Things to do before the baby arrives part 1

You're pregnant! Congratulations! You've probably got a million things going through your mind. Where is the baby going to sleep? To breastfeed or not? How can I get rid of these awful stretch marks? Should I start looking into colleges and modeling agencies? I can't help you with the last one, but here are a few basic things to do before your baby arrives.

Make sure the pantry and freezer are stocked. You might want to find some recipes you can make and freeze for those days when you're too exhausted to cook. From what I've heard, that's every day! Get plenty of “hand-foods” such as fruits, cereal bars and bottled drinks because there's a good chance that at least one of your hands will be occupied at any given point in time.

Learn what you can about babies in general. You're definitely going to get a lot of advice from all sides, some of which doesn't apply to your child. It helps to find one or two people in addition to your doctor you can go to with any questions, as well as asking for recommendations of helpful books or websites.

Baby-proof the house. Invest in covers for all power outlets, gates for the doors and stairs and safety latches for the cabinets. Keep all cords out of reach and put blunt padding on any sharp corners. It might seem too early to think of things like this, but time with babies passes very quickly! Also, my friend found baby gates helpful for keeping the dog out of the baby's room.

Buy and install a car seat. Do not use a car seat that has already been in an accident because it will not be as effective. Get a new rear-facing seat and learn how to properly install it in the backseat of your car. NEVER install a rear-facing seat in the front.

On a similar tip, start seeking out new cribs, mattresses and changing tables. Hand-me-downs are not recommended for these either. Get the baby's room ready ahead of time.

If you don't already have them, start getting clothing of various sizes. Hand-me-downs are usually fine. I suggest not getting a whole lot of things in “newborn” sizes because of how fast babies grow. Also, remember that the sizes of baby clothes are usually inaccurate-a lot of 6-month-olds are in 9-month clothes, 9-month-olds in 12-month clothes, etc. Don't feel you have to spend a lot of money on J. Crew or Baby Gap clothes to impress anyone because babies don't do much other than sleep anyway.

Make-Ahead Meals For When You're Too Tired To Cook

Anyone who has had a baby can relate to the idea of being so tired at the end of the day that you don't want to do a lot of cooking. If this describes you, you should know that lasagna or other pasta casserole dishes are great dishes to make ahead of time and refrigerate or freeze until you need them. They only take a few minutes in the oven to warm up, which is very helpful for those days when you want something good to eat but don't want to spend time cooking. Here are a few make-ahead dishes that are easy to freeze and reheat. They may take a long time to make the first time, but they make a lot and can be used for more than one meal. I do this all the time, and I don't even *have* a baby!

The good thing about casseroles is that you can combine a lot of distinct tastes into one dish and freeze for later. They're a great way to get several of your basic food groups in at one time.

Speaking of casseroles, the name of this one says it all.

Spectacular Chicken-serves 10
3 cups chicken breast, cooked and cut into cubes
1 14.5-oz cans French-cut green beans, drained
1 10.75-oz can condensed cream-of-celery soup
1 4-oz jar diced pimento peppers, drained
3 cups water
1 onion, chopped
1 cup wild rice, uncooked
1 cup water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper, to taste


Preheat oven to 350F

Add water and rice to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until the rice is tender, about 50 minutes.

Once the rice is cooked, combine in a bowl with all of the other ingredients and spread into a 3-quart casserole dish. Bake until heated through, roughly 25-30 minutes.

As I said before, lasagnas are very good "make-aheads". They're very filling so, depending on how many you're feeding, could be stretched over more than one meal.

Chicken Lasagna-serves 6-8
4 cups chicken breast, cooked and chopped
4 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded
9 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 10.75-oz can condensed cream-of-mushroom soup
1 10.5-oz condensed cream-of-chicken soup
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp garlic salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

Put a dash of salt in a large pot of water and bring a pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until they are at the desired consistency, about 8-10 minutes. Drain.

Mix the soups, Parmesan, sour cream, onion, garlic salt and mayonnaise in a medium-sized bowl. Lay 3 noodles in a baking dish, add about 1/3 of the chicken, cheese and soup mixture. Do this two more times and top with cheese. Bake for an hour.

As you can see, it's not hard to have satisfying meals in a jiffy when you make a dish ahead of time. Now all you have to do is figure out how to get your older child to stop drawing on the wall. Sorry, you're on your own with that one.