Moving sucks. No matter how old you are, if you’re moving across country or down the block, or from an apartment to a house, moving is the worst. Now imagine moving with an infant. Welcome to my world.
We had planned on being in our new home before the baby was born. Well first little Sadie decided she couldn’t wait and was born two weeks early, and also our house closing took forever, due to a lot of circumstances out of our control (aka a ridiculous hold up on the seller’s side). So, Memorial Day weekend we were moving from our little apartment in the Bronx to our new house in Long Island with a four week old in tow.
Cue the horror music now.
In actuality, it wasn’t all that bad, mostly because Sadie was a fairly cooperative baby. But here are some tips I picked up that helped us get through the day:
- Understand that one of you (assuming there are two of you) will be doing more than the other. Our baby was too little (in my opinion/personal comfort) to send to a babysitter for the day, so one of us was always with her. Especially when she started to fuss, or needed to be fed, I was virtually useless. Well, useless for moving, not for you know, keeping our baby alive and stuff.
- At some point if you’re like me and don’t feel comfortable dropping off the baby at a family member’s or baby sitter’s, call in reinforcements to come to you. My mom was a lifesaver on moving day – she came and met us at the house and entertained Sadie while we were directing movers and trying to put stuff away. I should have had her at our apartment before to help (see above), but regardless, it was a huge help when she was there.
- If you don’t have a baby carrier of some kind, get one! We have a Baby Bjorn, and it was great to carry the baby around, while having a hand free to help. Granted you can’t lift a heavy box, or bend over to get something off the floor easily, but it was super nice to have her on my chest and be able to grab things from my husband, put stuff in the car, etc. Until we were both getting too sweaty, and I put her down in her car seat.
- Let the little one sleep wherever works! She was on top of our stove in her car seat at one point (the stove was off, of course – don’t call child services on me!) but as long as she’s happy and sleeping, go with it! Sadie slept for a chunk of our move in the backyard of our apartment in her stroller.
“It’s ok guys, I’ll just hang out where while you do all the moving”
- Make sure you keep all of the important things for the baby on you. I didn’t pack anything of hers that I knew we would need immediately in the house – it went into a box and straight into my car if it wasn’t already in my diaper bag. Things like her sleep sack, extra clothing, more diapers, etc. It was helpful having her necessities right there, instead of searching for the box in a pile of many boxes.
- Get the baby’s sleeping area ready first thing. FIRST THING. She is still sleeping in our room in her Pack ‘n Play, so we made sure to put that together as soon as we could, so she’d have her place to sleep. If she was sleeping in her crib already in her room, we would have gotten that done. Yes, she’s super little, but anything to make the transition easier – do it. Regardless of the fact that we moved when she was only four weeks old, the first few days after our move she was definitely on a different schedule, and was a bit fussier – and I’m chalking it up to her surroundings being different.
- The easier the meals the better. Our real estate agent, god bless her, brought us pizza for lunch. That was great. But then we decided to go out to a diner for dinner, and Sadie was not having it. It was a long day, so I don’t blame her, but we had to stuff our faces and run. Take it easy – order in.
- Bring on the booze! Only slightly kidding with this one, but not really. A good glass of wine after all was said and done was just what I needed. Enjoy it.
Last, but also important, vow never to move again. At least not until the kid(s) are big enough to help!
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