Doing Laundry and Lots of Shopping
We tried to keep everything from our first kiddo to use as a hand-me-down for the second, but like my maternity clothes - it turned out that I gave the best stuff away to friends, and what was left was all completely seasonally inappropriate. So after sorting through lots of boxes, I did loads and loads of laundry and then started shopping to fill in the gaps. I haven't found a kids' store here that I like, so I was fortunate to be able to order things to ship to my parents to bring over when they visited. (Thanks again Mom and Dad!). We also did quite a bit of Amazon shopping for the things that were worn out (like the baby chair he kept sitting in until he was twice the weight limit) or wouldn't work here (like the baby monitor). There were also a bunch of things that had to be researched again because they aren't available here, like the brands of diapers and formula that we used. Eventually, we pieced together a full wardrobe and have everything we'll need for the first few months. Our big find was a pram- which is a stroller just for newborn that lays all the way flat. They are much lighter than the carseat option we used on the kiddo, so we wanted to grab one, even though it only works for the first few months. We went to a baby store where they were literally $1000- and then asked around for 2nd-hand options until we found the London version of craigslist and picked up a nice one for $150!!
Wally tries out the new pram
Fixing up the Room
As I mentioned before, we shuffled rooms over the summer, sending our first born upstairs to the third floor to free up his old room on the 2nd floor for the baby. When he left, he took all the good wall art with him, leaving a pretty empty room behind. So, after deciding to embrace an ocean theme, I went nuts on Etsy and ordered lots of new wall art and mobiles. Then, I ended up taking on a bunch of unnecessary sewing projects for some reason, making new pillows and baby blankets. I wanted to make new curtains but lost steam, so maybe later.
ocean-themed baby blankets
ocean-themed baby room
Babymoon
We were very lucky to have my mom visit in October and offer to watch the 1st kid so that we could get out of town. Originally, we thought we'd take the train to Paris, but waited too long to buy tickets and had to stay local instead. It worked out for the best though - we found a fancy hotel/spa just outside of town that was a perfect relaxing getaway for a quick break. Just 24 hours really was enough to relax, reconnect, and do some very helpful planning and mental prep.
our pretty little getaway
Filling the Freezer
Last time, we were very lucky to have family and friends in town stop by with food and snacks for the first few weeks after the baby was born. My mother in law rolled in with a freezer the size of a couch, full of frozen meals that we ate for weeks. None of that will happen here - both because we don't have any local family and our freezer is tiny. So instead, I worked on it myself. Spending a week cleaning it out, and then another week filling it back up with the stuff that worked best. I focused on small, easily microwaveable things that can ideally be eaten with one hand, and that are moderately healthy. For breakfast: mini banana nut muffins, ham and broccoli mini quiches, mixed berry compote, and cranberry walnut breads. For lunch: calzones with sausage and kale, or black beans and squash, and black bean burritos. For dinner: a few store-bought pies and quiches as well as kid-sized pasta meals.
making pizza pockets
Getting Ready for the Hospital
We took a childbirth class at the hospital, which was very useful, even though we've already done this once, simply because everything is so different here. One helpful thing we learned is that the hospital will provide us with nearly nothing - so we need to bring everything with us (including diapers!). So we got to work picking up a few more things and packing our bags. It was also really helpful just to visit the hospital and figure out where we needed to go, which doors would be open, etc, since they didn't do hospital tours.
To get to the hospital, we debated two options. On the one hand, we could rent a car, have the car seat already installed, and know that it was available 24 hours. The downside would be that parking at the hospital was something ridiculous like $10 an hour - and the clincher was that we haven't yet driven here and didn't want our first experience navigating the city on the left side of the road while I'm screaming or freaking out. So we decided to go with uber or a taxi, even though we sometimes have to wait a long time to get one and risked none being available.
The biggest issue though that I stressed out for months over was what to do with the first-born while we're at the hospital. I literally woke up in the middle the night, sweaty and panicked with visions of either him coming with us to the hospital and strolling the halls by himself - seeing things that would scar him for years, or having to go to the hospital by myself so that Spouso could stay with him, and then having contractions by myself in the parking lot. My mom graciously offered to come stay with us, but even figuring out which dates for her to come was hard. I googled as many birth statistics as I could find (turns out 2nd kids on average arrive at 40 weeks and 5 days), and mapped out our highest probability days - and decided to put her on the last two weeks that were possible (39.5-41.5), knowing that he could come early. So then we also mapped out some Plan B options, with a local friend, my brother, and a babysitter.
Christmas
Last on my to-do list was Christmas. I knew that there was a good chance he would arrive as late as December 15th, leaving almost no time to get ready for Christmas, so I wanted to get as much done in advance as possible. Way back in November I started buying gifts and shipping them either straight to the recipients, or to us to get wrapped and shipped over. In fact, one shipped so early that the recipient didn't realize it was a Christmas gift, opened it, and started wearing it already! The day after Thanksgiving, I pulled out all the decorations, and the tree and house lights were up by December 1st - our earliest ever! This is the most on top of Christmas I've ever been.
ready to go!
Mom Arrives - Last minute relaxing
Once all the stressful things were sorted and we were packed and ready - I just spent some time relaxing. I generally napped every day, took a very slow walk in the park, and tried to have some quality time with the kiddo. My mom arrived with plenty of time to hang out, get lunch, and show her around so that she was comfortable finding her way around and managing his routine. We felt generally ready for the new guy to arrive.
