Getting Ready For Baby

Preparing for a new baby in the home can be an overwhelming task. Whether one is expecting her first or fifth child, it seems like the baby always needs something new. I am 28 weeks pregnant with my third child (second girl), and while most clothing and furniture items that we have will work, I am realizing we need a lot of stuff! A good friend of ours lent us a cradle, playpen, swing, and other baby items which we used for TWO babies - and gladly returned to her recently since her sister needed the items. Now we are finding that we only have a couple of months to get all the things we never had to think about before!

I am in the process of creating a baby registry since many people have been asking us what we need. At first I though I'd only put diapers and wipees on it, since we always "need" those. Then I remembered our carseat is broken and almost expired, so we'll need a new one before taking the baby home. Then I remembered when the baby comes home, she'll need a place to sleep and hence need a new bassinet or cradle. And of course, the swing is a life saver for fussy moments...so we'll need one of those too! And the baby monitor so I can hear the baby in the middle of the night...and most likely a new highchair. Whew! This list is longer than I expected...

I am sure many other mammas out there can relate to how I am feeling. We must get all of these things in addition to shampooing the carpets, washing all the baby clothes sizes 0-6 months, reorganizing the closets for maximum storage, and planning meals for the first month with a newborn. I am reminded with each child I have that even with all the planning and preparing, one can never truly be "ready."