It's been three and a half years since we've brought a baby home from the hospital, so I've been thinking hard about what worked and what didn't last time around, and what things I wish we'd done differently. Although I have had great hospital stay experiences, I'm always ready at the end of two days to get out of there and be in my own space and back with my family.
That being said, if I came home to a disaster of a house, I'd probably turn right around and check myself back in to the hospital. Thankfully my clean-freak husband wouldn't ever let that happen, but still here's a few things you should put on your to-do list before that baby comes. You want coming home from the hospital to be a really happy and calm experience, and these six things that I've been working my way through will definitely make all the difference.
1. Get the house deep cleaned. We've been organizing, purging, re-arranging and cleaning constantly for the last six months, but last week we hired someone to come a do a super deep clean on our house. It feels so good to have all the details taken care of, and even better that I didn't personally have to do it at nine months pregnant.
2. Do the laundry. No one wants to come home from the hospital to a pile of laundry, even if it's clean. I'm not always super good about staying on top of the folding, but in these last few weeks I've been trying to be extra good about it just so I don't have to come home from the hospital to no clean underwear, or a giant pile of unfolded laundry.
3. Fill your freezer with meals. I had big plans to make some soups and crockpot meals and some other meals to throw in the freezer for the days after the baby came. But then I was at Trader Joes the other day and they have a bunch of easy frozen meals, so I saved myself a lot of time and a million ingredients and threw those in my cart instead. I also made some chocolate chip cookies and froze those, but we'll see if they last that long...sometimes I just can't refuse a good frozen cookie.
4. Clean the bottles. B was a champion bottle taker, and would switch back and forth from breastfeeding to bottle feeding without a problem. I didn't love nursing him, but we made it work. With Fos, I absolutely loved nursing him, and although I gave him a bottle within the first two weeks just to make sure he took it (which he did), it seemed like more of a hassle cause nursing him was so great. But then that backfired big time because I then went months without offering him a bottle, so by the time we really needed him to take one he refused. So this time I'm getting them prepped nice and early so I don't forget to offer them early and every few days and make sure he can go back and forth so I can maintain some level of freedom. I've heard great things about the Munchkin Latch bottles, so I'm excited to try them out. Their LATCH line also has bottle brushes that come with little tiny brushes (that can be stored inside the big brush handle!) so you can reach and clean all those little tiny areas. Hallelujah. Also you can get them for 15% off right here!
5. Get a manicure and pedicure. When you're feeling as giant as a whale at the end, pampering yourself a bit should be top on your list. Treat yourself to a manicure and pedicure during the last couple of weeks before baby's arrival. And if you get a gel manicure, then they'll be sure to still look good when you head to the hospital! Also once you get home from the hospital you'll probably feel exhausted and overwhelmed and might feel like a mess, but at least your fingers and toes will look beautiful!
6. Fill your house with fresh flowers. Every time I come home from being out of town, the first thing on my list (besides laundry and groceries) is to get fresh flowers for my house. There's just something about them that makes me inexplicably happy, and make my house feel like home. Coming home from the hospital is no different -- walking in to a clean house with fresh flowers on the table will pretty much be the best way to welcome our new little bundle home.
Would you add anything to this list??
created in partnership with MUNCHKIN | photos by rad and happy
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