6 Things to Do Before Bringing Your Baby Home

There are so many articles out there that go through every single thing you need to do before bringing home a baby, and they can be extensive and overwhelming. In reality, there are only a few things that absolutely need to be in place before you can bring a baby home. Obviously, in a perfect world, absolutely everything is done, but that’s not always how things go. My first son came three and a half weeks early, and you better believe we didn’t have absolutely everything set up. So, here’s what you absolutely need to do before bringing your baby home.

Get a car seat

This is it. This is the number one essential thing you need to do before bringing your baby home.

In fact, the hospital won’t even let you leave unless you’ve got one. They even usually do a test to make sure the baby can handle the car seat before they let you go home. They’ll also double-check the fit and teach you how to make sure everything is safe. (Pro tip: the straps need to be much tighter than you think they should be.) You cannot safely get your baby home without one, so make sure you invest in one.

Get a crib or bassinet

This is the second really big one. You need a safe place for your baby to sleep when you bring them home. Co-sleeping isn’t safe, and unless you’re wide awake and able to monitor them, the safest place for them to sleep is on their back in a crib or bassinet with no blankets.

This is going to be frustrating because during the newborn stage, all they’re going to want to do is sleep in your arms. But a safe place outside of your arms is the best thing for them, which means you need a crib or bassinet, so they have that.

Get clothes

You’ll need season-appropriate clothes for your baby. You don’t need tons, but you need enough that they’ll still have clothes as you’re doing laundry. This means:

• onesies
• pants
• socks
• hats and mittens, depending on season. (Though, mittens can help keep them from scratching themselves too.)

The hospital will probably give you a swaddle, but it’s worth having different varieties on hand, so you can find one that works for you. Personally, our favorites were Halo swaddles, but we also ended up needing to get a bunch of sleep sacks because both of our sons rolled over early.

Pro-tip: getting a bunch of registry boxes, like the one you get when you set up an Amazon baby registry, can help you get different swaddles to try out.

Get diapers

That’s it. You’ll need some diapers on hand. Your baby is going to go through six to eight diapers a day. So, be ready for that.

Figure out their feeding

Are they breastfeeding? Are you going to use formula? These are questions you should probably figure out before bringing your baby home, so you have the right tools on hand.

If you’re breastfeeding, you’ll definitely need nipple care, and a pump and freezer-safe bags for storing extra milk aren’t bad ideas either. That way, you can (hopefully) share feeding duties with someone else if you’ve also got bottles and bottle-cleaning supplies.

If you’re going the formula route, you’ll need formula, the right kind of water (if you’re using powder), bottles, and bottle-cleaning supplies. I will say that if you’re going with formula, it’s worth buying a good amount ahead of time.

Pro-tip: It’s way more expensive to buy formula in-store than it is online, so giving yourself that buffer can be helpful for keeping those monthly expenses low.

Figure out your own food

There are a couple of different parts to this. First of all, you probably won’t have the time and energy to cook. Even if there are two of you, you still probably won’t have the ability to cook for at least the first couple of weeks.

If you’ve got the time and energy in the third trimester, some freezer meals that you can easily take out and use are a great bet. You want things that you can easily dump onto a roasting pan or into a slow cooker. When I was making mine, I did a lot of stir-fry bags, shepherd’s pie that I could bake, and slow cooker meals.

That being said, if you’re low on energy or if you’re not sure you’ll be able to handle freezer meals, add DoorDash or Grubhub gift cards to your baby registry. Or ask for gift cards to your favorite restaurants.

There are also some meal services that will deliver fridge/freezer meals to your door. Personally, we had a catering company nearby that delivered fresh, delicious meals in an insulated bag. It was great, so it might be worth looking into if that’s an option in your area.

But also, buy paper products. Just buy tons of paper products – plates, bowls, utensils. Get biodegradable paper products if it makes you feel better, but if you don’t have to worry about washing dishes, your life will go much better. Just trust me. Get dishes that you can just throw away before bringing home your baby, especially if you’ll need to be washing bottles all the time.

That’s it. Those are the six things you absolutely must do before you can bring your baby home. Everything else is gravy, or you can get it later. Like, you’ll eventually need to give your baby a bath, but you can use cloths until their umbilical cord falls off.

If you’re interested, I have a list of essential baby items, so you can be better prepared. Just keep in mind, that what your baby ultimately needs are sleep, food, cleanliness, and love. Start with that.