt. You’ll be calmer for doing this before your baby arrives.

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Make Some Freezer Meals

Caring for a newborn is like a full-time job that involves tons of overtime.

You quickly kneel in dirty diapers and feel constantly feeding your precious new pack. And the less time you spend between feeding and changing, the more you sneak into all those newborn hugs and try to catch some zzz’s.

This time it’s too valuable to have to spend hours in the kitchen. Not to mention, your baby always seems to get hungry as soon as you start cooking or start eating.

Give yourself plenty of time to heal and bond with your baby by stocking up on all your favourite freezer meals during your third trimester.

Once people stop bringing you food and you run out of freezer food, you might consider signing up for several different food delivery services. Usually you can get a pretty good discount on your first orders!

* You may not want to eat too many meals early, because most people can only be used in the freezer for up to 3 months.

It’s a good idea to prepare frozen meals for two weeks before your baby is born. You will be very busy and you will want to do this even if there is someone there to help you.

Instead of always having it in the kitchen, you’ll need help with other things.

Here’s a list of 25 frozen meals you can create so you don’t have to worry about what everyone will eat later. When your baby arrives, you’ll be very grateful for doing this.

Create a Breastfeeding Station

You children, newborns, eat as usual, especially if you are breastfeeding.

It is quite common for breast-fed babies to eat every 2-3 hours during this newborn period. And these cluster feeds can sometimes be brutal.

The thing is, you’re going to spend a lot of time breastfeeding, so take the time to create a comfortable station for yourself, stretch all your breastfeeding essentials into your arms.

Here are some things I keep at my nursing station:

• Coconut oil (used as nipple cream)
• Nursing pillow
• Water bottle (a serious must!)
• One-handed snacks
• Replacement breastfeeding bra
• Reusable breastfeeding pads
• Burp rags (we only used front floors)
• Remote
• Books

I didn’t have diapers or wet wipes at the station because if the baby needed a change, my dad would take over and I would have a chance to go to the toilet, eat something or get fresh.

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Catch up on Other Laundry

Did I mention that babies grow your laundry exponentially? Seriously, how can such small people create so much laundry?!?

Try to keep up with the baby’s shift and do laundry once a day. This will help minimize the laundry monster and ensure you have clean, comfortable clothes to wear postpartum.

This is another job you don’t want to think about. Make sure everything is done so you can take care of more important things like cooling and your newborn baby. When your baby arrives, you’ll be very more comfortable for doing this.