Getting ready for baby.

It's been almost 27 years since I had an infant, but you're right on the receiving blankets!  As for the food, just when you make a cassarole, make two.  If you make a pot of spegetti sauce or whatever, make extra and freeze some.  Doesn't make any more of a mess to cook extra and it's sooo handy to have meals ready in the freezer to pop in the oven.

Blankets, well I swear we went thru way more Burp cloths/cloth diapers than blankets
 
One piece of advice I did not follow that I really wish I had was to SLEEP as much as possible and enjoy that sleep as much as possible BEFORE the baby comes. It sounds trite but the sleep deprivation is truly inexplicable! You will never, ever in your life sleep that way again...it's over. You will sleep from now on the worried sleep or the light "was that the baby?" sleep...
 
Another thing is to run quick thru the list when baby cries to save unnecessary worry:
Is baby hungry?
Is baby wet/poopy?
Is baby in need of a burp?
Is baby overstimulated?
going thru this list in my thoughts in an organized manner helped me not just freak out and panic
 
If you are breast feeding stock up on nursing pads as you will go thru them like water until your supply stablizes and anytime there's a 'bump" up, which will be frequent!
 
Have someone else along with your SO the first wek or even two....to help fend off the PPD that can set oh so subtly onto you without anyone to help or someone else to focus on YOUR needs My hubby got 6 weeks paternity leave and my Mother came and stayed both times for a couple weeks...it was so incredibly NICE to not be "alone"...
 
I'm sure others will have more!

Thanks for the replies. 

Gina, the last time I did this my mom was there for the first bit  as well.  It was nice to have someone there that knew what they were doing.  This time my mom lives 4 hours away so she may not be here.  My niece will be around a bit though I'm sure.  She's coming to the city to go to school, so at least she will be around to go grab diapers or whatever I need her to.  She loves babies and is pretty good with them.  BF's  mom will only be around if she is getting soemthing out of it. 

As for the sleep, I already have one son.  The sleep just started to get to a point of being able to sleep in on weekends, and then I got my dogs.  I don't think they will every let me sleep when I want!  How do othere people handle having a brand new baby at home while the dogs still have needs.  Especially in December, I won't be able to take the baby out for an hour long walk twice a day.  Any coping strategies there?  I'd ask BF to take them but his hour long walks usually only last about 5 minutes and then he comes back saying Crusher was pulling or something else that he lost control of. He's not very helpful when it comes to the dogs.  I hope he's better with the baby.

I would say have BF watch the baby for an hour and you take your walk with the dogs!!!  You will need a little you time anyway and that would be something you could enjoy alone with the dogs. 
 
EDA: I don't have any children yet but will soon hopefully!  Every time my mother and I go shopping for someone who is expecting, she also says you can never have too many receiving blamkets!

Candace why don't you ask bf's mom? You may be pleasantly surprised, when I had my son my ML came and stayed all day for a week she said tell me what you want me to do, take care of the baby, company ,whichever, my mother was in the hospital having major back surgery the day I delivered, so even though I couldn't stand my ml at the time, I later realized what a great gift she gave to me, and then when my first grandson was born I did it for my DL.
Give her a shot.
Oh yeah and get one of those vibrating sit and sleep chairs for the baby, if they made those in our size I'd tell you to get one for yourself. And a ton of pacifiers.

Well, it's been 29 years for me, but I'd have to echo what Glenda said. Casseroles, casseroles, casseroles.  Anything with pasta freezes great. If you belong to Costco or have Schwans, a lot of their stuff is really good and ready to just go from freezer to oven.

Joyce

Deb, My MIL is a little different.  We do things for them.  We lend them money.  We're a drop in center when they have to be in town longer than they want to be.  Last November she wanted to stay at our house so she could be in town while her husband went hunting.  We said fine, then later realized it was a weekend that we were to attend a wedding.  So we asked her if she would mind staying with Kale for the night.  She said ok and charged us $60.  Plus I went out and bought frozen pizzas and some snackfood for them for the night.  Sometimes she will say she's coming over to help me do something like paint or something, and then sits at the table complaining about everything she can think of.  And if I continue to work she gets all huffy until I sit with her.  Eventually she just gets up and leaves.  But it always throws off my day.  They have insisted on making us a cradle for the baby but guess what we have to pay for it.  My dad could make one nicer than they could. He's a professional, but he wouldnt volunteer to make one then charge us.  These people just have a huge chip on their shoulder.  She is constantly using the "I brought you into this world, I can take you out" line on BF.  What the heck does that mean anyway?  I would never try to make Kale feel like he owed me something because I'm his mom.  And I can tell you I would never kick him out of the house at 18 because I was "done" my job as a parent.  They did.  Sorry for the vent.

Oh, geez Candace forget about what I said, she'd probably charge you to help out! I feel so bad. I'ts going to be hard the first two weeks, but you will get through it as you well know. I just hope she dosen't come over and aggravate you.

LOL Deb its ok.  I'm kind of used to her by now.  I just take her with a grain of salt.

I don't have too much advise. I have a 6 year old, and an almost 3 year old, and I still feel like a beginner. [8|]
 
My other half is excited about the baby, and I think he'll lend a helping hand more than he did with Kelly, our 3 year old. Don't give up on your BF yet. Spaghetti is an easy dish for the non-cooking BF type. Another dinner, which some might not be fond of, is macaroni, hamburger and peas!
 
Are you going to find out the sex of the baby? If you're not rich, it's really helpful to know what kinds of clothes to stock up on. If I were you I'd go and get a unisex car seat, and a bouncy seat type thing. The bouncy seat was a life saver with Kelly.
 
You can't have enough blankets. I'm talking actual blankets. I had to wash a couple blankets everyday. And having the baby in Decemeber means loads of cold weather. Oh and bibs. I've saved many of outfits with bibs. Babies druel, spit up, and throw up all day long [] One more thing I've learned after the first two... When going on an outing... Don't just bring an extra outfit for the baby... Bring an extra for yourself as well.
 
I was flying to Tucson to see my sister and brother, and Heather was about 7 months old. The flight was long, and all my luggage was in cargo. Well, heather proceeded to throw up her last bottle all over my shirt. It smelled so bad, there was nothing that would take that stench away. I had to wear that shirt for another 2 hours because I took the wrong flight and ended up in Phoenix. (If only i had packed an extra shirt in her diaper bag...)  That is something I will never forget.
 
When is your due date again? I just found out mine is January 12th. Which is alright except my oldest's birthday is January 18th...
 
 

She actually charged you to baby-sit when you're putting her up and feeding her??? Geez.  That is just unbelieveable.

Joyce

Oops!  Have to add something to the *list*- even if you're going to be using disposable diapers, get maybe 1 or 2 dozen cloth "prefolded" ones.  They're just the right size & thickness to make great burp towels and when the burping days are over, they make fantastic dust cloths. []

Joyce

Shannon, Yes we do plan on finding out the sex of the baby.  I did with Kale because I was on my own and it made it easier to bare.  As well as easier to get ready for him.  But after Kale I wasn't really planning on having more kids so I didn't save any of his stuff really.  Except the crib that just keeps coming back.  (I've sold it twice and somehow it just keeps ending up back in my possession.  lol and I got it for free in the first place.)  I never thought about the actual blanket blankets.  I had Kale in March so it wasnt long before it started to warm up and he was in diaper shirts.  BTW my due date is December 5th.

Joyce - I thought about doing cloth diapers but it just seems like so much more work.  I was reading about all the soaking, bleaching, baking soda stuff you have to do.  Plus my washer is communal with the upstairs people so I'm pretty sure they might be a little ticked at me if I left diapers soaking in there all the time.  And they are crazy expensive!

Candace, yeah, washing cloth diapers yourself would be a lot more work.  But at the time I had my kids, a diaper service evened out in cost to disposables. Disposables were really crappy back then and if you were nursing, you could always count on them to spring a major leak at the most inopportune times. I remember my grandmother telling me how she used to have to hand wash and boil the diapers and hang them up (no washers or dryers back then) and then I'd feel bad for not being able to find the time to take a shower or brush my teeth.[]

Joyce