From A Father

You just survived 10+ hours of labor! Your partner is crying tears of joy with a screaming newborn on their chest. Doctors are in a flurry around the delivery room, taking measurements, cleaning up, taking vitals. You just cut the cord and are watching everything unfold in slow motion. The last thing on your mind is a To-Do List…

But when the high calms down, the doctors continue their rounds, the baby falls asleep, and there is work to be done. You have come so far, and yet you have got so far to go…

Fortunately, you have nothing but time! Hopefully your job affords you enough time to settle into a rhythm with your new little one. Or you are a kickass stay at home dad!

In either case, here are 8 things you should focus on as soon as the baby is born. There is no particular order they should be accomplished in, but they are presented based on my personal experience with our first child.

Call Friends & Family

Undoubtable, the first thing you will do is call your friends and family. I am sure they are waiting with baited breadth for the first pictures…

Call, text, video chat friends and family. Do whatever you got to do to keep the hounds at bay! I personally had a checklist that I made in Microsoft Word of who to contact and in what order. As I contacted people I would check their name off the list. Let’s face it, you will not remember much from the first day or so in the hospital. Make it easy on yourself and make lists so you can check it forget it! Physically checking things off the list has the added bonus of making you feel more accomplished as well.

Social Security Number

9 times out of 10 you will file for a Social Security number for your child at the Hospital. They provide you a packet and plenty of time to fill it out before you are cleared to go home. If you so chose, this service allows the hospital to file on your behalf and you will receive your child’s Social Security card in mail 7 to 10 days later.

If you hospital doesn’t offer this service, or if you do not want to file through your hospital, you can always apply for a Social Security number on your own through the government’s website.

Remember, Social Security cards are ALWAYS FREE!!! If anyone asks you for money to get/create/retrieve a social security card it is a SCAM!

Open Financial Accounts

About a week or so after you file for your child’s social security number it should arrive in the mail. Once you have the child’s social security number there is A LOT you can do to kickstart their financial journey. I won’t go too far into this here. This warrants a post all on its own which I will link here.

What I will say is to make a list of what accounts you want to open for your child. Credit Card? Brokerage? 529C? Savings? Bonds? Once you have that Social Security Number, go ahead and set your child up for financial success!

Pediatrician Appointment

Setup their first appointment with a pediatrician. Depending on your hospital this may or may not be a part of your stay. Some hospital include the first pediatrician appointment as a part of your stay with whichever pediatrician is on call. Therefore, you don’t have to make an initial appointment. Lucky You! However, you will need to setup the 1 week, 2 week, and 1 month appointments with your pediatrician at some point once you leave the hospital.

On the flip side, some hospitals do not provide this initial appointment and require you to setup one as a part of your discharge checklist. This was the case for our hospital. So we had to call and setup and appointment for the day after we were dicharged and left the hospital. Our child’s birth worked out such that our discharge day was a Friday, so our first appointment had to be setup for that Saturday.

My best advice is just to give them a call and set things up. Regardless of if its your initial appointment, 1 week, 2 week, etc. Many pediatricians are busy and getting your appointment booked sooner rather than later can only help you! Some places even have Saturday appointments for newborns so be sure to ask about that, it can help spread out the appointments to be more manageable.

Birth Certificate

Approximately two weeks after your child is born their Birth Certificate should be available to print! This is typically available at the Town Hall for which the Hospital resides in (a.k.a. the town where your child was born). Some States (like Rhode Island) allow you to get a Birth Certificate from any Town Hall in the entire state! Check with your local Town Hall for guidance on how and where to get the Birth Certificate.

My recommendation is to print at least 2 copies. Yes TWO.

One for you to keep forever because you are a kickass dad! Someday, when your child is grown and wants to keep their own Birth Certificate, give them the other copy. Then when they lose it (or “misplace” it) you always have yours as a backup. Its very annoying to travel back to the original town or state to get a certified copy especially if you or your children move away.

This second copy is also useful for sending out to government offices without the fear of them losing it. Passport applications, for example, require you to send in your Birth Certification. So you can send it in worry free!

Thank the Staff!

Write a thank you to the hospital staff for their awesome knowledge and assistance!

You were not alone for those 10+ hours of labor. The staff was right there with you. And they go through that EVERY DAY! I was exhausted supporting my wife through labor. I cannot imagine doing that every day in 12 hour shifts…

Write a thank you note, include a picture of your beautiful family, delivery a fruit basket or desert platter. Do whatever you think says THANK YOU for helping you through the longest, hardest, most rewarding day of your lives.

Sponsor one of the staff for an award! Our hospital had a program where you could write a story about one of the staff members describing their excellent care and they would be entered into a contest to win something. I know they would appreciate that. Getting recognized by their peers for doing something they love!

Update Insurance

Not the most glorious thing to think about after you have a child. But important none the less! Change all your insurance information to include your child so they are covered for any expenses they incur during their first year of life.

At the very least, add them to your Health Insurance plan. This will cover all the pediatrician visits during their first 18 years of life.

It is up to you whether to add them to your other insurances (like Dental and Vision). We personally did not because we assumed there would be no vision or dental appointments in the first year of life. If you anticipate differently or want to be cautious, add them!

Transition to family plans or self+one plans. Whatever your situation may be. Just make sure your baby is covered once they need to start going to weekly appointments

Add your Beneficiary

Change all the beneficiary information you would like passed down to your newly born child!

The worst thing that could happen is you amass any sort of wealth (large or small) and your children are unable to reap the benefits of your life’s work.

If you are like me you want to make sure all your hard earned money goes to your family when you are gone, go through all your accounts and add your child as a beneficiary. I understand every family is different, this is my personal advice, this is in no way financial advice from a professional accountant. For professional advice please seek council.

It is my personal opinion that every account, bond, savings account, trust, estate have your children listed as beneficiaries. In the event of an odd number of children, it is common practice to award the oldest sibling the extra percent. For example, with three children you can split beneficiaries 33%, 33%, 34%, respectively.

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Conclusion

Whether you are a first, second, third, fourth, fifth time parent, these tips are a good reminder of what to do after your child is born. As soon as the baby is born, everything goes out the window! You forget what just transpired and are focused in the little cherub sleeping in your arms.

Call Family & Friends, Get a Social, Open A Bank Account, Call the Pediatrician, Get the Birth Certificate, Thank the Staff, Update your Insurance, and Add to your Beneficiaries.

You Got This!

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our experience with post delivery to-do lists. Leave a comment below for future topics you would like to see!

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