A big 'ol thank you to Gymboree for sponsoring this post! Loving these clothes? You can enter for a chance to win their baby bundle sweepstakes and get your own clothes and more!
Parenthood. It's one of those things where you can prepare as much as you want, but never actually be fully prepared. And y'all, you would think with four kids we'd be experts at the whole parenting thing. Truth? It's different every time. And just when you think you have it figured out, things change again. It's a crazy little thing...
But! Preparing is key. And since we were welcoming baby number four AND a girl (which was completely new for all of us), we knew there were some changes coming. We encouraged the boys to love on my belly as much as they wanted, hoping that love would transfer to Tatum once she actually arrived. I don't know that it completely worked, but I will tell you that our boys love Tatum fiercely and are always asking to hold her. (Well, except for that one time in the hospital when Graham didn't want "him" at all. But you know, two.)
We also knew that we'd want the baby in her own room so that she wouldn't be waking anyone else up in the middle of the night. Because we only have three bedrooms in our home, that meant the three boys would need to share a room. We moved them all in together about four months before Tatum actually arrived. Since Cayden and Sawyer were already sharing, we slowly started moving Graham's clothes and toys in their room. Once they were used to that, we moved another mattress in and Graham started sleeping in there at night. Thankfully it was an easy transition from the crib to his new room. But it was one we were a little worried about. Making sure everyone was comfortable with the new arrangement was key for us. Start early, and take it slow.
Adding another carseat to our car was another adjustment for everyone. Kids had to change seats and we went from everyone on the middle row to two kids in the back and two in the middle. We even put Tatum's car seat in the car early just so everyone could get used to there being another carseat in the car. And we let the kids know that once Tatum arrived, we might need their help remembering to get her out of the car. Letting them be a part of helping us? They loved that.
I know a lot of second/third/fourth-time moms don't feel like they should get a lot of things for the new baby. I say if you're feeling like you want to do that, then do it! Buy all new things for your itty bitty. Go all out on that fourth nursery design (totally did that!). Have fun stockpiling newborn diapers – they are super-cute after all!
But y'all, nothing could prepare us for them meeting their sister for the first time. It was (mostly) magical...
Speaking of, these clothes! The boys had a blast opening all the orange boxes that Gymboree sent over. I think Cayden told me five times while getting dressed "how comfy" everything was. Which is awesome. And everything is really soft and feels durable. Like, we'll be able to pass down the clothes through the boys – which is hard to do with boys... because they destroy everything. I can't get over how cute everything is. Tatum's little outfit just gives me the warm fuzzies – so cute and cozy! I'm ready for it to cool off so we can put these clothes into full rotation. As it was, I couldn't get the boys to take their jeans off when we got done taking photos. So they ran around the house with jeans and no shirts, ha!
And did you know September is one of the most popular birth months? To celebrate, Gymboree teamed up with 5 popular brands to bring parents the ultimate bundle for baby. They're giving away over $2,000 in prizes from Gymboree, Land of Nod, Seventh Generation, 4moms, Baby Bjorn, and munchkin. If you want a chance to win, go enter this amazing baby bundle sweepstakes now! I mean, look at everything you can win.
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