Review of Hospital Bag

Those of you who followed our pregnancy blog will recognize this list from the blog entry of July 2nd, where I packed a bag for my hospital stay. I said I would revisit this list after the delivery.

1. robe and slippers
2. toiletries and cosmetics
3. extra pillows
4. socks
5. nursing bras
6. nursing pads
7. going home outfit and blanket for baby
8. going home outfit for mom–early pregnancy size
9. breastfeeding book
10. hair dryer
11. underwear
12. feminine pads (the ones in the hospital don’t have wings etc.)
13. nipple cream
14. bathing suit for partner (in case Bernard wants to help me labor in the shower)
15. heat/ice pack
16. list of hospital policies from the hospital tour (e.g. visiting hours, phone number to your hospital room, where you can use your cell phone, cafeteria hours, reminder to call your insurance company about the hospitalization and about putting your baby on your plan, how to order social security card and birth certificate)
17. mittens for baby (they’re not allowed to cut the baby’s fingernails, so you have to bring nail cutters or mittens)

I packed everything before I knew I was going to have a scheduled C-section, as opposed to going into labor, but overall, we did pack the right things.
The things I did not need included:

1. extra pillows — the hospital provided all the pillows I needed.
2. heat and ice pack — this was supposed to be for the pain of labor as well as breast engorgement, but I ended up not using it.
3. mittens for baby — mittens don’t work, period. they come off in a matter of minutes. just bring baby nail clippers to cut your baby’s fingernails.
4. bathing suit for partner — again, i didn’t go into labor.
5. underwear — the hospital provides these mesh underwear which you can just throw away after use. they’re fairly comfortable too.
6. feminine pads — again, provided by the hospital.

The only things I would add to the list are the following:

1. two nursing gowns — although it is easy to just undo one side of the hospital gown to nurse, you still end up flashing all of your visitors if they show up while you’re breastfeeding. This happened to me with the chairman of the department of neurology who visited me on the first day.
2. two nursing bras of the “sportsbra” type — i brought one regular nursing bra and one “sportsbra” type nursing bra, but you really only end up wearing the latter type. when you’re waiting for engorgement, you need to wear a nursing bra continuously, including during sleep, and the sportsbra type nursing bra is a lot more comfortable.

A couple of things Bernard would recommend bringing are enough clothes for Dad for the entire hospital stay (Bernard had to run home to get more clothes), and of course, laptop and camera. He formatted a lot of the photos while we were in the hospital.

We also brought a Child Health Record, which you can buy from the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is a great way to record all of the health information for your child, including the inital hospital stay, all well-child visits, growth charts, and immunizations.