diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index a8facdf0..92fcee33 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ services:
     depends_on:
       # Our app does not work without our database
       # so this ensures our database is loaded first
-      - postgres
+      condition: service_healthy
     ports:
       - "8080:8080"
     volumes:
@@ -42,7 +42,11 @@ services:
       # provided in the `docker-entrypoint-initdb.d` directory, this connects
       # our seed file to that directory so that it gets run
       - ./database-seed.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/database-seed.sql
-
+    healthcheck:
+      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready"]
+      interval: 10s
+      timeout: 5s
+      retries: 5
   # PostgreSQL pgAdmin panel accessible at http://localhost:16543/
   pgadmin-compose:
     image: dpage/pgadmin4