Usually, when you find out you’re pregnant, you’re at least one month in. That means you’ve got about 8 months to get yourself and your home ready for the new addition. During the first trimester, you might not feel like doing much (hello “morning” sickness), but once you hit around week 12, you’ll hopefully start to feel better and feel like living life again. If you’re one of those rare cases where morning sickness lasts the entire pregnancy, I’m so, so very sorry. Some of the tips below, however, will apply to you too. You’ll see why!

1. Preparing your body. I’m putting this as #1 for a reason. Most parents, in their excitement, spend hours and a lot of money looking for the perfect diaper bag, researching diapers, getting the nursery ready, and buying adorable baby clothes! These are all GREAT things that you should be doing. But, and it’s a big but, the most important thing you can do and invest in is prepping your body for those final hours – the birth. And all that prep will definitely help you in those weeks postpartum since your body, though it worked hard to bring your baby to you, will not be quite as worn down as it would have been had you not done some good and specific body work during your pregnancy. And yes, you should start now (as long as you’re not puking) to get that going. Here are a few things to get you started in the right direction:
   • Hire a doula – she’ll often recommend exercises, etc., to help you get ready
   • Find a local mom’s group to refer you to a good prenatal exercise class where you can both prep and meet some other new moms!
   • Get a good online prenatal and postpartum exercise program and actually do it. This is my favorite one (click), but there are lots of them out there that are pretty good too.
   • Start walking NOW. Every day. For about 30 minutes or longer. Shoot for a nice pace and go about 3 miles or so if you can. If you haven’t walked in a while, ease in. And make sure you keep yourself hydrated while you’re walking, too.
2. Preparing for your postpartum rest period. It’s a toss-up if I should have put this as #1 or #2. Let’s call them both equally important. Most websites and pros will recommend that, at the very least, you follow the 5-5-5 rule. After baby is born, you want to spend 5 days in your bed, 5 days by the bed (leaving your room only to go potty, basically), and 5 days near the bed, venturing out into other parts of the house but not being too far away so you can crawl in. Your body needs to recooperate and you need these precious early days to bond with your baby, especially if you will be breastfeeding. But what does that look like in real life when you’ve got a home to keep up, maybe other children to manage, and/or your husband needs to get back to work? Well, try some or all of these things.
   • Meal prep in advance. There are so many ways to do this! If you enjoy cooking, double up on everything you make and freeze half of each meal you cook. You’ll quickly build up your freezer stash and it will be full of things that you and your family enjoy eating.
   • Have a freezer meal prep shower. Have a dear friend coordinate this, and everyone gets together to prep and bag up specific meals that you (or someone you know well) suggest.
   • Set up your meal train NOW and ask specifically for freezer meals. You can set up another one after baby is born, too, of course.
   • Use a meal prep service or a local healthy meals delivery service. Sure, you could order takeout, or do some DoorDashing (you can put those on your meal train too, FYI), but if you want meals that are specifically catered for the unique needs of your postpartum body, consider something like Restorative Roots (click). They’ll send you delicious, organic, grass-fed, pastured, etc, deliciousness already frozen so you can throw it in the freezer now. A service like this would be great to add to your gift list for showers, etc. It’s pricey, for sure, but super high quality, and a few friends could go in together to purchase a box for that first week when you’re IN bed with baby!
3. Say YES to help. When your friends and/or family ask you if they can help with anything, thank them profusely and say, “Yes, I’d love that.” They can:
   • Clean bathrooms
   • Vacuum
   • Throw in a couple loads of laundry (or bring laundry home with them if time is a factor)
   • Warm up one of those delicious freezer meals you have ready in the freezer
   • Take the other kids out for a fun afternoon
   • Enjoy an hour or two of newborn holding while you get some much-needed rest
   • and more!

What do you think? It just takes a little bit of planning, but that beautiful postpartum month will be SO much more enjoyable if you get some of the prep work in in advance. Grab a few friends and talk it over, and then make a preparation plan. You’ll be glad you did!