Abode Improvements to Make Before the Baby Arrives

Preparing for a new baby is heady, expensive, and exasperating all at the same time. Every square inch of your habitation needs to be transformed into a baby-proof bunker in a matter of months. From nursery interior blueprint ideas to making space for baby storage, here are some home improvements to make before baby arrives.

Things to do Before Baby Arrives Checklist

  • Declutter your home – Take items to storage to make room for all the infant stuff y'all'll need.
  • Fix upwards baby's crib with a mattress and waterproof fitted sheet
  • Get changing tabular array area ready
  • Stock upwardly on diapers, wipes, and diaper rash cream
  • Prewash everything that volition bear upon infant (clothes, burp rags, blankets, etc.) with perfume and dye-free laundry detergent
  • Set up and larn how to use your baby monitor
  • Stock up on feeding essentials: bottles, bottle-warmer, breast pump, etc.
  • Pack a hospital pocketbook – Cheque out this guide for what to pack in your infirmary bag from The Bump.
  • Choose a pediatrician
  • Deep clean the business firm including the carpet and furniture
  • Make a couple weeks' worth of freezer meals
  • Attend a prenatal form – Your hospital should have classes available for you to sign up for.
  • Write out your nascency program
  • Get a binder to organize all the important documents you lot receive at the infirmary
  • Cull a newborn photographer
  • Arrange for someone to have intendance of your children and pets while you lot are at the hospital
  • Install the car seat and make sure you know how to accommodate all the straps
  • Figure out your insurance coverage and what to wait from hospital bills
  • Spend quality fourth dimension with your pregnant other – Appointment nights and mornings spent sleeping in are most to become a affair of the by.

Cleaning Guide

In addition to all the regular cleaning tasks effectually the firm, there are a few deep-cleaning projects to tackle before baby comes. You desire to have a safe environs to bring your delicate little newborn habitation to, so check out these cleaning ideas below.

Carpet Cleaning

Vacuuming regularly is not enough to continue your carpet costless from pet dandruff, dirt, and other droppings. Yous'll desire to take the time to thoroughly deep make clean your carpet earlier baby arrives. Experts recommend skipping the shampoo and other chemicals, and opting for h2o extraction or steam cleaning. Y'all tin can do this yourself past renting a machine or hire professionals to do it for you.

Professional person Carpet CleaningDIY carpet cleaning

Having professionals clean your carpeting volition price anywhere from $100 to $400 (boilerplate 2018 price) depending on the size of your abode and how much rug you need cleaned. You can salve coin by simply getting "high traffic" areas of your carpet cleaned. This means all of your big article of furniture items will stay put and cleaners volition only clean around them.

DIY Rug Cleaning

Considering hiring professional person carpet cleaners is so expensive, many people opt to do it themselves. You tin hire a carpeting cleaner for equally little as $thirty a mean solar day (average 2018 price) from the Home Depot. Non only volition you save coin, simply your carpet volition exist dry out and ready to use much sooner if you do it yourself.

Light Fixtures, Air Vents, and Fans

Newborns are particularly sensitive to household dust, so you'll want to requite every inch of your house a good dusting before your niggling one comes home. In addition to the usual culprits — baseboards, ceilings, and electronics — there are a few other places hoarding dust and debris. Pay extra attention to every light fixture, ceiling fan, and air vent in your abode. It tin have a day's worth of work to clean information technology all properly, only it'due south worth protecting those precious new lungs.

Furniture

Cleaning your upholstered piece of furniture in preparation for a new infant is essential, especially if it has been exposed to smoke. In one case once more, experts recommend steam cleaning to avoid any leftover chemical residue. If anyone in your habitation currently smokes, be sure to enforce the no-smoking dominion later on you've thoroughly cleaned everything.

Interior Pattern for the Baby Nursery

Brilliant colors and Disney characters accept been replaced by make clean lines and soft forest in nurseries today. Cutesy is out, and simplicity and functionality are in. When yous begin decorating your baby'south shortly-to-be room, choose items that can be done hands and will grow with your child. For example, you might cull a diaper box that can exist used as a toy box afterwards on, or a crib that will transition into a toddler bed. Don't forget to include plenty of storage for easy clean-up and lots of flooring infinite for your little one to play.

Here are some of the best 2018 baby nursery interior design trends:

Woodland CreaturesInterior Nursery Design: Woodland Creatures

Woodland-themed nurseries complete with pino tree crib sheets and mount wall decals have been pop for years; however, picayune furry woodland friends are starting to popular upward in more modernistic nursery styles. Foxes, raccoons, and bears are making waves as standalone characters in many nursery designs, showing up on crib sheets, walls, and blankets. Make bears the star of your little man's nursery with some fun bear-printed swaddles and storage bins.

Flamingos and Swans

These graceful birds are showing upwardly in nursery wall prints, crib mobiles, and shelf decorations. Employ flamingo art prints to add together a pop of pink to your nursery, or create a swan mobile to requite the room a subtle story-book experience.

SucculentsInterior Nursery Design: Succulents

Cacti are pushing flowers out of the manner as the nearly pop constitute-based pattern. Succulents are so versatile and add a bear upon of playfulness to stiff modern lines. Get cactus crib sheets, wall decals, and mobiles to give your little ane'southward nursery a trendy twist.

Velvet Accents

Be on the lookout for velvet rockers and curtains to add texture to your baby's infinite. Velvet is 2018'south favorite new material, so you'll be seeing a lot of greyness, pink, and navy velvet show up in nurseries.

Baby-Proofing Ideas

That adorable wrinkly bundle of joy isn't going to stay small-scale for long. Pretty soon your newborn volition exist a one½-pes-tall babyzilla fierce through your firm at light speed. It's all a affair of firsts — first time rolling over, offset time crawling, showtime steps — from hither on out, and then y'all want to be prepared to protect your baby before she becomes mobile.

Protecting Infant from Household Cleaning Supplies

Household chemic poisonings are mutual, especially in children. In 2016 lone, U.S. poison command reported over 2 1000000 household poisoning incidents. Babies acquire to clamber very quickly, sometimes overnight, and then information technology's better to prevent a poisoning ahead of time past post-obit these simple steps:

  • Do a chiffonier bank check and make sure no chemical products are being stored in depression cabinets. This includes laundry detergent, dishwasher pods, nail polish remover, cleaning supplies, rubbing alcohol, etc.
  • Install latches on lower cabinets in the kitchen and bath. Fifty-fifty if there aren't any dangerous chemicals in these cupboards, there could however be a lingering smell or other objects you don't want your infant to play with.
  • Don't accept cleaning supplies out of the original container or remove labels on the container. Putting laundry pods in glass jars volition make your pinterest-worthy laundry room volition seem like a candy store to immature children. The safest place for all your household chemicals is in their original containers.

How to Organize Your Firm When Baby Starts Walking

As your baby grows and learns about the world around her, she will grab everything within reach, especially one time she becomes mobile. Hither are a few home comeback tips to make your home a safe place for your fiddling explorer:

  • Move Things Out of Accomplish. Breakables should be far out of baby'due south curious picayune grasp, and so do a thorough sweep of your home and move information technology all. If yous aren't sure how high is high enough, always motility something college than you think is necessary.
  • Cake the Stairs. Your baby can motion faster than you lot call back, and fifty-fifty looking abroad for ane second could result in disaster if your stairs aren't properly gated. Secure baby-proof gates to the tops and bottoms of stairs to continue your little one out of harm'due south style.
  • Exist Wary of Choking Hazards. It'south time to put on your paranoid parent goggles and accept a skilful look at every particular in the infant zone. Fifty-fifty something like loose cardboard from your cat's scratching post could pose a threat to your babe. Have the time to move or become rid of annihilation your infant could choke on.
  • Cover Electrical Outlets. Invest in plastic covers or motion some furniture effectually to cake access to all outlets.
  • Door Locks. Add together locks or door knob covers to foreclose your kid from inbound rooms that aren't baby-proofed. Exercise rooms, bedrooms, and habitation offices have a lot of potential dangers that can't exist baby-proofed.

Best Baby Gear

Which Baby Monitor is the Best For Yous?

Finding the perfect babe monitor can be a complicated process with all of the options on the market today. With and so many features, prices, and promises available, which monitor exercise you cull? Here are some features to consider when purchasing a monitor and which ones are worth splurging on.

  • Sound. Sound is the number one most important characteristic of whatsoever baby monitor you select. Your newborn will cry several times during the dark letting you know he needs a diaper alter or nutrient. If yous can count on being able to hear when your child needs you, y'all will sleep more soundly in between belatedly-night feedings. Information technology's a adept idea to focus on audio capabilities when choosing the right infant monitor.
  • Video. Having a baby monitor with video capabilities could salve you a trip or two to the plant nursery. If y'all have other children, yous've probably experienced a time when you dragged yourself out of bed only to find your little one has gone back to slumber by the time you reach her crib. With a video monitor, you tin can lookout your infant beginning and run into if you need to go out of bed or non. Video monitors are besides useful for keeping runway of kids during the 24-hour interval while you lot clean or while they are with a caregiver.
  • Movement. At that place are a few baby monitors out in that location that monitor your child's motion during the nighttime and warning you if your baby stops breathing. The concept is interesting, but these monitors usually don't accept whatever data or studies to back upwards their claims. Some people swear these monitors have saved their baby's life, but information technology's probably not worth busting your budget on. If yous are concerned most your baby'southward safety, read over this list from of means to reduce the hazard of SIDS from Parents.com.
  • Range. Range is important to consider if yous have a large domicile or your baby'southward nursery is merely far away from your room. Turns out, most manufacturer claims nigh the range of a specific product are wildly inaccurate. The bottom line is that you'll need to read reviews and buy and exam a monitor to find out if the range will work for your needs.
  • Return Policy. Don't buy a monitor that doesn't have a liberal return policy. Baby monitors are expensive, and at that place's a chance the one y'all fell in love with won't work for your situation one time you lot've ready it upwardly. Keep your receipts and packaging, and thoroughly exam out your baby monitor before settling on it.

Listing of Newborn Must-HavesNewborn must-haves

Before the newest member of your family makes an appearance, y'all'll desire to have all the gear you demand to survive the side by side few months. While some babe-oriented equipment is absolutely over the peak, hither is a listing of newborn must-haves that yous will really need.

  • Motorcar Seat. A motorcar seat is the number one must-take for your new babe. There are two types of car seats y'all can cull from: a portable clip-in infant car seat and a convertible machine seat that volition grow with your kid.
  • Bouncer/Swing. Bouncers and swings are perfect for keeping fussy babies satisfied. Every bit an added bonus, your bouncer or swing is a safe place to buckle your sweet baby into while you take a quick bathroom pause.
  • Baby-Tracking App. Keeping track of feedings and diaper changes is important to making certain your newborn is salubrious and happy. You tin can use the sail of paper the hospital gives you, or you can download a user-friendly app and let your telephone keep everything organized for you.
  • Noise Maker. White racket is you and your newborn's new all-time friend. A noise maker helps your little one fall asleep and stay asleep by drowning out whatsoever noises the rest of the family unit makes during baby'due south sleep time.
  • Wearable Blankets. Some babies dear being swaddled, but some detest being constricted by blankets. Loose blankets can put your baby at take a chance for SIDS, so what can you practice to proceed your claustrophobic babe warm at night? The answer is article of clothing blankets. These handy sacks naught upwards correct over your babe'due south pajamas, keeping them warm and safe at the same time.
  • Baby Carrier. Snuggling your snoozing niggling one upwardly to your chest is the all-time fashion to comport her effectually. Having a expert carrier volition allow you deport your baby and take both hands free to store, clean, or anything else you want to do.

Preparing the Family for a New Baby

A new, needy member of the family is on the way, and that ways large changes for everyone living under your roof. While having a new brother or sister tin can be hard for your other children, preparing them beforehand tin assistance ease some of the strain.

Preparing Young ChildrenPreparing kids for a new baby

Your toddler-aged kids will suffer the well-nigh from your new addition. At this age, your children are nonetheless very attached to you lot and don't quite know how to share. Here are some ideas for how to set your younger kids for a new infant.

  • Use Picture Books. Look at moving-picture show books with your tots to help them understand words like "new brother" or " new sister." Because their language skills aren't nifty however, showing them pictures of a new baby is the best way to get them to empathise what's happening.
  • Don't Sugar-Coat It. When you talk about your new baby, be sure to help your littles understand that although the babe volition exist cute and cuddly, he or she will also cry sometimes and need a lot of your attending.
  • Requite Them the Attention They Demand. Your toddlers may regress a picayune, and that's ok. If your toilet-trained child starts having accidents, it'southward his or her way of telling you they need extra love and attention. Praise them when they do good things, and be sure to give them special one-on-one time.

Preparing Older Children

Your school-aged children usually have an easier time adjusting to a new baby, but that doesn't mean they won't have some struggles. Preparing them in advance tin help them be less resentful of the attention the new infant is getting. Here are some ideas for how to prepare your older kids for a new infant.

  • Talk Nigh the Changes. Take the fourth dimension to sit down with your children and hash out what volition happen when the new baby comes home. In language they can sympathise, permit them know the baby will need a lot of your time and attending.
  • Make Them Feel Included. Take your kids shopping with you and allow them help choice out clothes and toys for the new little 1. Let them help fix up the nursery, and if possible make arrangements for them to come to the hospital when the baby is built-in. This will brand your kids feel secure and know they are still an important role of the family unit.

Preparing the Family Dog

Your favorite furry friend is in for a large surprise when you walk through the door with your newborn for the first time. Y'all can brand this transition easier on your true-blue canine by making small adjustments before the big solar day. Here are some ideas for preparing your domestic dog (or other pets) for the new baby.

  • Don't Change Things Overnight. The time for changing routines is before the baby arrives. For example, if your dog or cat sleeps in your bed with you every night but you plan to change that when the infant comes home, start months in advance. Your pets may see baby as a threat if you don't get them used to a new schedule beforehand.
  • Slowly Introduce the Baby. Brand sure the nursery is set up upward and your pets empathise their boundaries earlier babe comes home. When the time comes, bring something with the infant's smell on it for your pets to check out before you bring the footling one in.
  • Go Them Used to the Crying. If this is your first human infant, chances are your furbabies aren't accustomed to crying and other ear-piercing baby sounds. Play some recordings of other babies to help your pets set up their ears before the big twenty-four hours comes.

Making Space for Baby

Trying to squeeze everything you need for a new baby into a small space is a circuitous operation. Below are some home comeback ideas to help you fit all the baby things yous demand into fifty-fifty the smallest of spaces.

Under-Crib Storage

Utilise the extra infinite nether the crib by investing in a rolling storage box. Yous can hands roll the box out when you demand admission to its contents and and so nestle it abroad again. This baby storage hack is a great way to get more than storage out of space you already have.

Two-In-I FurnitureUsing a dresser as a changing table

Utilise the dresser as a changing table or find a crib with a built-in changing tabular array to save floor space. Seek out pieces that have multiple functions when looking for nursery furniture. You can likewise apply this rule to other areas of your home.

Maximize Vertical Space

You may not have much floor space to work with, simply you can add functionality to your walls with a few simple tricks. Hang a pegboard to organize diapering items higher up the irresolute table or shelving units with rods to hang baby's clothes.

Get Cheap Storage

Self storage is a convenient and inexpensive manner to brand room for a new infant. Go through all your stuff and take all the nonessentials to your storage space. This will go along the clutter out of your home and give your petty 1 more room to grow and explore. You can employ Neighbor to notice storage spaces close to your habitation for simply one-half the toll of typical self storage.

How to Manage the Household After Infant Arrives

It'due south hard to continue up with your newborn and household chores at the aforementioned time. Your baby volition take all of your physical and emotional energy, and you may discover yourself wondering how you'll be able to get annihilation washed. Hither are a few tips to managing your household after baby arrives.

  • Go Easy on Yourself. Understand that you are not going to take the time and energy to practise all the things you used to. Your little 1 is your priority, so forgive yourself for the pile of laundry on the floor and stack of dishes in the sink. Things won't always be this way, and so try to relax and get through one day at a time.
  • Permit Others Assistance. To all those friends asking if you demand anything — tell them yes! Permit friends and family unit watch the baby for a while or bring a repast to your family. Don't immediately respond that you don't need any help to anyone who asks. Look around and see what yous could use help with and then let other people help you.
  • Invest in Cleaning Helps. Now is the fourth dimension to treat yourself to that robot vacuum you've had sitting in your Amazon cart for the past few months. Get paperware to cut downward on dishes and anything else that will save yous from extra cleaning.
  • Learn Your Baby'south Schedule. Subsequently a footling while your baby volition start to autumn into some sort of routine or schedule. Use this to your advantage by planning to clean and accept time for yourself during your baby's longer naps. Bank check out this sample newborn schedule for an thought of what your baby's daily routine might look like.

Ways to Pay for All Those Baby Bills

Babies are expensive. Between infirmary bills, baby gear, and diapers, there seems to be an endless pile of expenses. The perfect  side hustle can put a big dent in those bills, but how exercise you find the fourth dimension to add together more work to your already hectic post-baby life. The answer is simple: Look for passive income opportunities. The corking matter about passive income is that it works by itself subsequently you set it upwards, so yous get money without doing much work. Here are a few passive work-from-domicile side gigs you might want to consider.

  • Online Rewards Portals. You can utilize programs like InboxDollars and Swagbucks to brand money for surfing the web, watching videos, and other activities yous already do on a daily basis. You won't strike it rich using these types of programs, but every niggling penny counts!
  • Sell Stock Photos. If you love photography, yous probably already have a huge portfolio of breathtaking photos. Yous can sign up with an online platform like Shutterstock or iStock to sell your images. Later on y'all create an business relationship and upload your photos, just sit dorsum and watch the cash flow.
  • Start a Blog or YouTube Channel. Chances are you lot volition have a lot of great stories and advice to share as life with your newborn unfolds. Keep track on a blog or via YouTube videos, and yous could start making money from ads as your audience grows.
  • Become a Host With Neighbor. If yous take actress infinite in your home — a closet, basement, spare bedchamber, RV pad, etc. — you can hire it out as storage space with Neighbour. All you have to do is register equally a host on Neighbour'southward website, list your space, and sentry monthly payments come into your banking company account.

Getting your business firm, family, and cocky prepared for your newest piffling family member is critical to getting through those kickoff few months of your baby'south life smoothly. One time the baby is born, the time for making home improvements is over, and so start preparing now. Your life will never exist the same after your little one makes his appearance, but you lot tin fix yourself up for success by getting everything ready ahead of time.