Planning for a Holiday Baby
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Today’s post is from Lauren Hill, the Mama in Mama’s Laundry Talk. We are so much on the same wavelength. I love reading what she writes. Today she shares how she’s preparing for a new baby at the holidays. I can so relate since two FishBabies were born in November. It’s a wonderful time to have a baby, especially when you plan ahead.
I have never had the pleasure of having a “Holiday Baby” – one that comes right around the Thanksgiving/Christmas Holidays. My other three children have birthdays in March and April. Having a baby so close to Thanksgiving and Christmas makes me realize that things are going to be a little different for us this year.
My Baby #4 is due on November 18th, and as you all know that means he/she could arrive a few weeks early, or even into December. Even though it is just July, I’ve given a lot of thought to what our Thanksgiving/Christmas Season may look like this year with a new baby to swoon over. And what I would like for it to look like.
Thinking Ahead
My biggest goal this Thanksgiving and Christmas Season? For it to be simple and peaceful. No running around at the last minute, no fighting crowds and minimal anxiety to “get it all done.” As with any newborn, I want to cherish this time when they are little and soak it in to my core. Those newborn days are so fleeting and I don’t want to miss them because I’m worried about other things like shopping and baking.
Setting Goals
So I’ve mapped out my Master Plan of having a peaceful holiday season. Here’s what I’m planning:
All of my Christmas Gifts are going to be purchased by November 1st.
I will tolerate no excuses from myself, as I am determined to have this hefty item checked off of my to-do list by November 1. The thoughts of going shopping in those post-partum days instead of snuggling with a new little one are not happy thoughts for this Mama. My goal is to have my complete Christmas List made by August 15th and start quickly thereafter to check them off. This list includes everyone we buy for: family, friends, teachers, etc.
All of my Christmas Cards will be signed, addressed and stamped, also by November 1st.
We don’t send nearly as many cards as we used to, so this task shouldn’t take terribly long. Because I bought Christmas Cards at an After-Christmas Sale last year, I’ve already got what I need and can get started any time.
I’m going to stock our freezer with at least 30 meals.
That sounds a little daunting to a very pregnant mom-to-be, but I know what a tremendous blessing it is to walk to the freezer and pull out dinner. Especially when you are in the last days of pregnancy or enjoying a new little one. People are very willing to bring meals to a new mom, but not so eager during the holidays since schedules are always more hectic. So I plan for my freezer to be fully stocked going into the Thanksgiving Season. This includes a couple of quick breads and batches of cookies for us to enjoy since I doubt I’ll be up for much baking.
We are staying home this year.
We typically do quite a bit of in-state traveling during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Being with my family is truly one of the highlights of the Season for me. But this year, my husband and I have decided to stay home. Being in our own home is the ultimate peacefulness to me. Traveling with 4 small children? Not so much. Hopefully some family will visit us!
Remembering The WHY
I’m going to focus on the Real reason of Christmas.
Whether you have a new baby or not during the Christmas Season, it is so easy to lose sight of the Real reason we celebrate this time of year. Between shopping and crowds and all of the hubbub associated with that, it’s easy to believe that gift giving is why we celebrate. My family celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ during the Holiday Season, and I don’t want to dare lose sight of that this year. He is The Gift I am most grateful for. While I am cherishing the baby days, my prayer is for Him to be ever present on my mind.
Are you having a Holiday Baby? How are you preparing?
Are you utilizing Amazon Prime shipping and ordering only online? Are you skipping the formal Christmas pictures this year? Are you freezer cooking your entire Thanksgiving meal? Have you thought about creating a to-do list?
Share your ideas on preparing for a Holiday Baby.
We can’t wait to hear how you’re planning ahead this year! See you in the comments.
— Lauren Hill is the ‘Mama’ behind Mama’s Laundry Talk. She is so grateful for the opportunity to have a Holiday Baby and cannot wait to meet him or her!
My 2nd child was born Dec 19th. She was a scheduled c-section so I knew that we would not come home from the hospital until Dec 23. I think my goal was to have all of the shopping and wrapping done by the 10th. I think that the only thing that I let “slip through the cracks” that year was the Christmas cards. I didn’t bother to send any and no one complained. We had all of my family over on Christmas day which was a little crazy but my wonderful husband who loves to cook took care of the entire dinner and we ended up with a ton of left-overs to get us through the next couple of weeks.
Our 3rd child was born on Jan 8th (again, another scheduled c-section) so while Christmas was pretty calm, we worked like crazy to get all of the Christmas decorations down right after Christmas so the house would be back to “normal” before the baby was born.
Our first was due November 17th and born on November 4th and I wasn’t prepared at all. That year was a very laid back year for us. This year, our second is due December 19th and I am hoping he/she will come early as well! We are waiting to find out until the baby is born to find out what we are having. What a great Christmas present right?! I have already started using some of the freezer cooking tips from Fish Mama and have 2 meals in my freezer that I just made last week when I started. I think just starting out, a whole freezer cooking day seems a little overwhelming. What has worked well the past week is making extra at most meals. I have a huge loaf of french bread to make garlic bread to freeze, I have two 8×8 pans of frozen 3 cheese spaghetti, I am making freezer salsa today and I have a bunch of bananas that I am going to chunk up and flash freeze for banana bread and smoothies. I am trying to get myself in the hang of things before this little one gets here. My goal is to go through in the coming weeks and go through what I have in my freezer and deep freezer, make a list of everything since most of it is new and use up what is in there and also use it to make freezer meals. I would so much rather have freezers full of prepared meals rather than frozen chunks of raw meat… I am so thankful to have found this blog! Hopefully I can continue to get things going 🙂
Our 3rd is due December 6th and with two other children ages two and under (crazy, I know), I’m doing just about everything on this list to make sure I’m prepared for the holidays this year.
I’ve got almost all of my gift list made up and I’ve started buying those things when I see them on sale. November 1st is a great goal. I’ll have to remember that. I’m also planning on doing a grundal of freezer cooking. My goal is to have at least 30 freezer meals. My husband has finally realized as well that we need an extra freezer (I’ve been trying to convince him for forever it seems like), so I’m planning on stocking it full as much as possible.
My first child was born on December 7th and so this is my second go around with a holiday baby. It really is such a wonderful time of year to have a baby and having everything prepared in advance really helps to have a stress-free holiday.
My honeymoon baby was born Christmas morning, my second one due Christmas eve and born Dec 14th.
The BEST planning one can do regarding this is PLAN not to have another Holiday baby! 🙂 My son was born May 15th….whew!
It’s not just hard the year they are born, it’s hard every year after. At first it’s hard on you and then it’s hard for them because they can’t have friends on their birthday or near because everyone is busy (especially mom…ahem…see the problem?).
Well, babies are a blesssing anytime they come so the above is my sarcastic rant.
Really ladies though, my eldest turns 13 this Christmas morning and I have one thing to say to you. Plan what you can, but more than anything keep your plans with open hands and don’t beat yourself up when you don’t get all these wonderful things done all the time. The Holiday’s are for everyone, your childs birthday is THEIRS. Make it about family and them at these times and let pleasing everyone else go a bit. Practice it now, because you will have to get good at it for the next 18+ years.
I have had a baby 12/30 and 1/31, and both times we have planned very simple holidays for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We stayed home both years, and put up very minimal decorations. With our first, we didn’t even put up a tree. The 2nd time around, we did do a tree for our 2 yr old, but we also had grandparents in town to help us take it down. With the 2nd I unexpectedly ended up on modified activity because of early contractions, and I obviously hadn’t planned for that, so I ended up finishing several of my planned handmade gifts after the baby was born at the end of January! No one minded getting gifts a couple of months late 🙂
What a timely post! We are due w/ #4 11/20 and I’m starting to make my pre lists for the holidays.
I’ve already stocked up on paper & tape and addressed my cards ( i picked up a bunch last year on clearance for about .50 a box.
Great post and so timely for my life! My second child is due 12/21 and I have been trying to think of what I should get done in advance. Let the list making commence!! Planning and organization are not my strong suits, but I am quickly realizing that if I don’t plan I will probably go crazy. I think this may just push me into the world of freezer cooking.
The Christmas cards especially hit me; I still have some unmdiled from last year! So I’m getting them done this year…before Baby arrives in Nov.!
Thanks for sharing this post! I don’t think I’ve commented on here before, but this post was too useful to pass up! I too am expecting a holiday baby – November 22nd (Thanksgiving week!)! And since this is my first, I don’t exactly know what to expect, unless somebody (like you) clues me in 🙂 I hadn’t even thought about Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, or possibly not getting as many meals brought over, but know that you mention it, that makes sense! Thanks for the advice! Now to start making those lists…
Our first child was due January 4, but arrived on December 21. Since I knew my due date was just after Christmas, I spent the summer months shopping for Christmas gifts. You never know if you’ll be put on bed rest near the end of your pregnancy, and since Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, I wanted to make sure that we still had a festive holiday season, regardless of the pregnancy and baby. I found some especially great finds when we were on vacation in Oregon. I found many items on clearance, so this also helped stretch our budget, so keep an eye out for these “Christmas in July” types of sales. We did put up a Christmas tree and all of the usual decorations, but it was probably February before everything was put away in the attic. So have some grace on yourself, and know that you may not be able to stay on top of everything with the holidays. Decide what’s important and only do those things.