There seem to be so many things to do to prepare for baby, and so many decisions involved! For your baby, the only items you really NEED at the beginning are diapers and a place for the baby to sleep (and a way to feed them if you’re not feeding them from your body).
But one of the many things you can do to prepare for life with a new baby is to make sure the adults (and other children if there are any) in the home will be fed! Life with a newborn has some wonderful aspects, and some challenging ones. Many first-time parents are surprised at what a day can look like in those first few weeks, and that some of the most basic aspects of your day become complicated or elusive. Getting food into your home, and then into your mouth, can be really challenging. The birthing parent needs to be well-nourished, as their body is healing from the major event of birth. If a parent is breast/chestfeeding, nourishment is absolutely essential for supply. This is something to prepare for ahead of time! You have a lot of options, and I suggest using multiple strategies, and engaging friends and family to help you out if possible.
DIY:
If you love to cook (or just want to be in control of what meals you have), prepare some meals ahead of time, and freeze them! You can do this by doubling up whatever you’re making for dinner and freezing half, if you want to save time. If you have the resources and the space, an additional freezer and a vacuum sealer are really nice to have. One year for Valentine’s Day, I gave my husband a FoodSaver as kind of a joke, but it’s been an awesome addition to our kitchen (and a great way to deliver meals to other families who have had babies, too!). I just recommend that you cool your food in a non-plastic container before vacuum-sealing so that the plastic of the bags doesn’t leach into the food.
Don’t know what to prepare? There are many lists of recipes that work well being frozen and reheated, but be sure to check out Lily Nichol’s Postpartum Recovery Meals blog post for great nutrient-dense options best for healing. Her book, Real Food For Pregnancy is one of my favorites for pregnancy/postpartum, and has an entire chapter on postpartum nutrition. It is chock full of evidence, as well as ancestral wisdom.
Get others to cook for you if they are local:
There are multiple websites that can help you digitize the age-old Meal Train (such as this one). Friends and family can sign up for a specific day and say what they will bring, so you can have a sense for when your meals will be taken care of. You can specify any dietary restrictions/preferences and time of day you’d like food to be delivered. As long as you’ve got an email list, you can give the task of creating a meal train to a trusted friend!
Meal Delivery Services
We’ve all become very familiar with having food delivered to our homes from restaurants. This is of course an option, but ordering out every night might not be the best nutritionally, environmentally, or financially (though it’s great in a pinch!). There are services that deliver multiple ready-made, delicious, and nutrient-dense meals that were cooked fresh and delivered frozen. If you have family and friends who live far from you, but want to contribute, they can absolutely contribute to these sorts of services. Don’t be shy to add these to your registry!
My Top Choices for Real Food Delivery Services
Balanced Bites* meals are individually packaged healthy meals that are cooked fresh, then frozen, and shipped to you in boxes of ten. They have keto and paleo options, but you don’t have to be on a certain diet to enjoy them. My family has Balanced Bites meals stocked in the freezer at all times as a quick and healthy option for lunches or when we don’t feel like cooking. The portions are really generous, and they are so easy! This is a small, woman-owned and -run business based in San Francisco, but meals ship anywhere in the US.
*Affiliate link that gets you $10 off your first purchase.
Kitchen Doula is a small business based in Oakland, CA and delivers all around the San Francisco Bay Area. They make meals and other food goodies that are especially good for healing, and they prioritize organic and local produce and use pastured/grass-fed meats. Perishable food arrives frozen, so you can take food out and heat as needed. After our daughter was born, a friend gifted us a package that included soups, stews, energy balls, and other goodies that kept us fed for many meals and snacks. It was wonderful!
Nourish is a small business that is new-to-me, and is based in Marin. They deliver to Marin and San Francisco, and focus on nourishing, delicious food. They use pastured/grass fed meats, eggs, and dairy, and focus on local produce. They use glass packaging whenever possible.