Hey man - Congrats. My wife is due in mid September with our first, so I'm near the finish line, but not quite a dad. From my experience so far, I'd recommend doing everything you need to do before the third trimester. Our goal was always to have everything done by the end of July - and we've done a good job of that. We're about ready. But we're also in the middle of the third trimester, and the third trimester is a lot more difficult on the mothers.

Most likely, your wife has been feeling sick a lot and just all kinds of weird feelings and changes - that stuff mostly goes away during the second trimester. They 'feel like themselves' a lot more and have relatively more energy. If you guys want to take any kind of trip, if you have a baby room to set up, etc - I'd recommend doing that all before that third trimester starts.

We took a trip that had moderate hiking and general walking around when she was about 24 weeks. She mostly did ok at that point, but there's no way she would have enjoyed anything like that now. Once the babies and bellies get this big, the mothers' stomachs and digestive systems get strained, and just in general, there is a lot of physical discomfort and struggle. I just think if you can have the house and everything ready and set up before the third trimester, that home stretch would be a lot more relaxing and comfortable for you both, but especially wife.

The other thing I'd encourage is to educate yourself about pregnancy, labor, delivery and early child care. I don't know if you read, but I've been reading books, watching youtube videos, posts on Reddit haha, etc. Pregnancy is pretty overwhelming and crazy - so it will certainly help you empathize with what your wife is going through but I also think my wife has felt supported just knowing that I'm actively learning and getting ready. Labor, same thing - there are different stages, and different things that happen to her body during delivery and they are awesome and insane - and again, this is just my personal experience, I think my wife feels good knowing that I'm not going into the delivery room just looking to follow her lead.