04. ten things i did to prepare for a newborn

nesting 2.0

I am already a very organized, list-oriented person so ‘nesting’ for me was just another typical day. There are a few things I did outside of the typical nesting behaviors like getting your nursery together and scrubbing your base boards that I found to be so helpful postpartum with a newborn. I felt very set up for success when I got home and the weeks after (so far — I am ~3 weeks PP) and wanted to share what I did in case anyone else finds it helpful. 😊

1. Beauty appointments — the week before my due date, I got a manicure + pedicure, a haircut, and an eyebrow wax which are my typical lineup for beauty. I felt put together and now I won’t have to worry about these for a bit!

2. Deep cleaning the car — I have a shedding dog and live by the beach so there is never a lack of shedding and sand in my car so I got it fully detailed at the car wash so that it was as clean as can be before installing the car seat.

3. Reflexology — From my second trimester on, I had horrible carpal tunnel in both wrists/hands. I tried everything from wrist braces, hot & cold therapy, at home exercises … you name it. I got a prenatal massage and the therapist happened to be an angel who was so helpful and gave me a tip to go to a local reflexologist. I added this to my weekly lineup and it was glorious — I would go for 50 minutes and ask for 25 minutes dedicated to my hands and 25 minutes dedicated to my feet. Carpal tunnel or not, I highly recommend this!

4. Gifts — I was due in late May and there were a ton of birthdays, weddings, and holidays right around then. I got ahead of everything and set up gifts for all of the occasions I needed to so that I would not forget and would not have to worry about it when it came up.

5. Freezer meals — I read so much about freezer meals and decided breakfast only was the vibe for us. We made a ton of breakfast sammies and burritos and they came in clutch the first week or two home. They were so easy to make too!

6. Non-baby household supplies — We did a huge Costco run and stocked up on all of our household essentials (paper towels, TP, tissues, cleaning supplies, dog treats, etc) and we still haven’t had to worry about running out of anything which has been so nice.

7. Groom your dog + set up care — our puppy Tony is the light of our lives so of course we thought about everything we needed to do to prepare him for this big change. We got him groomed and lookin handsome to meet his little brother, and then set up boarding for him for a week. He “boards” at a dog camp on a big plot of land with a dog trainer and gets to run, play and swim all day long so we knew he would have a blast. His camp even came to the hospital to pick up our baby’s first hat to send back for Tony to sniff and get used to. It was such a relief to know he was taken care of and has a place to go sometimes during the week when we need a break too.

8. Hire professional cleaners — We got our place deep cleaned the week before I was due so that we didn’t have to spend a ton of physical energy doing this and could just enjoy the last week. Best decision ever!

9. Admin — Any outstanding admin you have to do, get it done. Have you been needing to roll over your 401k to your new job’s provider? Do it now! You get the point … everyone has a short (or long) list of admin things they are avoiding and you will not want to have to do these when you can just be cuddling with your baby instead.

10. Organize other rooms aside from the nursery — I reorganized our kitchen and our storage closets because I knew we would need space for all of the baby’s things eventually. As a newborn, there isn’t much he needs in the kitchen but we have an entire area dedicated for him for when he starts to grow and needs more things and we need to put those things somewhere. Same with storage closets … I can only imagine how quickly you start to run out of space so we wanted to maximize all the space we could.

I think I could easily do a part two to this so let me know if you are interested and I will keep writing about all my neurotic organizational tendencies 🙃

xx