--- title: Preparing for a New Baby description: Third trimester through the first week home, from car seat installation to the insurance enrollment deadline. category: life tags: [family, life-events] version: "1.0" updated: 2026-07-07 sources: - name: AAP HealthyChildren — A Parent's Guide to Safe Sleep url: https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/sleep/Pages/A-Parents-Guide-to-Safe-Sleep.aspx - name: NHTSA — Car seats and booster seats url: https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-safety/car-seats-and-booster-seats - name: SSA — Social Security number and card url: https://www.ssa.gov/number-card --- For expecting parents, from the start of the third trimester through the first week home. Assumes a U.S. hospital birth; paperwork differs slightly for birth centers and home births. ## Weeks 28–32 - [ ] Choose a pediatrician Confirm they take your insurance and can see the baby at your delivery hospital or right after discharge. Most practices offer a free prenatal meet-and-greet — use it to ask about after-hours calls. - [ ] Get the Tdap vaccine, and ask close caregivers to be current on theirs `{essential}` Recommended between 27 and 36 weeks of every pregnancy. Whooping cough is most dangerous in the first months, before the baby's own vaccinations start. - [ ] Take an infant CPR and choking class Include grandparents and anyone else who will be alone with the baby. - [ ] Find your health insurance's newborn enrollment window `{essential}` Most employer plans give you 30 days from birth to add the baby; some give 60. Miss it and you may wait for open enrollment — with a newborn's hospital bills uncovered. - [ ] File parental leave paperwork with your employer `{essential}` FMLA and short-term disability forms often need a doctor's signature and 30 days' notice. Confirm your dates and pay in writing. - [ ] Buy the essential gear Rear-facing car seat, bassinet or crib with a firm flat mattress, diapers in newborn and size 1, wipes, six to eight onesies, swaddles, a rectal thermometer, burp cloths. Everything else can wait. ## Weeks 33–36 - [ ] Install the rear-facing car seat `{essential}` Read both the seat manual and your vehicle's manual — NHTSA finds roughly half of car seats are installed incorrectly. - [ ] Have the installation checked by a certified technician `{essential}` Free at NHTSA-listed inspection stations, often fire stations and hospitals. Find one through nhtsa.gov. Hospitals will not let you leave without a car seat. - [ ] Set up the sleep space: firm flat mattress, fitted sheet, nothing else `{essential}` AAP safe sleep: no blankets, pillows, bumpers, or positioners in the sleep space, and room-sharing (not bed-sharing) for at least the first six months. - [ ] Wash baby clothes, swaddles, and sheets in fragrance-free detergent - [ ] Set the water heater to 120°F and test smoke and CO alarms `{essential}` Above 120°F, a newborn's skin scalds in seconds. - [ ] Pack the hospital bag and keep it by the door ID, insurance card, phone charger with a long cable, toiletries, going-home outfits for parent and baby, snacks, and the pediatrician's name — the hospital will ask for it. - [ ] Pre-register at the hospital and do a practice drive Doing intake paperwork mid-contraction is miserable. Learn where to park and which entrance is unlocked at night. - [ ] Stock two weeks of freezer meals Double recipes at normal dinners from now on. Label each with reheating instructions so any helper can serve them. - [ ] Put specific help on the calendar for the first two weeks Names and dates, not "call if you need anything": who covers meals, laundry, errands, and a night shift or two. - [ ] Arrange on-call care for older kids during the birth `{when: other-kids}` `{essential}` Someone reachable at 3 a.m. with a key to your house. - [ ] Arrange pet care for the hospital stay `{when: pets}` - [ ] Learn the warning signs of postpartum depression together It affects roughly 1 in 8 birth parents, and partners often notice first. Save the Postpartum Support International helpline: 1-800-944-4773. ## Weeks 37–40 - [ ] Install a car seat or base in the second car `{when: two-cars}` - [ ] Stock postpartum recovery supplies Heavy pads, a peri bottle, stool softener, ibuprofen. The hospital sends some home; you will want more. - [ ] Refill household prescriptions Pharmacy runs get hard for a few weeks. - [ ] Agree on go-time logistics Who you call, who drives, where the bag is, which route. Decide now, not during contractions. ## At the hospital - [ ] Complete the birth certificate worksheet before discharge The hospital files it with the state. Check every spelling character by character — corrections later mean forms, fees, and weeks. - [ ] Request the Social Security number on the same form Check the box on the birth registration; the card arrives by mail in a few weeks. Doing it later means an in-person SSA visit with original documents. - [ ] Book the first pediatrician visit before you leave The AAP recommends a checkup at 3–5 days old for weight and jaundice checks — call from the hospital, since slots go fast. - [ ] See the lactation consultant before discharge `{when: breastfeeding}` Included while you're admitted; the same hour costs real money as an outpatient, and early latch problems compound quickly. ## First week home - [ ] Add the baby to your health insurance `{essential}` Do it this week even though the window is longer — the baby's hospital charges are billed separately from the birth parent's. - [ ] Follow safe sleep at every sleep, including naps `{essential}` Alone, on the back, in the bare crib or bassinet — every time. If you might doze off while feeding at night, feed on an adult bed cleared of pillows and blankets, never on a sofa or armchair. - [ ] Track feeds and wet diapers for the first week By day 5, expect about six wet diapers a day. Fewer, or a sleepy baby who won't wake to feed, is a same-day call to the pediatrician. - [ ] Call the pediatrician immediately for a rectal temperature of 100.4°F or higher `{essential}` Fever in the first two months is treated as an emergency, not a wait-and-see. - [ ] Schedule the birth parent's postpartum checkup Guidance now calls for contact with your OB or midwife within three weeks, not the old single six-week visit. Book it before the fog sets in.