Z's 37-week baby prep

Since the news of our little guy being footling breech, I’ve had over a week to internalize that a c-section may very well be in my imminent future. In the meantime I’ve been doing the best I can to get ready. This means a lot of different things. Let me tell you, my list is probably a bit different than any list you’ll find on Pinterest as far as prepping for your new baby. But here are some things outside of the usual suspects (like painting the nursery and picking baby’s “going home outfit”) that we’ve been doing.
First of all, one of the big things that I needed to do this week was finish up all my loose ends at my day job. I work in a very very very small office. This means I wear a lot of hats, and it’s hard for me to walk away … but I am feeling quite confident the lovely woman that we’ve hired to fill in for me will do a great job. The last couple of days were definitely a bit of a rush to finish getting everything together, to get all the proper emails forwarded.
Other things that we needed to take care of this month? Our taxes. Yeah… that was the last thing that I wanted to do at the end of January/beginning of February—but I KNEW that if I didn’t get them done, the baby would suddenly be here and then I’d never do them. So I pulled it together, baited myself with chocolate and got everything finished earlier than I ever thought even possible.
Since our due date is March 7^th, and our possible c-section is March 1^st—we wanted to be sure we paid our rent for March. I can just hear our Italian landlord now … “yes, the baby is adorable, I’ll feed it cannoli, but you’re rent is still late and you know there’s a fee with that.” So, that’s taken care of, along with any other bills that were looming around that time period.
Diaper prep—as you may know from a previous entry we are starting off our diapering journey with prefold cloth diapers. This meant that we needed to prep the diapers and get them ready for use. I found this YouTube video to be super helpful.
Disability paperwork—I know, another not fun thing—but let me tell you as I was going through and filling it out, I am so glad I did this beforehand and not when I will be in sleep deprivation baby-haze.
Installing the car seat—ok, I didn’t do this one—but Chad did. We decided to forego the newborn car seat and get a convertible car seat. While this means that we can’t take the car seat in and out of the car at will, it also means that we only needed to buy one. Also, living in NYC, I don’t foresee us using the car seat much while baby is still very tiny.
Registering with the hospital and checking with our health insurance were two biggies as well. I wanted to be sure that I knew exactly what was needed from us from both of these institutions, both on the big day and after. With our hospital we were able to register online and with the insurance we have 30 days after our baby is born to get them the appropriate paperwork.
We purchased an exercise ball and a water bottle with a folding straw attachment. I told Chad that before our next midwife appointment I NEEDED these two things. Even though it looks like I’m going to have a c-section, I still want to be comfortable now. I sit on an exercise ball at work and have found it to be wonderful. Now that I’ll be going on maternity leave, I need one at home too. This way I can sit at the kitchen table and not be feeling like my hips are going to fall off (ok that was a bit of an exaggeration… but still). The water bottle with the folding straw is quite popular these days. I wanted one for the convenience of drinking water at night while in bed and I thought it might be handy to have as well for breastfeeding. We were able to pick up both at a sporting goods store. A note to those who have never purchased an exercise ball before—they come in different sizes. I’m about 5’3”. We decided to purchase the medium and it was the right choice. Perfect size for use as a seat.
And the last thing on my list of not-so-usual prep things for the last month of pregnancy…. pie. Ha ha ha. But seriously, things have not been easy this month and as I get more and more uncomfortable, something lovely and sweet like a slice of banana cream pie can make a world of difference. So if you need an extra treat, I say do it. As long as it’s in moderation, you deserve it. And on that note, I haven’t had my pie yet today … I think there’s a slice waiting for me in the fridge.