The truth is, babies arrive whenever they feel like it. Going into both pregnancies with my first and second, I knew that the baby could arrive around 37 weeks, or at 41. It was impossible to know.

Because of the uncertainty, we lived in a state of “it could be any day now,” and tried to finish our “baby arrival to do list” before 38 weeks. We did such a good job that by the final weeks of pregnancy, we were basically sitting around twiddling our thumbs!

In this list (it’s the actual list that I made on a Google Doc and shared with Dan, starting halfway through my pregnancy!), see the real things that I did before our son arrived. You will also see things I recommend to do, in the weeks leading up to your baby coming. This covers it all!

Setting up the house

Even if you’re in denial that the baby is coming, think about it: there’s going to be someone NEW in your house, and they need some special things. Take time during the final weeks of pregnancy to set up these crucial products in their places.

Set up a bassinet

Even though it may be superstitious in some cultures, setting up a bassinet helps, especially if it is one that requires assembly.

For our first child, we got the HALO bassinet. It was gigantic. Dan set it up one day and it sat empty in our room for a few weeks before our daughter was born the day before the due date. Although it was weird to go to bed every night with an empty bassinet next to us, it was worth the setup because once the baby comes home, there’s no time to do ANYTHING!

Create your diaper changing stations

Many first-time parents don’t even think this far, and create their changing stations later, when there’s a need (and when the baby needs a change!). Of course, if you have a dresser with a changing pad on top in the baby’s nursery, that is a great first step.

But are you considering what happens if the baby has a dirty diaper and you don’t feel like going upstairs? (That is, if you live in a 2-floor home?)

Enter the “downstairs changing station,” and we did ours RIGHT for our second child. We used my home office standing desk, which lives in the family room, and set it at an appropriate “changing table” height, placing a changing pad and a diaper caddy on top. Voila!

Here you have it: our downstairs changing station, which was all ready and packed with Newborn-sized diapers the day we came home with the baby.

Here are a few things to include:

  • Diapers
  • Wipes
  • Diaper cream
  • Some burp cloths (for spit-up during changing)
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Outfit changes (several of these)
  • Clean drool bibs

I actually did not use diaper caddies with my first child, and with my second child, we now have two. See more about the SkipHop one in my review below, which I filmed while I was 9 months pregnant!

Build out a nursing (or feeding) cart

I had a nursing cart with each of my children when they were newborns, and didn’t fully retire those “carts” until they were well past 8 or 9 months!

Here’s what I put in my feeding cart:

  • Burp cloths
  • Clean bibs
  • Nipple pads
  • Nursing products like a Hakka and Milkie Milk Catcher
  • Snacks from Trader Joe’s! A nursing mama is a hungry mama.
  • Things for myself like hand cream, lip balm, a nursing cover (like the Quince nursing shawl) in case guests drop by, etc.

Also, if anyone is asking you what you want for a new mom gift, say snacks: load up that feeding cart, as you’ll be unbelievably hungry in the first few weeks.

Get your rocking chair or glider(s) set up

With my first child, I was doing feeding around the clock, and for months. Dare I say our glider chair was the BEST investment because of how much time I spent in it for a year.

What you’ll want to figure out is where you’ll be feeding your baby and where you plan to spend the most time. It may not actually be your baby’s nursery, if you’ve been wondering where a newborn should sleep and if you’ve chosen to have your baby room in with you for 3-6 months.

For me, it was a rocking chair in our family room, where I knew I’d be feeding the baby during the day. Every day. For MONTHS.

Clean up clutter

This is on my list because one thing is for sure: when your baby comes, there’s simply less time. There’s also the fact that when you come back from the hospital, you’ll want to arrive in a clean and neat home, not one that’s in disarray.

We spent a few weeks cleaning areas of the house we knew we wouldn’t have the time or energy to focus on once our baby came. We even were cleaning the day I went into labor, and ta-da: came home to a beautifully clean home after our hospital stay.

Getting products ready

Whenever I am thinking about what the baby needs, I revisit the guide I wrote called what a newborn really needs. They just need the basics! But the hard part is getting it all ready in time.

Baby clothes and diapers

I took heaps of baby clothes out of storage for my second child and a big project was “washing them all” before they went into his dresser. This was quite a project! I started washing all the baby clothes around 36 weeks in my pregnancy just to make sure it would get done.

Then, there’s diapers. We got a supply of newborn diapers and knew that we’d also list some different diaper brands to try as baby registry must-haves.

Unpack some diapers and changing supplies

It just felt “right” for me to set up newborn diapers, diaper cream and wipes in preparation for my baby’s arrival. Seeing it all set up meant we were so close to the finish line.

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I typically choose A&D Diaper Cream and Water Wipes.

Load up the baby’s dresser or closet with baby clothes

I used drawer organizers to put tiny little newborn clothes into my son’s dresser. I made one drawer for two-piece outfits (onesies and pants), one drawer for pajamas, one drawer for blankets and towels, one drawer for accessories like hats, socks and bibs, and then left two more drawers for miscellaneous things.

Right now, the two remaining drawers have things like bassinet or crib sheets, bassinet and crib liners/protectors and some gifts.

And, how much clothing do you really need? Well, babies as young as newborns require outfit changes if they soil them with spit-up or blowouts from diapers. Find out how frequently you might be doing baby laundry.

Bottles and nursing supplies

This topic came in a few steps. I had a lot of these products from my first birth, but it was all in storage. The challenge was digging it out and cleaning it. Here is what I did:

  • Sanitize or clean the breastfeeding products like hand pumps, heat/cooling pads and Silverettes
  • See if all my lanolin creams and balms were still good (if not, put them on the baby registry for our second child)
  • Sanitize some bottles
  • Sanitize pacifiers
  • Sanitize basic pump parts

Read more: here are my favorite essential breastfeeding products for a baby registry.

Hospital bag packing

Have you packed your hospital bag? I did this around 36 weeks (in its first iteration, of course). I used this hospital bag packing list that I doubled down on after my first birth.

After our first experience in the hospital, I came up with edits to the original list of what I thought I needed! You can see it all in that guide.

A few of the biggest priority items were:

  • 10-foot long phone charging cords!
  • A “tech bag” of all our chargers and wires (phones, laptop, camera, etc.)
  • Baby’s going-home outfit (make sure it is weather-appropriate!)
  • A giant water bottle with a straw (I got a CamelBak Straw Bottle - photo below from my hospital room)

If you forget to pack anything else…. this is really all you need! Your hospital or birthing center should be providing hospital gowns, blankets, pillows, socks (for you) and three meals a day.

Spouse’s hospital bag packing

Wait, don’t leave yet! Don’t you want to know what your spouse should pack? Read and bookmark our guide to what partners should pack for the hospital.

Bathroom prep (postpartum stuff)

If you’re wondering why a bathroom is on this list, let me get right to the point. Unless you are having your baby via surrogacy or adoption, you will be giving birth and there’s postpartum recovery to be ready for.

With my second child, postpartum recovery was a lot smoother, but with my first, it was a shock. Here is what I did the second time around, because I wanted to be more than ready.

Make postpartum supplies basket for each bathroom

Here is what I included in my “PP supplies” baskets:

  • Maxi pads
  • Witch hazel
  • Postpartum herbal sprays
  • Peri bottle by Frida Mom
  • Disposable underwear

I learned that Frida Mom actually makes a great product that puts everything in its place all together, and it comes with a cute little caddy for your bathroom counter or on top of the toilet.

It’s the Frida Mom Labor & Postpartum Kit, and I review it in this video.

Stuff for mom (you) to get done

If it’s your first child, you may know already that this is the last time in your life before you become a parent! That’s right: assuming you feel well and able, these are some of the last weeks, during your pregnancy, where you don’t have a baby to take care of. Go get stuff done for yourself!

Get a haircut

With my first child, I got a haircut around 38 weeks and my daughter arrived the night before week 40. I was glad I got that haircut in before the birth!

With my son, it’s an even funnier story: I got my hair cut at 1:30pm and at 3:30pm I went into labor. I had the FRESHEST hair you could ever imagine, for my hospital stay. I imagine that doesn’t happen to most women, because it was pure luck.

Get a pedicure

Yes, go get a pedicure. I usually skip the manicure because I’m always using my hands and doing so many things. A pedicure was something I wanted for myself, even though both my children were born in winter. I had to have that spa-like time to myself before the next baby came into the world.

Get a prenatal massage or relax

If you know a good prenatal massage nearby, make an appointment, or a few. Ask for referrals from mom groups or other friends you’ve met while pregnant.

If massage isn’t for you, do other things you love, like go out to a restaurant by yourself, sit in a bookshop and read (alone!), go for walks and listen to podcasts or take a ton of naps.

Preparing an older child

Part of doing all the last-minute prep before you have a baby may come down to your older child’s prep, or your older children’s. Preparing my two-year-old was sometimes a moot point because we weren’t sure how much was actually sticking, and we knew that when the moment came, she’d have to go with the flow. That’s fine! There were, however, a few things I really took the time to do before the baby arrived.

Clean up your toddler’s play spaces

I wanted our toddler to have her own spaces to play and call her own, when we brought a new baby into the house and our spaces had to be shared. We had turned our family room into a newborn-friendly environment, with our Dock-a-tot, Mamaroo baby swing, naptime bassinet and changing table, so it was clear that our house was being baby-i-fied.

On this note, we cleaned up our basement’s biggest area into a toddler heaven, full of things like a toddler tent, pop-up tunnel, puzzles, balls, toy supermarket and blocks.

Make sure toddler car seat is available for caretakers during the birth

Having children who require car seats or booster seats requires some prep. For us, we knew that we wanted to have both our kids’ car seats installed in our main car, and after some thinking, we concluded that we should just get another toddler car seat to put in the grandparents’ car.

This way, the grandparents could pick up our toddler from school the day I went to the hospital, and take her back and forth from her preschool while we were there.

If you are interested, our car seat is the Graco Slim Fit LX3.

Baby products to prepare

These are to either have ready to go or take out of storage (if it is your second child).

Install your infant car seat!

This means installing the base in your car. Better yet, if you have a local police department or an infant car seat checking company nearby, have them give you the green light that you did it correctly (if it is your first time).

Dan and I recommend watching YouTube videos that speak specifically to the brand and model car seat you got, so that you can install it safely for your baby. For us, this was for the UPPAbaby Mesa car seat.

Do this around 37 weeks, like we did, as this is the earliest that a full-term baby may arrive! Having a car seat is the #1 most important thing to do in terms of things you might forget, but also, things that HAVE to be done before you leave the hospital.

True story: I have friends who have unexpectedly gone into pre-term labor or early labor and have had to Amazon “NOW” their car seats directly to the hospital because they did not have one even ordered yet!

Get out the baby carrier

Get out those baby carriers! Better yet, get out the carriers you have (or ones you need to buy) that are best for newborns. In the newborn phase, I’ve always recommended the BabyBjorn Mini carrier, as well as the Wildbird Sling.

Interested in why I like the BabyBjorn Mini for the smallest of babies? Here’s a video of me walking with mine, just to give you an idea.

Nursing pillow or Boppy

If you will be breastfeeding, having a nursing pillow nearby will help feed the baby when the baby is so small. For us, this meant taking the nursing pillows out of basement storage, cleaning the covers and putting them right near where we thought we’d do the most feeding when the baby arrived.

Set up newborn stroller

If your older child is already in a different stroller, then get that newborn stroller out of storage and clean it! You won’t want to be sitting down to clean it from garage dust when there’s a newborn already at home.

We have the UPPAbaby Vista stroller and we like it a lot.

Clean newborn parts to the stroller

For us, this was a spring-weather blanket, and a second bassinet attachment, as well as a blanket attachment (bunting) for the car seat when we could plug the car seat into the stroller frame.

Prepare for an older child or toddler

When our son was born, our daughter was a little over age 2. It was still a job to explain the whole birth expectation process to her, so instead, I wanted to make sure we covered every step of our childcare process for a smooth experience when we ran off to the hospital to have the baby.

Create your childcare plan

Having your first child seems like a cinch when you’re planning out the logistics of how and where your toddler will get cared for if you’re giving birth to a second like we were when our son came along!

We were lucky that we had grandparents nearby and we were duly lucky that I went into labor in the afternoon, rather than at 2 am.

For those who do NOT have family nearby to care for the toddler, things get more complicated. Get your plan in place for if you’re going to have close friends, a classmate’s parents, a neighbor or even a babysitter be on call to care for your toddler when you go into labor.

Go through ALL the caretaking responsibilities with those people, so that your toddler is in good hands while mom and dad are away for 1-2 days at the hospital.

Pack your toddler’s overnight bag

I packed my toddler’s overnight bag around 37 weeks in a “rough draft” condition. Every few days, I’d add more things from the list below in order to round it out. My idea was for my toddler to have all the comforts of home while we were away.

  • Non-perishable favorite foods
  • Toddler bottles, cups or suction plates, along with toddler silverware
  • Written list of instructions of what to pack the toddler for daycare or preschool on a daily basis
  • Sleep essentials like a sleep sack, pajamas, stuffies or loveys, and sound machine
  • Daily essentials like outfits, socks, shoes, school bag, lunch box and bath care

And this is it: everything you need to get done before your baby arrives, especially if you already have a toddler at home. You got this.