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How To Organize Your Pregnancy (even if you have pregnancy brain)
Now that you are pregnant you may feel the need to start organizing your home and that need is so normal. It’s the nesting instinct. I want you to be able to stay organized during pregnancy.
If you have already passed a certain month, don’t feel overwhelmed – you don’t have to do each thing in every month, make sure you switch it around and do what fits with your life and your time to get the most out of this organizational pregnancy guide.
This post may contain affiliate links. For my full disclosure see here
How To Stay Organized During Pregnancy
1. Buy A Pregnancy Planner
One of the best things you can do is get yourself a pregnancy planner. This is great for many reasons:
- Have a detailed list of what you need when you need it
- Jot down anything that comes to mind (before pregnancy brain makes you forget)
- Have an idea of maternity leave
- Create a birth plan
- Have freezer meals and postpartum care plans in place
- Plan out fun pregnancy things like baby shower gift tracker, etc..
You can see our favorite Pregnancy Planner here. It’s digital (that means you get it instantly)
2. Keep Your Paperwork Together
Not only will you start recieving a lot of paperwork from your provider and midwife, insurance carrier. You will also get a TON of paperwork after you have baby.
We suggest you get a small folder like this one, and place all your paperwork, copy of your license, insurance card and emergency contact list in this folder.
After you have your paperwork in this folder – put it in the hospital bag you will be packing later on.
3. Verify Your Insurance Coverage
Do you have to hit a certain amount (deductible) before our insurance covers the rest? Find out now.
What if you have a high risk pregnancy – what will your insurance cover?
Here are a few other questions you can ask your insurance carrier to verify your insurance coverage.
- Does my insurance carrier have an app I can download to see all my visits, prescriptions, deductibles, bills?
- How many ultrasounds are covered
- Is my current OB under my insurance
- When should I add my child to my insurance
- How do I get my free breast pump from my insurance? (–> this one is easy you can sign up right here and they’ll talk to your insurance and send you a breast pump)
4. Plan Your Maternity Leave
If you live in the States you need to find a plan and budget that can help you while you are on maternity leave (most states are still not paying for maternity leave)
You can see what to do before maternity leave, and how to make the most of it here.
You can also grab my 3 Month Maternity Planner that helps moms plan a short term maternity leave without stress. *maybe the best small investment you make*
5. Learn To Save & Budget
Here are the best resources that pregnant moms are loving with our budgeting systems.
- How To Budget For Baby (+25 ways to save money right now)
- Planning A Baby Shower On A Tight Budget
- 8 Things To Do To Afford To Be A Stay At Home Mom
- How To Save Money On Christmas When You’re Prego (this works for all holidays)
6. Check Out Child Care Options
Will you be going back to work after maternity leave? Who is going to watch baby? Is your partner going to work nights, while you work mornings to avoid child care costs?
You can also check out child care options now, many locations will take babies from 3 months and up. While some work with newborns (those who have less children in the care program)
As your child gets older – you can also check out your local community college. Most community colleges (even if you are not a student) will do FREE child care for working parents.
7. Start Nesting
Nesting is when you start organizing and cleaning your home to prepare it for baby.
You can see over 30+ things that can help you while you are in the nesting phase to get your home ready for baby.
You can also make sure that you create a baby registry. This will help in the nesting phase and start helping your family and friends get you things you will need for baby.
Create A Free Baby Registry With Amazon.
Need help adding items to your baby registry. See what moms are loving this year that is a huge hit to add to your baby registry checklist.
8. Create A Pinterest Board For Your Pregnancy
Pinterest is a visual search engine to inspire parents to be with all sorts of things from planning a baby shower, to labor and delivery. You can find a pin for it.
See these boards for inspiration and make sure to follow along. (Then make yourself a pregnancy pinterest board and all things baby and pregnancy.)
https://www.pinterest.com/solutionsmommy/maternity-leave-tips/
https://www.pinterest.com/solutionsmommy/pregnancy-tips/
https://www.pinterest.com/solutionsmommy/postpartum-recovery/
9. Organizing Each Room Of Your House
In each area of your home – you should have the following:
- Floor space (with a rug* optional)
- Area to breastfeed comfortably
- Furniture screwed to the wall
- Place for baby to sleep
The only exception is your restroom, kitchen, and of course any area you don’t normally use so often.
Kitchen
In your kitchen you should aim to have a drawer or cupboard dedicated to baby items. Think, bottles, food processor, steamer, mason jars for baby food.
Use these dividers in your drawers to organize junk spaces.
I also suggest you use a caddy like this one if you don’t have a lot of counter space or can’t clear a drawer for baby items.
Bathroom
In your bathroom you need to have a postpartum care kit that will make your life 10x better after you give birth.
You can also ditch the baby bathtub and use your sink until baby has good head control then you can just bring your newborn in the shower with you.
Bedroom
The bedroom is also one of the main areas you need to get organized because you are going to spend the majority of your time with your newborn in your bedroom. More than in the nursery *gasp*
Include these items in your bedroom:
- place for baby to sleep
- area where you will breast pump
- area where you will breastfeed
- snacks for you
- warm blanket
- a small caddy with diapers, wipes, bottles, formula *adjust it to your needs*
Related: How To Share Your Master Bedroom With Your Newborn (even for small bedrooms)
Laundry Room / Storage Area
In your laundry room (where you may find yourself a lot of the time). You should keep your laundry basket and try to keep all your dirty clothes in this area.
This will reduce the need to pick up piles of dirty laundry everywhere around your home.
FAQ About Organization
What Can I Organize In The First Trimester?
If you are in the first trimester. I highly suggest you go here and read this first and then come back to this post.
You may not have as much energy as you did before during the first trimester which is why you can do small things that will go a long way later.
- Clean out one junk drawers every week
- Throw out clothes and items you haven’t used in the last year
- Get a pregnancy binder and planner
- Throw out old items from your pantry (making space now)
- Clean your refrigerator
- Start a baby registry
You can do one thing every week, or every few days to make sure you do not get overwhelmed or frustrated.
What Can I Organize In The Second Trimester?
Your second trimester might be a little better than the first – you can see your energy coming back – you have your belly showing and things feel a little more normal than they did those first three months.
Here is what you can organize during this second trimester:
- Start preparing your hospital bag
- Plan your baby shower
- Plan and start making ready baby’s sleeping area
- Put medication in secure location
- Ask your partner to bolt furniture to the walls
- Do any sort of painting or remodeling now (while you have the energy)
- Anything you started in the first trimester but didn’t finish
- Get recipes you will use for freezer meals
You can always modify this list and add your items that you need to get done.
Related: How To Meal Prep During Pregnancy (+ 7 days worth of meal recipes for free)
How To Organize My Third Trimester?
- Start your freezer meals list and batch cook
- Clear room in your freezer for the meals
- Learn how to use your free breast pump (that your insurance will pay for)
- Create a postpartum care kit
- Take a Breastfeeding Course
I went into full detail in this nesting like a mother post, that I think will answer what you can do during the third trimester (or whenever you feel like it).
I know this was a lot of info to go over. But you can easily organize your pregnancy when you have the right tools and mindset to get things done.
What’s one thing you’ve been doing that has helped you organize your pregnancy? Let us know in the comments below.
Want To Remember This Post For Later? Pin The Image Below To Your Favorite Pinterest Board.
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