I’m pregnant with baby #3 and due this spring! It’s hard to believe that just four years ago I was taking care of a newborn, my oldest, not knowing a thing about babies or being a mom. Now, here I am about to have three little people in my house. To be honest, I don’t feel that much more equipped to be a mom than I did four years ago, but I’m learning. I do remember a few things about babies since I’ve had two before this. The #1 thing I know is that babies do not care if they have a nursery or if it looks like it could be featured in a magazine!
I have a boy and a girl and, both times when I was pregnant & preparing for them, I wanted the perfect nursery set up with adorable matching sheets and coordinating changing table, lighting, etc. While it was beautiful and I so enjoyed putting it all together, some of it just wasn’t that practical. Our house set up is such that the master bedroom is on the opposite side from the other rooms. For this reason, my kids slept in a cradle in my room for the first 6 months of their lives anyway and the nursery went largely unused.
My house is pretty full these days with kids and toys…and a dog…I have no idea why I thought getting a dog was a good idea. So I’m going about this newborn baby thing a whole new way this time. I’m not preparing! I’m not decorating a nursery. I’m not setting up a picture perfect changing station. I’m not filling a room with cute stuffed animals that probably only the dog will show interest in. I’m not preparing in 4 big ways!
1. I’m not buying all the cute clothes I see in the stores.
I’m pulling the old baby clothes down from the attic and calling it good! I saved a lot of my son’s baby clothes (not as many of my daughters) and, lucky for me, #3 is a boy! I guess as the youngest you have to get used to hand-me-downs, right? I’m the oldest kid in my family so I don’t really have first-hand experience on this. But I think many of you who are younger siblings would probably agree with this. I’m sure I will succumb to a cute, brand new outfit here and there but my oldest son’s baby clothes are still adorable and (relatively) stain free so why not use them again?
2. I’m not setting up a nursery.
We have a 4 bedroom house so we have a room that can be set up for a baby. However, that room is currently being used as a play room and that works out fantastically for my family right now. Why change that when I know from past experience that I’ll want the baby to sleep in my room for a few months anyway? When the time comes for the baby to move into his own room, we’ll assess the situation and figure it out. For now, I’m not stressing about it.
3. I’m not buying a crib. Have you seen the price of cribs these days? Crazy! I’ll admit that I’ve never been willing to pay for a new crib. Both of my kids before this have slept in garage sale specials that I’ve fixed up and painted. So this point really isn’t a huge cost savings for me. I realize we may need a crib down the line and I’ll likely use that as an excuse to make a trip to IKEA. For now, baby #3 will sleep in his sister’s pink Rock N Play. It worked well for her and is still in great shape! I think this, among others, will probably be something that my kids will laugh about when they’re older. “Remember when mom & dad made little brother (who is yet unnamed) sleep in a pink cradle? Hahaha!”
4. I’m not planning to have a changing table. Several of you may argue with me that this is essential to having a baby in the house. I won’t disagree other than to say that we never used ours much. We laid a blanket down on our bed, or couch, or the floor to change babies. For us, the changing table just took up space more than it actually served as a functional piece of furniture.
If you know me well, you may know that this idea of not preparing goes against every fiber of my being. I’m a planner. I’m a decorator. I always WANT things to look nice and I NEED organization in my life. I’ve just decided that this time around I want to focus my energy and attention on other things. I have two other kids to consider during this huge life change as well as a husband who could use a break from my constant projects and house/furniture rearranging.
I’m preparing in other ways like talking to my kids about their new baby brother. This baby will be so loved and has four people in our house to take care of him, entertain him, and love on him. He may have to sleep in a pink cradle and wear hand-me-down clothes that have been stored in the attic but he’s not going to be lacking anything.
How are you preparing, or not preparing, for a new baby?
This is so me! After the first child, I realized how little we actually need to add a baby to our lives. Our last never even slept in a crib, but in bed with us!
They bring such a huge change to our family but don’t really require as many material things as we think!
This really spoke to me! I am expecting baby #3 who will be a brother or sister to what will be a 4-year-old girl and 21-month-old boy. Our one of each situation resulted in me (reluctantly) agreeing to not find out the sex of this baby. It’s torture for me as a planner but is something my husband has been begging for since our oldest came along. I have found that, without the arduous task of preparing for this baby, time has seemed to move rather quickly compared to my first two pregnancies. We already have most of what we need, give or take the few things that have been destroyed over the last four years (monitor!). It’s not that I’m any less excited about this baby, but I think so much of the excitement is focused on the preparation rather than the actual birth of the baby. It’s a bit of a relief not having to stress about a room not being painted or the diaper stacker not matching the bed sheets. The only thing I stress about now is the cost of two in diapers and making sure I make it to the hospital rather than the 6 o’clock news because I had my baby on the side of the road.
I did everything you mentioned with my third baby (he is 3 months). I did buy a few new outfits and a few new items (4 years in between my 2nd and 3rd) just so he had his own. Crazy how some things just aren’t as important as you thought they were.
I love this! An experienced mom knows all that matchy matchy stuff goes out the window as soon as baby arrives. I’m not sure the rock n play is safe for sleep though, might want to research that a bit. Best of luck to you!
I absolutely love this. I’m expecting #2 soon and against my type A nature, have not really done anything to prepare. We’re moving to Tennessee a few weeks after he’s born (eek), so all of his things are just being packed in a box. Some clothes, diapers, a pack n play in our room, and now thanks to your inspiration–a “changing table” on the bed is going to have to cut it. Thank you for posting this, very much needed to be reminded that sometimes it IS enough!
Congratulations on your little one and good luck with the move to Tennessee! There’s definitely no need to stress out about the baby’s room with a big move on the horizon. My #3 has recently arrived and so far he is doing just fine without his own room, crib or changing table.