Bringing your newborn baby home from the hospital can be daunting for any new parent and sometimes even for those on their second or third child. The feelings of anxiety are often even worse for parents who have had a longer stay in the hospital and have grown accustomed to always having nurses and doctors on call for any kind of advice giving that’s required. These tiny, newborn humans are so fragile and it’s your responsibility to keep them as safe and well cared for as we can. Bringing your little one home is inevitably going to change your lifestyle almost entirely but will also likely have you rearranging your home in many ways too.
Your bundle of joy may be small now but from little things big things grow and children are the perfect example of this. Making lasting decisions for your home and lifestyle now will see you through the newborn phase and the terrible twos through to when they hit those nasty teen years and look to leave the nest. Taking the time now to consider how best to prepare your home for the growth of your child will limit the changes you will need to make in the future.
The Changing Station
When you first bring your newborn home, you’ll no doubt be surprised by the number of nappies such a tiny human can fill. On their purely liquid diet you should also be prepared for more mess than you could imagine and plenty of accidents in between. Some people might opt to put their changing stations in the nursery but there’s a lot to recommend setting it up in your bathroom. Everyone knows how to polish floors and what floor cleaning products to use on tiles but getting baby poop out of the carpet is a whole other story.
When picking your changing table, it is important to make sure that it’s high enough to allow you all the access and control you’re going to need, you’ll spend enough time at it, the last thing you need is a backache from bending down. Ensuring all surfaces are easy to wipe down will make your life much easier. We all need a bit of peace of mind around the health of our babies and to know that we are providing them a clean home.
You’re going to want storage space. Lots and lots of storage space. Nighttime Coles runs for emergency nappy buys or because you’ve run out of wipes is the last thing you want. Always have a full to the point of excessive stock of nappies and wipes on hand so you don’t end up in a pickle.
The Bathing Station
You’re little one is just that, little. You don’t need to worry too much about the bath right now. If you’re feeling a little cramped with the new changing table and all the gadgets and gizmos that go a long with a newborn, you can always opt to use the humble sink to bathe the baby. Make sure to get some super cute photos when you do – this is a look you and your child will want to relive when they’re older.
If you are going to get ahead of the game and renovate to include a bath in your bathroom good on you. If you don’t already have one, you’ll need one. If you have one and you don’t really use it, you will now! If you’re looking to do your bathroom renovations in Perth or any Australian city really, it’s advisable to make sure you have adequate ventilation as mould isn’t something you want to have to deal with on top of your kids.
Start investing in bath toys now. This holds even harder if you’re planning to have multiple kids. You’re going to spend a lot of your time convincing your little terrors to stay still and get clean. Having endless supplies of waterproof toys at hand will be your life saver when they decide to start screaming halfway through a hair wash and refuse to let you rinse it. Bath time is the perfect time to work on your leadership development.
What flooring should I use?
This one is a little more complex and flexible. On one hand, using ceramic tiling can be ideal for the bathroom as it keeps the room nice and cool and is an easy to clean surface. This option also opens you up to opportunities to opt for a more natural material that is grounding for you and your children. However, the likelihood of your little one being injured from a fall increases greatly. Whether they’ve rolled from the changing table or insisted they can get off the toilet themselves, that hard tile is not the landing spot you want for your precious little packages.
Alternatively, you can opt for a laminate or other artificial flooring. This option is often cheaper and provides a greater number of designs and patterns to choose from and provides a softer landing.
Toilets vs Potty Training
Thankfully your newborn is a little while away from having to be toilet trained. But just like it feels like an eon ago you were googling things like how to have a baby boy or how to have a baby girl and here you are with your baby, the days of nappies will slip away in an instant and you’ll wish you had considered your toilet when preparing for your child.
The biggest and perhaps only real important one here is to make sure your toilet isn’t too high. It’s already going to be a climb for their little legs no need to make it worse.
Preparing your bathroom for a newborn baby really shouldn’t be that hard. No matter how much you prepare, one of the many joys of parenthood is the unexpected things that come along with the job. There’s no way you can be fully prepared for everything that’s going to happen and chances are you’re more prepared than you feel. Bringing your newborn home should be a blessed time for you and your family, so give yourself a break.