Bringing home a new baby is an exciting time for any family. However, sometimes adding a new family member can make you realize that your current home isn't the best fit for your needs. Or, perhaps you planned to move before your baby was born but life happened and now you have to move with a newborn. Check out a few tips to make moving with a new baby as stress-free as possible.
1. Try to Keep the Same Routine for Your Baby
Many parents find that their babies thrive when they have a consistent routine. As your baby gets older, a routine that involves sleeping, playing, and eating will emerge. Try to keep your baby on the same routine when possible.
Your routine doesn't have to be an exact replication each day or scheduled to the minute, but sticking with the same general timeline each day will provide a stable, comforting environment for your baby and help you lower your stress levels. If the baby has a fussy morning, it's comforting to know that you'll have an hour during their mid-morning nap to decompress, grab your own nap, or tackle your moving to-do list.
2. Check That Your New Home is Safe for Your Baby
You want to make sure that your new home is a safe environment for your new baby. If your baby is immobile, you may not need to baby proof just yet, but there are other details you should check.
See that the home has the appropriate amount of working fire and carbon monoxide detectors for the size of the space. You should also check the batteries in these detectors before you occupy the home.
3. Hire a Packing Service
For the first few months after bringing home a new baby, it feels like most of your time is devoted to feedings, diaper changes, and getting your baby to sleep. This likely leaves you with little time or energy to pack up an entire home. Instead of trying to do everything on your own, hire a packing service.
A packing service will pack up all or a portion of your home; you tell the company what you want, and they'll do everything they can to meet your needs. Not only does this put more time back in your day, but it helps ensure that everything is packed in a manner that minimizes the chance of breakage or damage during the moving process. Just let the service know what items for baby that you want to be packed last or that you may want to move yourself, like baby's favorite swing or their current diaper stash.
After we had our last child, I wasn't sure I wanted to have any more kids. We decided to move all of our baby items into storage, but just to be safe in the event we changed our minds, we exercised extreme caution when we packed things away. We wrapped furniture carefully and did everything we could to keep clothes in great condition, and within a few months things really changed for us. We decided that we did want another baby, so we ended up moving things out of storage and back into our homes. Read this website for great tips on storing items carefully.