One file. Every military deadline, checklist, and cost of having a baby, auto-dated from your due date and built to work on the worst-connection day of your life. Download it once. It is yours.

You have planned harder missions than this with less notice. But nobody hands you the brief for having a baby in the military. There is no OPORD for it. You piece it together from a spouse group thread, a half-remembered comment at the clinic, and whatever you can find at 0200 while you are already exhausted.

And it matters, because this mission has real deadlines. The one that catches the most families: your baby cannot use TRICARE until they are registered in DEERS, and that registration window is short. Miss it and claims stop getting paid.

You do not need another 400-item Pinterest checklist written for a civilian in a house with two incomes and no orders. You need the military layer, in order, with the dates already done for you. That is what this is.

What is inside

Mission Dashboard. Enter your due date once and it goes to work: a live countdown, and every time-sensitive military deadline computed for you and sorted by what is most urgent, including the DEERS and TRICARE window with days remaining. The cliff stops being a surprise because you can see it coming from months out.

Mission Timeline. 41 tasks, each auto-dated from your due date and laid out by phase from early pregnancy through the two-week admin sprint after birth. Military tasks are flagged so you always know which ones the base cares about. Tap any task for the why behind it, and check it off when it is done.

TRICARE & DEERS. The single most important sequence of the whole year, spelled out plainly: get the birth documentation, register the baby in DEERS at a RAPIDS office, then verify enrollment. Includes the note most checklists skip, that Guard and Reserve families usually have to actively enroll rather than assume auto-enrollment.

Leave, Pay & Admin. The Military Parental Leave Program, allowances, BAH changes, and the finance and S1 steps that make sure you are actually paid right once your dependent count changes. The paperwork nobody teaches you, in the order it is due.

PCS & Deployment. For when a move or a deployment lands in the same season as a birth. Power of attorney, the Family Care Plan, timing, and the free base and family-readiness support most families never claim because no one told them it existed.

Hospital Bag. A real packing list you can finish by 34 weeks, including a Paperwork and Military section with the documents and IDs to bring that almost every civilian checklist forgets and that will slow down your DEERS trip if you skip it.

Gear & Shopping. What you actually need, what can wait, and what is smart to buy secondhand, with essential and secondhand flags. No sponsored picks. No affiliate links. Just the honest list.

Baby Budget. A Year 0 and Year 1 calculator with typical U.S. price bands built in. Enter your own estimate, then track actuals as you buy, so the number stops being a fear and becomes a plan.

Settings & Your Situation. Toggles that tailor the entire app to you: stationed OCONUS (extends your DEERS and TRICARE window to 120 days), single parent or dual-military (adds the Family Care Plan tasks), PCS possible, deployment overlap. Turn on what is true for you and the deadlines and checklists reshape themselves.

Who it is for

• Active-duty service members expecting a baby, any branch.
• Dual-military couples juggling two careers and one due date.
• Guard and Reserve families who get the least hand-holding and the most figure-it-out-yourself.
• Military spouses doing the planning while the service member is TDY, underway, or deployed. You do not have to be the one in uniform to run this.
• Families staring down an OCONUS assignment, a PCS, or a deployment stacked on top of the due date.

If you are having a baby and one of you wears the uniform, this is for you.

Why this and not a generic baby checklist

1. The military deadlines are computed, not left to you. A regular checklist tells you to register in DEERS. This one tells you the date, how many days you have left, and what happens if you miss it, all calculated from your due date and your situation. The math is done.

2. It knows your life has orders. Deployment, PCS, OCONUS, single-parent, dual-military. Flip the toggles and the app adds the Family Care Plan, the power of attorney, the 120-day overseas window, the base-resource steps. A civilian planner has no idea any of that exists.

3. No affiliate junk. The gear list is not a storefront. There are no sponsored picks, no shop-my-links, no upsells hiding in the checklist. Just an honest call on what is essential, what can wait, and what to buy used. You are the customer here, not the product.

Price

Launch price: $27 (regular $39). One-time purchase. Not a subscription. Not a course you have to keep up with. Yours to keep and use for this baby and the next one. Personal-use license: download the file once, open it in any browser, and it is yours on your device.

Launch window: $27 through July 24, then it goes to $39.

Get Military Baby Prep HQ for $27

FAQ

Does it work on my phone?
Yes. It is one HTML file that opens in any browser on a phone, tablet, or computer. Save it to your device and open it like a bookmark. No app store, no install.

Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the file is on your device it runs with no connection at all. It was built for the clinic waiting room, the field, and the flight with no wifi. Nothing loads from the internet.

Can both parents share it?
Yes. It is one file, so you can both keep a copy. Your progress saves on your own device, and there is a one-tap backup export so you can hand your saved progress to your partner or move it to a new phone. Personal-use license covers your household.

Is my data private?
Completely. Everything you enter stays on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere, there are no accounts, and there is no login. When you want a backup, you export a file that you control.

Do you offer refunds?
Because this is an instant digital download you keep forever, all sales are final. If the file will not open or something is broken, email us and we will make it right.

I am Guard or Reserve. Does this still apply?
Yes, and honestly you may need it more, because you get the least in-person hand-holding. The app flags where Guard and Reserve rules differ, especially that you usually have to actively enroll your baby in TRICARE rather than assume it happens automatically. As always, verify the current specifics with your unit.

I am the civilian spouse and I am the one buying and planning. Is that fine?
More than fine. A lot of the planning falls to the spouse, especially when the service member is deployed or TDY. Everything here is written so the non-uniformed partner can run the whole mission, including the parts where the sponsor has to physically show up, like the DEERS trip, which are clearly marked.

Will the deadlines be exactly right for me?
The app computes typical windows from your due date and your settings, but policies vary by branch, component, and installation, and they change. Treat every date as your starting point, then confirm the specifics with your unit, finance office, and TRICARE. Your window may differ. This is an educational planning tool, not legal, medical, or financial advice.

You cannot control the orders, the timing, or the sleep. You can control whether the deadlines catch you off guard. Download Military Baby Prep HQ, enter your due date, and watch the whole mission lay itself out in front of you.

Get Military Baby Prep HQ for $27 (launch price)

Military Baby Prep HQ is an educational planning tool. Benefits and deadlines vary by branch, component, and installation and can change. Verify specifics with your unit, finance office, and TRICARE. Not legal, medical, or financial advice. Personal-use license. Buffalo & Banyan LLC.