Your To-Do Checklist for TTC, Pregnancy and Beyond
From trying to conceive all the way to baby's birth, here are the important tasks to check off your to-do list.
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When you’re gearing up for baby, there’s a lot to do. This handy month-by-month pregnancy checklist walks you through the key tasks for every stage of the journey, from TTC to your first month with baby.
- Start taking prenatal vitamins
- Talk to relatives about your family medical history, including birth defects, miscarriages and genetic disorders
- Get a preconception checkup
- Get a tetanus booster and German measles and chicken pox immunizations
- See the dentist
- If you’re self-employed, apply for a private disability policy
- Take a pregnancy test
- Tell your partner the good news
- Find an ob-gyn or other prenatal care provider
- Schedule your first prenatal checkup
- Check your health insurance policy to see what prenatal and childbirth care is covered
- Figure out how pregnancy, baby and maternity leave will affect your finances
- Create a savings plan for your child’s future expenses and education; companies like Stash can help you set up a custodial account
- Estimate how much raising a baby will cost and start saving accordingly
- Go to your first prenatal checkup (right around week 8)
- Talk to your doctor about any prenatal testing you should (or want) to get
- Consider doing a First Trimester Screening to determine the risk of any chromosomal abnormalities in baby (between weeks 11 and 14)
- Complete your nuchal translucency screening (between weeks 10 and 12)
- If you’ve been planning to change your last name before baby is born, now is a good time; companies like HitchSwitch can help make the process stress-free
- Go to your next doctor’s appointment
- If you haven’t already, get into a healthy pregnancy workout routine; sign up for a class or download a training app
- If you haven’t already, send out pregnancy announcement cards or come up with creative ways to announce your pregnancy to family and friends
- Tell your boss or employees about your pregnancy
- Start planning your maternity leave
- Go to your doctor’s visit
- Start decorating your nursery or enlist professional designers
- Get started on your baby registry
- Look into childcare options
- Begin buying maternity clothes—or consider renting them!
- Go to your doctor’s appointment
- Have your mid-pregnancy ultrasound (around week 20)
- Start interviewing pediatricians
- Research and sign up for childbirth classes
- Figure out baby shower logistics (date, host, location, guests, etc.)
- Go to your doctor’s visit
- Finalize your baby registry
- If hosting, send out baby shower invites
- Update or write your will, including directions for baby’s inheritance and guardianship; you may even be able to complete it online
- Purchase life insurance; companies like Policygenius can make it hassle-free
- Update your 401K and retirement account beneficiaries
- If using a doula, start interviews
- Begin childcare interviews
- Go to your doctor’s visit
- Do your glucose challenge screening test
- Babyproof the house
- Start fetal kick counts
- Create a birth plan
- Round out your pregnancy wardrobe with third trimester clothes, or rent some
- Enjoy your baby shower event!
- Send baby shower thank you notes for gifts (start one week after your shower)
- Take a childbirth class and a breastfeeding class, if you so choose
- If you want to bank baby’s cord blood, figure out where and order your kit
- Cook and freeze meals to have on hand after delivery
- Go to your doctor’s visits (two this month)
- Buy any baby items you still need
- Prepare a baby first aid kit
- Finish painting and designing the nursery
- Install baby’s car seat and get it inspected
- Pack your hospital bag
- Find out what screening tests your hospital routinely gives newborns and talk to your doctor about any additional tests you’d like to run
- Go to your doctor’s visits (two this month)
- Do your Group B strep test (week 35-37)
- Wash baby’s clothes with newborn laundry detergent
- Go to your doctor’s visits (weekly until delivery)
- If needed, take a non-stress test
- If needed, do a biophysical profile
- Go to pediatrician’s visits (likely two to three times this month)
- Give baby first Hepatitis B vaccine (and second dose between 1 and 2 months)
- Ask pediatrician about Vitamin D drops for breastfed babies
- See a lactation consultant to help with breastfeeding, if needed
- Schedule your postpartum doctor’s visit (usually 6 weeks after birth)
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Pregnancy Week by Week
Select your week below to track each stage of your third trimester.