How I'm (SIMPLY) Preparing for My New Baby

Keeping it simple and getting ready for baby!

Some people are major planners. When they are about to have their first baby, EVERYTHING is ready and carefully picked out. Months are spent researching the perfect crib, stroller, and glider.

Even if only for a very short time, we were those people.

For our first child, we decorated the bedroom in green and orange since we did not know the sex of the baby. We were handed down a crib and changing table, so we got to spend our money buying lots of “fun” things.

Little did we know that babies really don’t need all that much.

Too much stuff

We quickly found out how uninterested we are in using cribs (she only used it from 3 to 15 months old). Not only that, but a lot of fancier items like cute outfits, towels, blankets, and toys were seldom used and started to take up valuable storage space in our home.

When I was pregnant with our second child, I vowed to cut back on stuff and try living with less.

• Used a floor bed instead of a crib.
• Got rid of the changing table all together.
• Acquired MUCH less clothes.
• Started selling stuff we no longer used.

Not only did we start decluttering all of our baby gear, but the purging continued on into our whole home. Three years later, we still are not done.

SURPRISE! Baby number 3

This baby definitely came as a surprise but luckily, as it normally is with a third child, I feel like a pro at knowing what I am going to need.

Over the last couple months, the nesting urge has been strong so I have gone with it. I may as well take advantage of the burst of energy now before the sleepless nights start again.

What am I doing to prepare?

Laundry

So. Much. Laundry.
Knowing I was not done growing my family, I made sure to keep most clothes, cloth diapers, and linens. Although most items were washed before being stored away, it is always nice to freshen them up a bit. It took about a week, but I finally got our newborn diapers and clothes, receiving blankets, linens, and carriers all washed and ready to go.

Sleeping arrangements and room setup

We co-slept with our previous two children. We are expecting to do the same with our third. The older two still occasionally come into our big king size bed at night so I wanted to ensure that baby3 had its own safe place. We also only have 3 bedrooms upstairs so I had to get creative in how I was going to set everything up. I decided to side-car a crib.

Since so little is actually needed during those many many sleepless nights, I set up a small tower shelf with a couple of baskets. Sleepers, diapers, and receiving blankets. I also have some large prefolds and fleece blankets to lay down in the bed to cover wet spots during the night. Our priority is sleep, so changing the bed linens can happen in the morning.

Other rooms

Since about 99% of our awake time is spent in our living room, there were a few things that had to be done here as well. Most of the kids’ toys were sent down to their new playroom. All that remains in the living room now can fit in the storage bin. Limiting what’s up there makes for an easier clean up each evening before bed.

All the baby needs in the living room is a safe place to sleep (bassinet), a safe spot to hang out if I need to do something (rocking chair), and a basket with diapers, blankets, and sleepers. The small rocking chair will be easy to move from floor to floor as needed.

Our linen closet has also seen a major transformation. We decluttered first aid supplies and reorganized our “out of season” linens. A spot was created for the baby bathtub. Baby3 also has its own shelf. Later, when they grow and their clothes take up a bit more room than newborn sleepers, a couple baskets here for its wardrobe will do the trick.

Still some purging to do

One of the first things I’ll be able to do after this child’s birth is cut down on our receiving blankets by about half. I am definitely not against a boy using a pink blanket but I definitely do not need 15 of them.

Since I have kept all the clothes from both my daughter and son, I have many many huge bins waiting for me to tackle in our closet. I thought about decluttering some of the clothes over the fall but figured since I’ll be getting rid of about half the clothes anyways this spring, the task would just wait until then.

Adding an extra person to a family does not always need to mean more stuff.

If you want, you can quickly find out what is really needed and get rid of all the extras. Spending less time cleaning and organizing stuff I do not need means I get to spend more time snuggling my babies.

And who does NOT want to do that?!