After childbirth: how we can best prepare for when the little one comes home.

The big day has finally arrived, and you are both ready to return home with your new baby girl, or boy! So, what do you need to have in a house ready to welcome a newborn? What needs to be purchased and made ready to prepare for the birth? Let’s look at the most useful things to buy and what you need to do before the big arrival! 

The nursery

The is the room which needs to be decorated or adapted if they will be sharing with older brothers or sisters. Furnishing the nursery for the new arrival involves just a few, but without a doubt, necessary items, beginning with the crib or a cot. Whatever you decide, we suggest you buy one based on its position in your bedroom, as your newborn will sleep close to mum and dad for their first six months. Sheets, blankets and quilts are obviously necessary when furnishing the room, while we must remember that the hemline of the blanket must not rise above the neck of the newborn. To top it all off, a couple of night lightsor bedside lamps to provide soft lighting for your little one’s sweet dreams. 

The bathroom

The bathroom is perhaps the most difficult room to make ready, and requires a little more thought than the rest of the house. Everything in the space must be close to hand, so that everything goes more smoothly for both mum and baby. First of all, an ergonomic baby bathtub,to be used in the bath or shower, and a changing mat or table are the top purchasing priorities. Next, we need to think about gentle detergents and shampoos, creams for red bottoms and diapers; it is wise to organise the latter in convenient and accessible places, so they are easily available in several points of the house. Where bathrooms or homes are arranged over several floors, a portable changing mat is also recommended so that it can be easily moved around the house and will prove useful during those first trips out of town!

Baby clothes

Clothing represents a continuing purchase which begins well before birth. In fact, aside from a few changes of clothing for the hospital, there must be a small selection ready and waiting at home for your arrival! Bodysuits and onesies are the safe, comfortable choice and represent a must-have for our little ones. Depending on the season, the exact choice of what to purchase will change. One thing to always remember is that children are not very different from us, so putting on too many or too little clothing is never a wise thing to do! 

Kitchen, lounge and car

It’s time for lunch! Dinner! Breakfast! Is the highchair ready? Even the new arrival needs a comfortable seat at the table, one which will accompany them as they eat and continue to grow. Another useful purchase is a steriliser which is often wrongly associated with just drinking milk from a bottle, but is also highly useful for sterilising everything with which the baby will come into contact, including dummies or their first toys made of plastic. The kitchen, even if not immediately, will evolve alongside the new arrival and change based on their needs and yours. 

And for the lounge? An area where the adults spend time relaxing must also include a few nooks where even the littlest ones can hang out and have fun. For the return home, we recommend a baby rocker in which the little one can relax and look around the room, while an activity mat is a good solution that will help them as they begin to crawl and play! For playtime, rubber rings are recommended during the first three months as these are useful in developing their sense of touch, followed by giving them some soft toys to chew, while six to nine months of age is the time for coloured building blocks to make simple structures.

Even going for a stroll and their first introductions to the world “outside" should not be underestimated. If, until just a few years ago, the trinity of necessary purchases were represented by an infant car seat, pram and pushchair, today’s technology has brought these three together to create a convenient transformable system where the car seat becomes a pushchair which then becomes a pram. To experience a world full of discovery!