There’s no doubt that welcoming a child into your life represents a huge change to the lifestyle you’ve known up until now. But as a loving parent-to-be, you want to do whatever it takes to be sure that you are providing your child with a safe and comfortable home environment. Here are a few measures to take before your child arrives.
Take Care of Yourself First
You’re about to have the amazing responsibility of caring for a new life. Before you undertake this challenge, make sure you’ve prepared yourself and taken care of yourself. Feeling happy and healthy is the best way to start your life as a parent.
Cut your Bad Habits
Of course, if you are a mother-to-be, you already know that you will have to make a few lifestyle changes to ensure your baby’s health. You’ll have to cut smoking and drinking and improve your diet and activity levels. You’ll also need to take vitamins for the baby and improve your sleep schedule. But if you’re the father-to-be, take this as your opportunity to improve yourself along with your partner. This will help you develop some lasting habits that will be good to maintain once the baby has arrived. After all, your child looks to you as a role model, so you will want to make sure you are setting a good example.
And don’t forget to both take your vitamins – pre-natal vitamins especially can make a huge difference on the health of the baby and the mother.
Start making plans with how you will handle certain aspects of the pregnancy and then come up with backup plans. For example, do you want to breastfeed? Do you want to deliver without the aid of drugs?Who do you want with you in the delivery room? It’s important that you be thinking about all of these things in advance to avoid surprises later.
Quit Smoking Right Away
Even if you’re not the one carrying the child, you will want to provide a smoke-free environment for your baby. Of course, quitting is easier said than done. Don’t be discouraged if quitting cold turkey doesn’t work for you. You can try patches and nicotine gum, or you can ween yourself off by trying e-cigarettes to help you transition off of cigarettes (talk to your OB/GYN to determine if this is a healthy alternative since we don’t know abou the long term effects). Get yourself some vaping supplies from NJOY if you are interested in taking this route (again please check with your OB/GYN first). However, you should keep in mind that vaping is not yet regulated and the effects are not yet known, so you probably don’t want to take the risk around your new baby. However, it will at least be a better option than smoking in the house with a baby around considering there is no second-hand smoke to worry about.
Make Activity a Regular Part of your Day
If you are the mother, this will help stabilize your health during your pregnancy, which may make the whole experience easier, and it will help you drop your baby weight more quickly.
Take Care of Your Environment
You may be surprised by all of the changes you need to make around the house in order to make it optimally safe for your baby. Make sure you’ve taken care of the following:
- Fix any glaring safety hazards around the house. You definitely won’t have the time and energy to do so once the baby arrives.
- Don’t forget little things like moving plants that could be hazardous to babies like poinsettias.
- Add in various items to keep your baby safe like covers for electrical outlets.
- Purchase baby gates, monitors, and other safety additions well in advance. You may even want to start using them now so you can get used to them before the baby arrives.
Make sure your car is in good shape. Cars can be huge expenses, so don’t leave yourself lots of repairs to deal with after the baby arrives and you’re already feeling strapped. You will also want to take care of making the car a safe place for the baby. Take the time to vacuum and clean it and get the car seat ready and situated.
Be Certain that your House is Prepared for Anything
Make sure your home security system is working properly. You’re going to naturally be a bit more paranoid about the overall safety of your home when your bundle of joy arrives. Make sure you have both a working carbon monoxide detector and smoke detector.
Check out these other tips for preparing for your baby’s arrival.
Take Care of Your Goals
Do you have any activities that you’ve been wanting to do and you’re worried that having a baby might complicate things? With your partner, make a list of some of your priorities for things you’ve been wanting to do and then try to make those things happen. Have you always wanted to see the Grand Canyon? Plan a road trip. Have you always wanted to be better at cooking? Sign up for a class. The best way to have a happy and healthy baby is to be happy and healthy parents.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
What was one thing that you wish that you did differently when you found out that you were expecting?
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