Tips For Preparing for Baby #3

This post was sponsored by Walmart Baby as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

About 4 months after my husband and I got married, we found out that I was expecting our first baby. At that time I was filled with lots of emotions – fear, excitement, happiness, and more! I didn’t know what it would be like to have a person depending completely on me for everything, but I was excited to find out. During that pregnancy, we tried to prepare ourselves for the arrival of our little guy, but as hard as we tried, we were still very unprepared when he finally came into our lives.

I don’t think it is possible to prepare for a first baby 100%. People can give you so much advice and you can read so much on the internet, but it doesn’t mean anything until you have that baby in your arms and you take him home for the first time. When it came to our second baby, we were definitely more prepared and knew what to expect, but even then, there were new adventures and challenges that we hadn’t anticipated. That said, we have loved watching our two little boys grow and play together, and now we are excited to welcome our third baby boy in just a few months!

In anticipation of his arrival, we are doing everything that we can to prepare for the house, ourselves, and our other boys. At this point, we feel like we are prepared for just about anything that can come with a third baby, and today I want to share a few tips on preparing for having a third baby in the house.

Before I get to the list, I want to say that no matter what you buy to get ready for baby, a great place to go is the baby section at Walmart. I have found that it is definitely one of the best places for all things baby. Walmart is making a huge effort to make shopping for babies as effortless and enjoyable as possible by refreshing the look and feel of 600 of its stores nationwide. By focusing on national brands, innovative products, and affordable prices, Walmart is making it so much easier to prepare for a new baby. No matter what your “mom-style” may be, you can definitely find products to match it at the new baby section at Walmart.

Look at all of these great products that I was able to stock up on at great prices!

Now, here is the list:

Prepare the Baby Nursery in Advance 

With our first baby, we started preparing the nursery a little bit in advance, but not far enough! I didn’t realize how uncomfortable I would be in the last month of my pregnancy and how hard it would be to put together a crib and do all of the other things that you need to do to prepare a nursery. My husband was working two jobs and going to school full-time, so it was hard for him to help with that too! My advice is to start at least 2-3 months in advance of your due date so that you have time to get everything you need. Speaking of getting things you need, here is a short check list of things you may want to have in your nursery.

• A Diaper Pail – One thing that we learned in a hurry was that babies go through a ton of diapers! With baby #1 we would just throw them away in a normal trash can or take them all outside. This got really old really fast, so a few months down the road we bought a diaper pail that did a good job of hiding the smell and was much more convenient than going outside each time we had to change a diaper. For baby #3, we just bought this Munchkin STEP Diaper Pail at Walmart and and we are excited to use it!

• A Crib – This one may be kind of obvious, but it is still important. We planned on using the same crib for baby #1 and baby #2, but when we were getting the nursery ready for our second baby, we realized that the old crib was missing parts, and was not in the best shape, so we decided it would be best to get a new one. With baby #3, we have already gotten the last crib back out and set it up so that we could be sure that it was still in good enough shape for our new baby.

• A Changing Table – With all of those diapers, it is important to have a comfortable place to change your baby. There are lots of great options at Walmart that have plenty of space to store diapers, wipes, and anything else you might need.

• A Fresh Coat of Paint – A new coat of paint can make any room look new and its a great idea to paint your baby’s nursery a couple of months before he or she arrives. Painting the room gives you a blank canvas to work with if you want to add any sort of trim or other decorations on the walls.

Prepare Your Other Children For the New Baby

When I was pregnant with my second little boy, my first born was two years old. At that point, he really didn’t understand what it meant to be having a new baby brother in the family. We told him about it, and he would act like he kind of knew what we were talking about, but we weren’t sure if he really did.

When the new baby was born, our other son came to the hospital with grandma and grandpa to meet his new little brother. We were kind of surprised when he didn’t want to look at the baby or even look at me! I felt so sad and felt like maybe I hadn’t done enough to prepare him. Of course after a few weeks he started to get used to him and they are great friends now, but with baby #3, I want to do everything I can to prepare both of my older boys for his arrival.

Some things that I have been doing is:

• Taking the boys to my prenatal appointments;
• Asking them what they think we should name the new baby;
• Letting them listen to the babies heartbeat with our at home doppler;
• Talking about the new baby every chance that we can get.

My six year old is understanding quite a bit more this time around and I hope that having the new baby doesn’t come as such a big shock to my three year old this time.

Buy As Many Diapers As Possible

Like I mentioned above, babies go through a lot of diapers – and diapers can be expensive! Over the past few years I have really gotten into couponing, and it has saved us a lot of money. One of the products that I always look for great deals for are diapers. I already have enough diapers for our next baby to last me at least until he is 3 or 4 months old and I plan on stocking up on even more as I find good deals. Just as a note, even when I don’t have a coupon available, I like to buy diapers when they are at a lower price. I used to be worried about buying brands that are not as well known, but I have found that the Parent’s Choice brand at Walmart really is good, so I definitely have some of those in diaper supply.

Take and Inventory of the Baby Products you Have and Buy the Ones you need

If you are already on your third baby, then you probably have some products left over from your first two babies. Now, before your third baby is born, is a good time to do an inventory of what you have and stock up on products that you are going to need. I did this and found that some of my old products needed to be replaced. I bought a brand new  forehead thermometer to replace the ear one that we had before, as well as some new bottles and other baby essentials. You would be surprised the things that you find out that you need when you do this!

Another great new offering from Walmart is the Walmart Baby Box Subscription. I am seriously thinking about subscribing to this. All you have to do is sign up and you will get a box full of baby essentials for each stage of baby’s life delivered right to your front door! You can find out more and subscribe here.

Make Sure You Have a Quality Car Seat

Getting a good car seat is one of the best investments that you can make for your child. In the world we live in now, we are always on the go, which means that we spend a loto of time in our cars. No matter how careful you may be, there are still other people on the road that might not be as careful, which is why it is important to have a good car seat and that it is installed correctly.

There are lots of great car seats available with amazing technology to keep baby safe. One that I have my eye on and that I am thinking about getting is the Evenflo SensorSafe™ Titan® Convertible Car Seat which communicates with the driver in two unique ways. Upon arrival at the destination, SensorSafe™ Technology is designed to remind the driver that a child is present in their car seat. Also, SensorSafe™ Technology promotes proper harness position by alerting the driver if a child has unbuckled their chest clip while driving. This will retail exclusively at Walmart. 

 These are just a few things that you can do to prepare for this new stage of your life, and I am sure that there are many more. The most important thing, however, is to do whatever you can to reduce your stress levels so you can enjoy your little baby even more when he or she arrives.

How do you prepare for new babies in your family? Let me know in the comments below.