How to stock your house for your first baby

Feel free to stockpile non-perishables a little bit at a time each month of your pregnancy, but make sure…At least a month before your due date…

Have a crate of items you use most often and/or might need. Buy plastic utensils and paper plates, even if you don’t usually use them. Paper bowls are great for cereal too.

We had unfortunate circumstances, but we found that we could subsist on some frozen microwave meals (after a few days we started eating 2 apiece, so consider hungry man or non-diet ones)–but if you can, arrange for people to bring you food or make and freeze things yourself ahead of time, or buy items that you can heat and eat. Canned soup, ramen, microwave macaroni, it doesn’t matter those first few days, as long as it is calories. Add some fruit cups. Oh and keep the salt and/or pepper handy. Those instant taters can be kind of bland. Make sure to take into account if you and/or your spouse is going back to work within a month of your due date. If you are, add more meals to the stockpile, or plan for your hubby to grocery shop after 2 weeks. You’ll need diapers anyway. Be sure to put beer on the list for him.

Also, stock the freezer with candy bars. The multipack boxes on the candy aisle are much cheaper than buying them at the checkout. You WILL need the pick-me-up on those first visits to the pediatrician. Stow a couple in your diaper bag, because you WILL forget to eat and those can be lifesavers.

Our first few meals consisted of a zapped dinner and a candy bar. It was the only thing keeping us going. I’m lying, it’s still keeping us going. We ran out last night (I’m nursing, so the calories float magically away, if you bottle feed, forget the candy bars past week 2)…

Stock your pantry with water, your favorite caffeine free sodas, and juice that can stay on the shelf. The week the baby is due go ahead and buy a huge jug of orange juice and a couple of cartons of milk. Indulge in the hershey’s syrup, you’ll drink a lot more milk that way.

If anyone asks you if they can bring anything, say yes, and then go to your fridge and see what is empty. Same with your pantry. Ask for that. Most likely you will run out of something each day. Keep a list on the fridge if that helps you remember.

If you haven’t had kids before, and you didn’t get loaded with diapers at the baby shower, buy a newborn or size 1 pack of the major brands. We came home with nearly a full container of huggies, but our baby leaked right through them. We kept buying them anyway, and then switched to Luvs, which have been remarkably better. We were out of anything else and went to the grocery store and all we found in the correct size were pampers. I’d rate them halfway between the other 2. Like the huggies, our baby felt sweaty or damp in them. Not sure if the diaper leaked or if it was just too much ‘padding’. Anyway, try them all, you’ll go through tons with a newborn anyway.

Buy several boxes of kleenex, like one for each room of the house. Trust me.

Make sure you have plenty of hand soap and that all the containers are filled. Ditto with clean towels, or paper towels for the first few weeks. Also, if you don’t always have about 3 days worth of clean clothes, you’re in deep trouble. You will need at least something to go to the hospital in, something to come home from the hospital in, and a clean set for the next morning, as you won’t be thinking of anything else before then. You wake up are realize you must wear the same clothes or dig into your husband’s stash. Trust me, it’s better to keep your own clothes clean.

Take stock of the baby’s clothes, but don’t wash them all. Essential the first few days especially are those little tshirts that snap OR the sleepers that snap or zip. Have 5 or 6 of those on hand in case of accidents. They can be pjs for the first 3 months after you get used to the newborn wobbliness and diaper changes. Because pulling a onesie over a newborn’s head is kind of like being sucked through a rubber hose. Don’t ask me why. It just is.