When should you be 'ready' for the baby do you reckon?

[ohthegoats]

I'm only 26 weeks, but we're having lots of work done to the house and currently don't have a single room that is 'finished'. Obviously we've got awhile, but it's not ideal, and aside from a car seat on loan and a buggy from ebay, we don't have anything else. A lot of it is coming to us on loan, so I just need to go around and collect it all, but still.. when should I be doing this? When should I be thinking about packing a hospital bag?

I'm just trying to do a bit of planning that isn't for the plastering, or plumbing, or painting, or building work etc.

I'm 34+4 and am still getting things ready if that makes your feel better. Got all the things we need, but still decorating rooms, no hospital bag yet. I really need to get a move on, last room should be done by the end of this week then will do hospital bag, birth plan etc. but I have people around that can get me a bag together and wash babies stuff, build the crib etc.
I wouldn't worry too much, but would start getting stuff together.

Pack your hospital bag and try to have the basics in place around 36 weeks. And don't be worrying before then. If baby came any time before that, unfortunately you would need very little for him/her as they would be in neonatal care unit due to being premie and you and/or partner would have plenty of time to get hold of everything you might need for them if and when that happened.

Just potter on as you are! It sounds like your house is busy at the moment but I will likely be moving house the week baby is due:( Screw it, it's never as big a deal as you think, you just get on with things.

I'm not particularly worried - probably not worried enough in fact! At this rate I'm going to be trying to teach a kid to sleep while surrounded by carpenters. I've lived in building sites all my life, I'm used to it... and to be honest, the kid will probably have to get used to it too, but you know... it would be lovely to actually not be having a massive panic in early labour.

I'm in the same boat as you goats. 28 weeks and nothing firmly in place yet. Got a good few weeks over summer to sort things (work in a school) so we're going to 'blitz' it all then!

Yeah, I had planned all along to do nothing until the summer holidays - well, half way through since I'm going away for the first fortnight. That will still be 7 weeks before I'm due, so I assume that'll be alright. Then they started talking about growth issues due to a single umbilical artery, and early arrival, and blah blah. So we bought a buggy. And then stopped panicking again and bought nothing else. Ha.

I'm 27 weeks and haven't bought a thing. droflove is right, if baby was born this early, they would be kept in hospital.

Some furniture can take weeks to months to order in, so for fussy people, it's good to get this ahead. I quite like the idea of being able to potter around the shops and get things closer to the due date and even in my maternity leave though - it will hopefully be more exciting and make it all feel more real. Some people are bored in their maternity leave - but this will give you something to do. With 7 weeks that should be plenty of time to shop.

Also, most people kit out a nursery - but then have baby sleeps in same room as mum for months, so actually the nursery isn't even used. Some people don't even use their pushchair/pram for months - just carry the baby or use a sling.

I think hospital bag, car seat, and some kinda moses basket/crib and few essentials basics - nappies and vests are all that are needed initially. Anything else can wait if it has to. Not that I've had children, but I've been given so much advice by the experienced!

30 weeks here and not much more ready than you OP. We are still doing work to our house too, so it's a bit chaotic, but hopefully will be finished in the next month. Have so far bought a pram, carrycot and car seat. We have a handful of vests for a newborn but that's it. So obviously we need to get more clothes, nappies, and a Moses basket or something to sleep in.

Don't worry you have plenty of time.

36 weeks is my deadline to get things ready because if you were to go into labour before 36 weeks your dh and family/friends can sort out what you need as baby will most likely be spending some time in hospital as would be premature. So you would have some time to organise things before baby comes home. After 36 weeks things are more likely to go smoothly and baby will most likely be home quickly and will need things in place!

With DD I had the bags packed at 39 weeks. With DS I was lobbing random items into bags in between contractions.

If you turn up in hospital with nothing then they can provide most stuff in an emergency until someone brings stuff in for you.

We bought pushchair and car seat at some point after 30 weeks.

Im 36+6, still not done mine, i havent even got bits that ineed! We got babys stuff though :)

Week 29 and still not got very far at all! We are going away at 32 weeks so should really try and get hospital bag etc sorted for then .. Just incase.

Suddenly feeling exhausted which doesn't help getting things done either ..

i got everything ready for 37 weeks. Baby was still 4 weeks after that anyway.

Things that I didn't need for the immediate newborn phase (cot, pushchair) I bought a few weeks/months later when I needed them. It was fine.

You don't actually need much "stuff" for a newborn.

Having the house sorted and clean is good for feeling prepared though I think.

We'd done nothing by 28 weeks. Then the 28 week scan flagged an issue that meant the baby was likely to be prem, so we went into a bit of a frenzy. One shopping centre visit, one retail park visit and a lot of online ordering and we were done in a fortnight. We're not bothering with a nursery as we hope to move before the baby would need it. I still need to pack my hospital bag though. I think that is mostly due to being in denial!

Well I was still shopping for hospital the day I went into labour..

32 weeks. House is a state. Should get finished the month before I'm due. No bags packed. Nothing bought! Believe me you are fine!

Don't do what I did - I was completely in denial, packed my hospital bag when my contractions were coming thick and fast and picked up some nappies en route to the hospital. Thankfully a friend had marched me round Sainsbury's the day before so the baby had something to wear!