Food Prep Before Baby Arrives

In recent years, food preparation has become widely popular – and for good reason. Food preparation makes it easy for you to create meals in a timely manner. From prepping lunches for the week, to making hearty and healthy soups – meal prepping is a great way to save time and stay healthy. So it’s no wonder that more and more women are making food prep a priority in their baby preparations.

Why you should food prep before the baby comes

For many people food/meal prep is not a priority when getting ready to have a baby. Usually that isn’t even something you think about. You come home and make dinner; or you make breakfast the morning you get up. And typically, that is fine and works, but when you are bringing home a new baby lots of things are going to change.

You Don’t Know When that Baby is Coming

So why should you put meal prep on your baby prep list? Well, for one, you don’t know when the baby is coming. Sure you have their due date, but unless you are being induced or having a planned c-section, you can only guess when they will actually come. That means that at any moment you can go into labor, and may not have any food in the house. When you come back from the hospital you won’t have any food for yourself, and now you have to scramble at the last minute to find something.

Focused on Baby, Not on Yourself

Maybe you do have food in the house or maybe you do know when the baby is coming, but if you don’t do some food prep you may not find the time to make anything. Taking care of a newborn is a lot of work! And we know that you are doing your best and being the best mother and sometimes that means you end up neglecting your own needs. By doing some food prep before the baby comes, you are ensuring that you have healthy and ready to go meals that you can grab and eat. That way you don’t have to rely on take-out or quick microwave meals that may not be the most nutritious. To make sure you are getting the best foods for yourself check out our blog on the best foods for pregnant women; and try incorporating them into your meal prep ideas.

Food Prep before Having the Baby Puts Those “Nesting” Urges to Good Use

If you are a first-time mother you may not have experienced the urge to “nest,” but trust us it’s a real thing. As you get closer to your due date, you may start experiencing some weird feelings and overwhelming need to clean and do things. This is called “nesting.” This feeling is meant to help you get your house ready for the baby to come, but sometimes you are already ready. And now you just have this overwhelming urge to do something with nothing to do! Well, if that’s the case you can always meal/food prep as part of your need to “nest.”

Tips and Tricks for Food Prep before Baby Comes

Ok, so now that you know why it is important to meal prep before the baby comes, we wanted to give you a few tips and tricks. It can be a little overwhelming to start with meal preparation because you don’t really know what you need to prepare. You may be asking yourself – what should I make? How far in advance should I make it? I don’t know what I’ll be in the mood for! Well, don’t worry we live and we learn and we have some tips that can help.

Make meals you can eat while multitasking

This is the most important tip we can give! Your first few days/weeks after giving birth are the most amazing and stressful times in your life. Newborns need constant care, and you are still recovering from giving birth so taking care of yourself and your baby is incredibly time consuming.

Let’s say the baby finally falls asleep and now you have an hour to eat, shower, do laundry, and take out the trash. That’s incredibly stressful! Not to mention that you are probably sleep-deprived and just want to take a nap with them. So to make sure you make the most of your time, prep meals that you can eat while also doing other things.

Don’t forget snacks and dessert

It may sound dumb, but snacks and dessert are essential. Snacks are one of those small meals that you can eat while multitasking and they are easy to eat while taking care of the baby too. It’s hard to feed your baby while eating a bowl of hot soup, but you can eat a granola bar, or trail mix.

And yes it may seem like dessert isn’t essential, but I certainly feel like it is. After a long day, all I want is a nice warm cookie, or brownie, or cupcake. And if you are worried about your figure or calories you can always make low calorie alternatives. It is just nice to have something to look forward to at the end of a long day.

Slow Cookers are your best friend

I’m sure if you have been on any mommy-blogger website you will have heard the same thing – slow cookers/crock pots are your best friend. And all I will say is, it’s true. Slow cookers are the gift to mothers everywhere. You can throw in a bunch of ingredients, set the time and temperature, and forget about it. You can literally forget about dinner until it is dinner time, and then all you need is a serving spoon and a bowl. Slow cookers aren’t just great for soups and stews, you can make brisket, chili, pulled pork, the list goes on endlessly. So if you are looking for a good investment, slow cookers are a great idea.

Recipes for Food Prep before Baby Comes

So now that you know why you should food prep before the baby comes, and have some tips and tricks, what should you prepare? Well we came up with a few quick and easy ideas and links to recipes that stick to our tips and tricks and make your life a little easier.

Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It starts your metabolism and gives you energy to get through your morning. So when it comes to breakfast you want to make sure it is ready to go quick and easy.

Stock up at the Grocery Store: granola, yogurt, breakfast bars, and muffins.

Food Prep: smoothies, overnight oats, and breakfast burritos.

Lunch/Dinner

Lunch and dinner are the meals where you want to get the most calories and your hearty protein and vegetables. They are hard to eat while multi-tasking but they are essential to your health. Prepping them before the baby comes is necessary so that you don’t spend a long time making them and can just pop them in the microwave or the oven to heat and eat.

Stock up at the grocery store: frozen/steamable veggies, canned foods, pasta, and rice/grains.

Food prep: chili, slow cooker pulled pork, and meatballs.

Snacks/Dessert

An easy go-to small meal perfect for multitasking is essential. It’s a quick burst of energy that you may need throughout the day as you go about your daily tasks. And dessert is a great treat to look forward to after a long day.

Stock up at the grocery store: Trail Mix, Popcorn, and Cookies

Food Prep: Protein Balls, Roasted Chickpeas, Protein Brownies

Takeaways – Food Prep is Essential

Food prep is a great way to make the most of your time in the first few days/weeks when you get back from the hospital. Not only do you save time, but you are also making sure you stay healthy for yourself and your baby. Food prep helps limit the amount of fast food and unhealthy meals you eat, which helps you get back to that pre-pregnancy body.

Food prepping before the baby comes helps to set you up for success after the baby comes; but some women may need a little extra help along the way. If you are dealing with pain or discomfort after giving birth, a postpartum girdle can help.

Our postpartum girdles reduce abdominal pain associated with giving birth and help speed up the recovery process.

We hope that this little guide helped you decide if/how you should food prep before the baby comes.