When we started trying for our second babe, I never imagined that I’d end up with a due date of Christmas Day! It’s special and nerve wracking at the same time being during such a busy & exciting time of the year! Thankfully, I get to go a little earlier than Christmas Day so we can be home with L and celebrate the holiday as we normally would! Which means doing all the prepping for baby before his arrival!
Unfortunately, with all the yuck going around, we will be missing our family gatherings this year and hunkering down at home to try and keep the little one as healthy as possible! (We have exciting plans for just the 4 of us while our families are gathered together! I may do a blog post just on this!)
So with all that being said, I have been really trying to prep for the little ones arrival so we can still enjoy Christmas and having a newborn at home with as little stress as possible. (As much as you can with a newborn!) I shared on my Instagram stories my long to do list I have been working through before his arrival and I asked for some feedback on things others wished they would have done before their little ones arrival! I compiled the list and put together the top 10 to do’s to prep for a baby’s arrival at Christmas time!
Do a Deep Clean of Your Home (Yourself or Hired!)
This was one of my absolute top priorities for prepping for my little guys arrival! Normally I love a good deep clean in the fall before I bring out my Christmas decorations but I am especially working hard on this before the baby is here. I’ve begun by washing all of our couch cushions, shampooing the carpets, clearing out the vents of any trapped dust, wiping down the fridge and freezer, cleaning out the food cabinets, disinfecting our beds and so on. And I have certainly not gotten this done in a day or two – this has been taking me weeks! Ha! But I want to knock out any tasks that I know I just will be too exhausted for once he is here!
I plan to hire some helpers to come in for the first 6 weeks and help with basic cleaning in our main living areas and bathrooms. I’m very much a product of my environment and if it’s not kept up, I will not be able to relax and enjoy the newborn snuggles. So having someone (family, friends or whomever!) come every other week to take that off of my plate is something I know I will thank myself for!
Purchase Remaining Baby Essentials
This may be an obvious one but with it being the holiday season, you know the stores are chaotic this time of the year and with every virus under the sun running wild right now, I plan to stay as far away from there as possible once our babe is here. Thank goodness for curbside pickup though right?!
I made a list after my baby sprinkle of any additional items we may need for the baby so we can truly hunker down at home. And now that this is my second time around, I know you don’t need too much! Diapers, wipes, formula, bottles, basic baby medicines, binkies, zipper jammies (iykyk!) and bath essentials were on the list of must haves. And if we do find ourselves really needing anything after he arrives, curbside pick ups will be our best friend! But for any first time mamas out there, as long as you got what I mentioned above, you are going to be good to go for a while!
Wash All The Clothes
This one here is another obvious for baby but I also mean this for anyone else in your house too! I have been trying my best to keep up on all of laundry, washing, drying, folding and putting away all in the same day! (I feel like I live in the laundry room at this point!) Mainly because I remember the amount of times I had spit up, pee, poo, breast milk leakage and all the other things on my clothes daily. So many outfit changes for all of us! Ha! I also don’t want to come home to laundry to do right away. If I can get away with a couple of days of not needing to do laundry once we come home from the hospital, that would be glorious!
Pack Your Hospital Bag
I started packing my hospital bag early because as much as I am a procrastinator, I also love to be prepared. It’s wild how I am so much of the two! I packed it early because I just have this gut feeling little one is going to come early and I wanted to be able to walk right out the door!
I am definitely no expert when it comes to what to pack in your hospital bag! I am an overpacker and I know I shouldn’t be for our hospital stay. But with COVID guidelines, I wanted to be ready in case we were unable to leave the room or Nick was unable to go home and bring things back up!
So I looked to Pinterest and just packed as best I could from other wonderful well advised bloggers! I did grab a few new lounging sets from Walmart & Target and if I love them after wearing them to the hospital, I will be sure to share them with you! But one thing I will forever recommend bringing along – a boppy pillow! I needed this more in the first week than L did!
I went ahead and packed our bags into Nick’s car so again, we can just walk right out the door when it’s go time! (I also created a quick little note in my phone of things to not forget to grab too that didn’t make it into the bags – purse, phone and of course, our L! 😉
Grocery/Essentials Restock
Like I mentioned above, the stores are crazy before the holidays and I am really trying to avoid them at all costs after the baby is here. So I am planning on doing a large restock on our food and essentials a week before my induction date! I want to make sure we have our favorite snacks, drinks, easy throw together meals, toiletries, bathroom essentials and so on. And again, I’m not going to stress if we forgot something – delivery and curbside pickup will definitely be utilitized often here but it’s nice to already know all of these things are here at the house!
Too, I am planning some fun days and evenings for the 4 of us to enjoy on the holidays since we won’t be with our families and I plan to grab these items then too! Fun party plates, cups, napkins, simple decorations and such for Christmas and New Years Eve!
And one thing I definitely don’t want to forget to stock up on – throw away plates, cups and napkins for those first few weeks! I am not usually one to buy these as I try to be as eco-friendly as possible and just use our dishware but I also don’t want to do dishes all the time! I’m looking for simple and easy those first few weeks of getting the hang of being a mom to two!
Prep Freezer Meals
This one goes a little hand in hand with my grocery restock – I don’t want to be figuring out what to cook every night those first couple of weeks! Seeing as I don’t enjoy cooking now, I certainly won’t enjoy it then! Ha! Lucky for me, I have a husband who is an amazing cook and loves to cook but I know he will be just as exhausted and thankful for some pre made dinners! So on those nights he doesn’t feel like cooking up a dinner for us, we can grab a freezer meal from the fridge and get in some shut eye while it’s cooking in the oven or crock pot! 😊
If you have any favorite freezer meal suggestions, please send them my way! I plan to get started on them the first of December!
Purchase As Many Christmas Gifts Beforehand
This one has been on my mind since the moment I found out I was due on Christmas Day! With L, I went into labor a week early and this being my second, I just felt I should be prepared! So I began making our list of everyone we needed to buy for, what the budget was and some ideas for what I could get them! As I am writing this, I can tell you I am 95% done! (Just need a couple stocking stuffers!) And I am SO glad! I’m an anxious person (if you couldn’t tell by this prep list! Ha!) and I didn’t want my boys to feel it was any less of a Christmas if we didn’t get it together before the baby arrived.
I still have to buy the remaining items for stocking stuffers and of course, the baby’s stocking too!! Oh my gosh I could cry from happiness thinking about this! 😊 I hope to start wrapping or even just putting the gifts into gift bags this year because bending over – it’s starting to get really hard these days! However Nick likes to wrap gifts on Christmas Eve night so maybe we will save all of L’s gifts to wrap together!
Our family members & friends gifts I plan to drop off sometime early in the month so they have them to open on Christmas Day!
Put Up Holiday Decorations
I just begun this because I’m still in my deep cleaning process/phase but I plan to go minimal-ish this year! My bestie had a baby December 20th a few years ago and I remember her mentioning that she put more winter decor out rather than Christmas so it can stay up longer and not need to be put away as quickly. So I am going to follow her footsteps there and do the same!
L is very much into helping put up any holiday decorations so I’m letting him have free range on decorating the Christmas tree with the ornaments!
Another way I love the decorate/celebrate the holidays with L is creating an Occasions Bin with cute plates, cups, napkins, trinkets and such to use throughout the month to get in the holiday spirit! If you don’t know what I’m talking about – search #occasionsbin on Instagram and get ready to save every idea you come across! Haha!
And I think for outside I am going to just focus mainly on the front porch to be decorated. I love the sparkle from twinkling lights at Christmas so instead of making sure lights are all over the house, I’m going to focus on one area and really give it some love that will also be easy for Nick to take down when the holiday season is over.
And one final note here – I am already envisioning all of the cutest Christmas pictures I will make L and the baby take together this Christmas at home so I am going back and forth on keeping it easy on myself but also wanting to go overboard because how special this Christmas will be!
Self Care Day
I am desperate to go grab a pedicure before the baby comes! And while this is totally not a necessity, it is in my book! I have gotten so used to being alone during the day again with L being at school, I know once the baby is here, packing up all the things to go run errands or find the time to be alone again to pamper myself will come few and far between for the first couple of weeks. (Uh, don’t get me wrong here, I know I will be dying to hop in the car to grab a Starbucks and just be out of the house for a bit! Maybe a little thrift shop window shopping – the best kind of errands IMO.) But in those first few weeks, you feel so blah with the “how long has it been since I’ve gotten a shower” showers, diaper underwears and all the glorious parts of postpartum, it will be nice to get in a couple moments of being pampered and feeling really good! I hope to grab a coffee or some lunch with a girlfriend and just enjoy these moments before I’m enjoying all the baby moments!
Day(s) of Rest
I saved the most important for last! If there is one thing you must do before baby comes, it is to rest! Whether it be an entire day or if you’re lucky enough to have a few days, lay down, put your feet up, nap as often as you can, turn on some Christmas movies and munch on those Christmas Tree cakes! Preparing for a baby is physically and mentally exhausting. I say this because I am both of these! Ha! And this was one piece of advice that was actually sent in on my stories and it is so true! I am starting my maternity leave one week before my induction date so that I can just lay around at home and really try to rest up my body before giving birth.
I hope you take this list and find it useful for preparing your little ones arrival, especially during the holiday season! I feel like there is so much more I needed to do to prepare this time around than with L who was born in September! And please know, if you read this list and feel like you are not prepared in anyway at all – just know I’m not totally prepared either! We have no nursery and the basement has to be finished in order to have a nursery! 😅 Anything that isn’t done will be totally fine and I’m giving myself grace and I hope you do too!
I can’t wait to be back on the blog to share the baby’s arrival once it’s time! So soon my friends!
Hi there, I’m Brittany – a motherhood photographer serving families in Northeast Ohio and beyond. Want to know more about my maternity and newborn photography? Be sure to click here!
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