You’ve had your due date in the front of your mind for months, and each day brings you a little closer. All types of preparation are helpful to ease the transition of welcoming a new baby – getting on daycare waitlists, taking a childbirth education course, setting up your baby’s nursery, eventually installing your car seat, and much more.

While those big plans are critical, sometimes the small things can also go a long way in helping you feel ready for this huge life transition. In this blog, I’m going to share some small, practical tips that will make your first few weeks at home feel a little easier.

Meal Prep

Doing a little planning and food preparation can bring a huge payoff when you get home from the hospital and need something easy to heat up for dinner. In your last month or so of pregnancy, I recommend making double batches of some of your favorite foods like chili, soup, lasagna, meatballs, pulled BBQ chicken, and pasta sauce and storing meal-sized portions in the freezer. While restaurant takeout can be a nice treat and definitely offer a valuable shortcut when you need it, having a home-cooked favorite meal can feel really comforting.

Another meal prep option is to combine all the ingredients for easy crockpot meals in gallon-sized zip bags, and then move the bag to the refrigerator to thaw a day before you’re ready to cook it. While this takes a little more planning and thought, it can add some variety to easy-to-make meals at your fingertips.

A plate full of muffins. A St. Louis postpartum doula can help prepare easy snacks.

Don’t Forget Breakfast and Snacks

While main dishes and things like soups will be really helpful, I also encourage families to plan ahead for foods for breakfast and snacks. Often in the early days with a newborn, quick snacks that are easy to eat feel more manageable than a sit-down meal at a table. Also, being able to grab something in the middle of the night when you’re up for feedings will help you manage hunger and the need for some quick energy. Here are some of my favorite things to stash in your freezer:

Muffins

Pancakes

Breakfast Cookies

Brownies

Breakfast burritos

Granola

Smoothie packs (add all the fruits and veggies you like in a smoothie to individual zipper bags)

Stocking up on Household Essentials

Glass jars full of grains. Postpartum doulas in St. Louis can do grocery shopping to stock up on household essentials.

The month before your due date can be a good time, if budget allows, to stock up on heavily used items for your house. This can include non-perishable food items, like canned goods, packaged snacks, coffee, and easy-to-make foods like pasta and rice. You can also do a walk-through in your house to note items that you frequently buy, such as:

Hand soap

Paper towels

Toilet paper

Dishwasher soap

Hand sanitizer

Shampoo and conditioner

Toothpaste

Lip balm

Deodorant

Over-the-counter medications or supplements

Lotion

Laundry detergent

Aluminum foil, zip bags, etc.

Trash bags

Pet food and supplies

Cleaning supplies

Of course, preparing for your baby will also require some baby-specific purchases, and we’ll go through those in a future blog post. Stay tuned!

A little planning and preparation will go a long way towards helping you feel ready to meet your new baby. Some parents-to-be find this type of activity to be a fun way of nesting and channeling excitement, but if this feels overwhelming, that’s okay! A postpartum doula can help you knock out this type of planning, errand-running, meal prep, and house setup. If you’re interested in this type of help, reach out today!