How to Prepare Your Home For a New Baby

Bringing a baby home is one of the most exciting moments in a new parent’s life, but it also signals a new stage in your life. Whether this is your first child or not, you know that the next few months and years of your life will be dedicated to looking after your baby.

While there’s no way to completely get rid of the stress and exhaustion that surrounds a newborn baby, it does help to be prepared before the new addition is there. Here are some tips to get your house and your lives ready for your bundle of joy.

Preparing Yourselves

While the house is an important part of this preparation process, you also need to look after yourselves. It’s best to be as physically and mentally healthy as you can be, as the next few months might spell a lot of sleepless nights. 

This is especially important and difficult for pregnant mothers. Different women have different experiences while pregnant, and you might even notice differences if you’ve been pregnant more than once. Some mothers are able to live mostly ordinary lives while pregnant and keep up with their normal routines. Others experience more severe symptoms that make them feel exhausted or nauseous. 

In any case, it’s important to get prenatal medical care. This will take care of the health of both mother and baby, making sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible. If you are worried about your health while pregnant, you can get specialist care and advice.

It’s also a good idea to read up on parenting books that let you know what you might expect during pregnancy and the first few weeks and months after birth. You can take parenting classes or speak to friends and family who have had kids. True, experience is the best teacher, but it helps not to be completely blindsided by your baby.

Creating Space

A newborn doesn’t necessarily need their own room as soon as you bring them home. Many parents like to have the crib in the room with them, especially when the baby is young enough to require regular feeds through the night. 

However, it’s still a good idea to create a nursery before the birth, so you don’t need to juggle all the work with your new baby. If you have a spare room, you already have a good place to start.

Otherwise, you have a few options to play with. An extension can provide extra space if you need it, allowing you to add another room or even more to your home. Or you can split a large room into two using plasterboard to quickly create an extra bedroom.

Many children are willing to share and, depending on their age and gender, this can be a good solution for parents with limited space. Older kids might be able to move to an attic or basement, although this is rarely a suitable option for young children. 

Preparing the Rest of Your Family

Speaking of other children, you should also consider making sure that other family members are prepared. Your parents and any siblings might be supportive allies. You shouldn’t be afraid of asking for help when you need it, but find the balance between asking and demanding. 

Your children might have mixed feelings about a new sibling. While your attention will be diverted, it’s important to reassure them that they’re still loved and can enjoy having a new role to play as an older sibling. 

Baby Proofing

Newborns can’t even support their own heads when they’re newly born, but it doesn’t take long for them to start wiggling about. Infants and toddlers are curious and like to explore, but they don’t have a great sense of danger.

This is why baby proofing is so important, and it doesn’t hurt to baby proof your home sooner than you strictly need to. Cover any sharp corners and invest in stair gates to control where your little one can wander to. You should also keep any potential dangers out of their reach, as curious hands and mouths can cause problems.

Food Prep and Essentials

As mentioned above, the first weeks and months after bringing your baby home will be hard work. Chores and jobs around the house can take second or even third place. One thing that can make it easier is to make sure the house is well-stocked with everything you’ll need.

If possible, cook freezer-friendly meals in advance so you don’t have to bother with cooking. You should also make sure you have a good supply of diapers, wet wipes, clothes, and other essentials to keep your baby happy and healthy. The more prep you do, the less stress you’ll have.