As I enter my third trimester and prepare for Baby #2, I've found myself deep in nesting mode. Between planning for labor, preparing for postpartum recovery, and getting our home ready for a newborn, there are a lot of moving pieces. If you're also preparing for a new baby, here are some practical ways I'm getting ready for birth, postpartum, and life with a growing family.
Why I'm Preparing for Baby Earlier This Time:
For background, my first pregnancy was a difficult one to say the least. I actually found out I was pregnant with our firstborn a month immediately after a miscarriage with our very first pregnancy. While we were both so incredibly excited to be expecting at all, there was still a lot of grief that we had to walk through during the pregnancy with our son.
While I can't explain the science of it, I firmly believe that grief greatly affected my health during my first pregnancy.
It frustrated me at the time, but I ended up being labelled a "high risk" pregnancy with my son due to the miscarriage and the health issues that followed. Looking back now, my physical and mental health were not in a good place at all, so I am glad that my midwife and doctors took extra care with me during that time.
Additionally, my husband and I were going through some major life changes in the midst of the pregnancy–the biggest of which was purchasing our house!
Instead of nesting in the third trimester and getting ready for our son, I was spending my third trimester packing our lives into boxes, closing on a house, and all of the lovely stress that comes with that.
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| Getting the keys to our first purchased home! |
When we officially moved in to our new house, all we really had time to move was our bed, some kitchen supplies, our couches, and the baby’s bassinet.
I went into labor three days after moving into our new home.
So needless to say, this was not the most peaceful transition to parenthood. However, we survived. We were incredibly blessed to have family right next door who were willing and able to continue preparing the house for us while we were in the hospital. Our homecoming was still special, and we settled in before long.
This go-around, we’ve thankfully been settled comfortably in our home for a good while now, with no crazy transitions on the horizon. With this pregnancy, I finally have the opportunity to truly “nest” and help myself feel more prepared for a gentle, slow postpartum. I'm so excited and grateful that we are here now.
Things I'm Doing to Prepare for My Second Birth:
Preparing Our Home for Baby
- Making to-do lists: I don't know if it's just me, but making lists always seems to quiet my brain and help me feel calm when I feel overwhelmed. Maybe it's just because it creates the illusion of control, but I choose to believe it's because it helps me feel organized. I've created to-do lists for all of the necessary housework and chores, postpartum meal prep, and even packing. This has been helping me to stay focused on one item at a time, which helps me with getting them completed.
- Deep Cleaning and Decluttering: I've been in a frenzy of cleaning out, throwing away, and decluttering. There's nothing like having a baby to make you realize just how little space you have for "junk" in your house. I started by cleaning out old baby items from our first child that I just didn't find useful the first go-around (I'm looking at you, Boppy pillow). I've actually been able to sell a lot of these items on Facebook Marketplace, so we were able to make a little money back. Next, I organized all of our baby clothes by size and vacuum-sealed them to save closet space. Now that those are done, I'm in the process of throwing out random clutter we've accumulated in the past year that doesn't serve us or our growing family. It's been incredibly freeing!
- Making to-do lists: I don't know if it's just me, but making lists always seems to quiet my brain and help me feel calm when I feel overwhelmed. Maybe it's just because it creates the illusion of control, but I choose to believe it's because it helps me feel organized. I've created to-do lists for all of the necessary housework and chores, postpartum meal prep, and even packing. This has been helping me to stay focused on one item at a time, which helps me with getting them completed.
- Deep Cleaning and Decluttering: I've been in a frenzy of cleaning out, throwing away, and decluttering. There's nothing like having a baby to make you realize just how little space you have for "junk" in your house. I started by cleaning out old baby items from our first child that I just didn't find useful the first go-around (I'm looking at you, Boppy pillow). I've actually been able to sell a lot of these items on Facebook Marketplace, so we were able to make a little money back. Next, I organized all of our baby clothes by size and vacuum-sealed them to save closet space. Now that those are done, I'm in the process of throwing out random clutter we've accumulated in the past year that doesn't serve us or our growing family. It's been incredibly freeing!
Preparing for Labor and Delivery
- Pre-register at the hospital: I didn't realize that this was even an option with my first birth, so I definitely wanted to try it with my second. (For those of you who don't know, if you are delivering at the hospital, you can usually "pre-register" to help skip some of the paperwork they make you fill out at intake.) While I've heard mixed reviews about if this actually helps cut down the paperwork, I'm hopeful that it will cut down on the waiting time. Trying to fill out important paperwork while having contractions is not for the weak.
- Packing my hospital bag: While I did do this last time, I had no clue what I would actually use and need at the hospital. I overpacked on some items and completely skipped other things that would have been useful. Now that I've delivered at this location before, I have a better idea of what they provide to mothers during their stay. Some things I definitely plan to bring this time are my own pillow and blanket to help me be as comfortable as possible in my recovery room, a donut pillow to sit on afterwards (if you know, you know), and some snacks for myself and my husband to have on hand.
- Focusing on positive, uplifting birth stories: This one is such a blessing. Hearing joyful, refreshing birth stories that focus on the hopefulness of labor and delivery is something that definitely helps me to stay in a good headspace. My first time around, I was so scared of birth that I made the mistake of listening to all of the "bad" stories, which only caused me to be more anxious. This time, I am actively trying to listen to stories from women who had good experiences.
Preparing for Postpartum Recovery
- Gentle Movement: During my first pregnancy, I spent a lot of time resting because I felt sick and struggled with several health issues that made movement difficult. However, this go-around, I have been very healthy and have also stayed incredibly busy chasing after my toddler and working on building our little garden. While I haven't done many "workouts," my focus has been on overall movement and mobility, which is helping me stay upbeat and clear-headed. I take my toddler outside to play in the summer sunshine, I take walks when I can, and I tend to our garden.
- Red raspberry leaf tea + medjool dates: I didn't really do this consistently with my first pregnancy, so this is another area that I am hoping to be more focused on this go-around. I've heard lots of mamas share positive effects in labor and postpartum healing from consuming these consistently in the third trimester, so my hope is that it will make a difference.
- Meal Prep: I've started choosing recipes I'd like to meal prep in advance for my postpartum period. I'm hoping to create a mix of frozen meals, canned meals, as well as healthy snacks for a little variety. For me, the most challenging meal during postpartum was breakfast! So I plan to make a bunch of easy freezer breakfasts that we can quickly reheat after the sleepless nights.
- Our current favorites I've tested are frozen breakfast burritos and frozen French toast muffins.
- I also hope to make a few crockpot meals like my Cozy One-Pot Lasagna Soup, and even some frozen dinners like my creamy chicken enchiladas.
Things I'm Not Stressing About for My Second Birth:
- An intricate birth plan: This can be a controversial one, but I want to share my experience anyway. With my first delivery, I went all out with creating an intricate birth plan; I even printed it out on cardstock paper and quizzed my husband on it until he could recite it. As it turns out, we forgot the plan in the car in the flurry of trying to get checked into the hospital, so we didn't even get a chance to give it to anyone anyway. By the time I actually delivered, neither one of us had slept much for nearly 24 hours, and we didn't really care about all of the "plans" we had made. And guess what? It was the most beautiful, precious birth experience, and I wouldn't have changed a single thing. Ultimately, forgetting my "plan" showed me that I am not in control, and God is in control of all things–even birth–and His plan is better than mine. I will be communicating a few preferences to my midwife and birth team beforehand, but I will be allowing myself to just focus on birth itself.
- Buying a ton of baby gadgets: I don't plan on buying much for the baby this go-around because I still have a lot of the essentials in our closet from when my first was born. Also, I was able to test out what gadgets actually worked for me the first time, and I ended up selling or giving away what didn't work for me. For example, I tried over and over again to breastfeed with the popular Boppy pillow after hearing nothing but good things about it. It turns out, the Boppy wasn't a good fit for me due to being short-waisted, so there was no room for me to cradle my baby comfortably. The only time we ended up actually using the Boppy consistently was when my son was learning to sit up. So just remember that not every popular "must-have" item is actually a good fit for every mama.
- Stocking up on disposable diapers: I was incredibly blessed to have dozens of people who sent me diapers with my first child, but I also took the chance to stock up whenever I found a good sale. This time around, I will welcome any diapers gifted, but I'm not going to stress about it. My hope is to instead focus on getting enough cloth diapering supplies as it will save us money longterm. We will definitely use disposables if we have them, as I don't believe diapering has to be an all-or-nothing experience, but I'm choosing to look at them as a helpful, welcome backup instead of a primary need to stress over.
Closing thoughts:
At the end of the day, no amount of planning and prepping will solve everything. Like I said before, God is in control of all things, and His plan is ultimately the best. I know that whatever He has in store for this birth is sweet and special in its own way and its own time.
However, with each item checked off of my to-do list, each freezer meal I make, and every area of the house I tidy, these little preparations are definitely helping me to feel better prepared to meet the new addition to our family. Right now I'm just doing my best to trust in the Lord, enjoy the excitement of our growing family, and allow myself to feel peace in knowing that it will come together eventually.
For me, the overwhelm tends to set in whenever I focus on the difficult or stressful parts of bringing a baby home, and not the joyful, exciting parts. Obviously, it doesn't make those hard parts go away, but choosing to reframe this as an exciting experience is helpful to helping me stay centered on what matters most–our happily growing family.
If you have more than one child, I'd love to hear your experiences transitioning from one baby to two. Especially if it happens to be two-under-two! What did you do differently the second time around? What helped you most in the postpartum period with a toddler in tow? Let me know.
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