Third Trimester Checklist: 13 Pregnancy Necessities
If you are in your third trimester or planning early, you are going to have to save this third trimester checklist!
Whatever your plan is, don’t wait until the last minute like I did and completely scramble when it is time to deliver your baby.
I wish I had a third trimester checklist like this before I had my first baby. I would have been so much more prepared. But, at least you are reading this now and are thinking ahead. I promise it will save you so much in the end!
Here is everything you need on your third trimester checklist before your baby comes!
Third Trimester Checklist: 17 Pregnancy Necessities
Pack your entire hospital bag
Here is everything you are going to need in your hospital bag.
Whatever you do, don’t wait to pack your hospital bag because you are not going to want to do it when you are in labor. If anything, make a small list on your notes app of what you need to add at the last minute that you can’t pack. But make sure everything else gets in there and is ready to go.
I really regretted not having this done the first time. With my second, I had my hospital bag packed at 7 months!
The #1 MUST HAVE for my hospital bag was a really long 10 ft. charger 110% necessary
One more note: Everyone always wonders what kind of BAG to bring. It really doesn’t matter as long as it fits everything. I opted to bring a small suitcase because it is so much easier to wheel when you are leaving the hospital instead of carrying around a million bags and the car seat and baby while you’re in a wheelchair!
Prepare Your Postpartum Essentials
What I did the second time around was put everything into a bin and into EACH bathroom.
Pro Tip: Don’t open anything beforehand because you probably won’t need or use as many as you think you will.
I ended up saving most of my postpartum essentials for the next baby I had in a box.
Related: Postpartum Essentials
Get the Nursery Ready
Most moms are like…. Duh! But, if you are like me and wait until the last minute, there is so much to do.
My nursery was not ready and I went into labor early. I thought I had all the time in the world and it was my biggest regret.
I was so upset that with my second baby, the nursery was ready at 6 MONTHS!
Tip: Get EVERYTHING ready. This means setting things up like the monitor, washing the bottles, opening and setting up your pump, etc…
After trying over 6 pumps, the WILLOW GO is the best. Especially for busy moms and moms of multiples.
See it on Amazon: Willow Go
Stock Your Car
Even if you have a diaper bag, you should always keep an emergency kit in the car. I can’t tell you how many blowouts, spitups, and unexpected emergencies has happened having two kids.
I ALWAYS keep an extra change of clothes, diapers, wipes, toys, pacifiers and socks in the car at ALL TIMES.
Now that we have been to the hospital a few times, I even keep blankets in my car.
Having more than one kid, I now have two bags stocked for each of my kids in case of an emergency.
Take Care of Everything for Yourself (Beauty-wise)
- Get your hair cut
- Get your wax
- Get your nails done (don’t make the same mistake I did and get your nails SHORT! You don’t want to be poking your newborn. They don’t like it lol)
- Get your brows done
- Shave your legs (if you can reach!)
- Buy your replacement products (makeup, shampoo, conditioner, razors, face wash etc.)
You can obviously do these things after you give birth, but having them done and out of the way when you are trying to figure out life postpartum makes the process so much easier.
Write and Print Your Birth Plan
Most mamas plan for the pregnancy and delivery, but a lot of times they don’t know what all goes into having a baby. There are so many different outcomes and things that can happen.
The best thing you can do for yourself and your baby is to become as educated as possible. Read both kinds of opinions and decide what is best for you and your baby.
At the end of the day, I knew that I trusted the doctors in an emergency and that it is what they are best at. However, there were many “routine” things that are done that I just did not agree with or find necessary for me and my baby.
So, I politely declined what I thought was not absolutely necessary. Of course, I heard their side and reasoning. But after asking the doctors and nurses about what I was declining, most of the time it was just “standard protocol” and they did not have a good reason why it had to be done.
I trusted my research and intuition and have had two very healthy and happy baby boys!
Another TIP: Talk out every situation and worst case scenario with your partner to make sure you are aligned and they can support you in the case you are not able to advocate for yourself.
Preparing a Safe Place for Your Baby to Sleep
This is the one thing that is absolutely necessary to bring your baby home.
Putting together a crib or bassinet is not what you want to be doing when you bring your baby home from the hospital and they WILL need a place to sleep.
Download Your Apps
When you bring your baby home, you are going to need to track every single feed, diaper and their weight for at least a few weeks.
Or, if you are like me, you do it for almost a year!
You will need to monitor their intake and output to make sure they are growing and doing good in those first few weeks.
There are SO many apps out there, but we personally loved using the Nara Baby app.
We loved it because we can track bottles and breastfeeding sessions. This is really helpful to know when you are going to need to feed your baby because they eat every 2-3 hours.
We also needed to download the Hatch app for our sound machine and set that up. We also had a baby scale and changing pad that we set up before we brought our baby home.
Since we knew we were going to use bottles, we also set up and learned how to use the bottle warmer so we weren’t figuring out how to use it when we really needed it.
Building and putting together your postpartum “station”
As a second time mom, I learned how important it is to have everything you need literally at ALL times.
With my second baby, I built out a rolling cart with everything that I needed. And now I still keep it next to my bed.
Here are the things you are going to want to keep in your traveling nursing cart:
- Diapers
- Wipes
- Nipple Cream
- Nipple Shields
- Pumps
- Change of clothes
- Water
- Snacks for late night feeds
- Nursing pillow
- Haaka or Elvie Catch
- Portable dimmable night light
- Little trash bags for dirty diapers
- Diaper rash cream
- Electrolytes
Pack Your Diaper Bag
Even my second time having a baby, I did not pack a diaper bag. The good news is that my mom was smart enough to pack one for me.
I forgot that they expect you to take your brand new baby to the doctor a day after you get home from the hospital!
But with all the craziness going on, you definitely don’t want to add packing a diaper bag on top of all of that.
The biggest mistake I see moms make when they have a baby is preparing for the delivery and the hospital bag but under-preparing for coming home.
Wash newborn outfits
You are going to want to have 5 two-way zip up onesies in the Newborn size. You don’t need a bunch of fancy outfits. All you need are some footie onesies. You aren’t going anywhere and the only people coming over are close family and friends.
Also, you don’t need to go overboard because they are only going to be able to wear them for a few weeks. But prepare for spitups and blowouts and don’t get too few.
Get ready for the hospital
A very important step that is also overlooked is getting familiar with WHAT to do when you go into labor.
Most hospitals will let you tour the labor and delivery area.
Here are some things you should know before going to the hospital:
Does your hospital have pre-registration?
L&D Phone Number
Your doctor’s office number should be saved in your phone
Does the hospital want you to call ahead?
Take a tour and find out which building and floor L&D is in
Where do you park when you get there?
Is there security screening?
Does your hospital have visitation limits and curfews?
How many people does your hospital let in the room?
Have formula on hand
I was prepared to only breastfeed, but my first baby did not latch. My milk didn’t come in and I was scrambling. I never thought about formula because I thought breastfeeding would just come naturally. Turns out that is NOT always the case.
Luckily, I had ordered organic Dutch goats milk formula from Europe before I had him. Otherwise, I don’t know what I would have done. I didn’t want to give him a traditional formula.
So, it is a great idea to just have it on hand.
