Thank you to Shutterfly for sponsoring this post.
Thank you to Tiny Prints for sponsoring this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Whether it’s your first or fourth — bringing home a new baby is exciting, hectic, scary and just plain overwhelming. There are so many new and important factors I’ve never had to deal with (see number 1). Consider this your quick list of things to work on once you’ve unpacked those hospital bags and taken a few well-deserved naps.
1| File for baby’s birth certificate and social security number.
Our hospital allowed us to do both of these things while we were still there. We just had to pay a “convenience fee” that came on our hospital bill. We just had to check a box on the birth certificate forms requesting a SSN for baby. It is WAY easier to do the paperwork at the hospital, since they need to send the record of your baby’s birth to the state before your birth certificate is sent to you. If you haven’t decided on your baby’s name before leaving the hospital, you can fill out the form later and submit it to your County Health Department. For both of our kids it took about 30 days to receive the birth certificate in the mail, and the SSN has come about one week later. Once you receive them, be sure to keep them in a safe place!
2| Order a prop for your baby’s milestone photos.
There are SO many options on Pinterest for your baby’s milestone photos. You can order milestone cards or you can choose an item to help show how your child has grown each month. For Blaire we used a teddy bear I bought her from NYC when I was pregnant with her. With Ben we’re using a throw pillow because I was a slacker and didn’t have anything ordered in time for his 1 month photo (second child problems). Looking for ideas? These Slumberkins animals are freaking adorable! There’s a sloth, yeti, fox and bigfoot. You can see examples of our monthly photo updates here. Remember, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Just something consistent so you can see how they’ve grown.
3| Take newborn photos & order birth announcements.
Okay, this one is super fun. You get to go take precious photos of your newborn baby that you’ll cherish forever. And then you get to lay them out into a pretty card you’ll send your family and friends. Tinyprints has SO many options to choose from. I love that we can make such a pretty, unique keepsake for our baby book and it’s such great quality that friends and family can frame it in their homes.
4| Add baby to your health insurance.
Once you’ve received your baby’s birth certificate and SSN you can add baby to your health insurance. Gather up your insurance card, baby’s birth certificate and SSN. There should be a customer service number for your insurance provider on the back of your insurance card.
5| Visit with your insurance agent (& possibly a financial planner).
Now is the perfect time to reevaluate your finances, and not just for the short term, long term is just as important. Both parents should look in to adding more life insurance, in addition to securing a policy on your baby. You can also talk about the college savings options you have to help out with those giant tuition payments 18 years down the road.
We love ordering our birth announcements from Tiny Prints because we know they have a giant selection and they’re always amazing quality! They can print the names and addresses on your envelopes, so all you have to do is stuff them. And they can even provide with you personalized postage so you don’t have to make a separate run to the post office for stamps… we all know our time for errands is limited once you’re a parent.
P.S. The Sinclair family and their address featured in these photos are not real. ;)
Carol Davis
Loved this especially all the photos!