What's in My Hospital Bag?!
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During our hospital stay for having our baby, I wanted to be a minimalist when it came to packing our hospital bag. My plan was to pack only what I need to get through the three-ish days that I will be in the hospital before taking the 5-minute drive up the street to our house to take our little one home. Upon looking at list suggestions of what to pack, since I am a first-time mom, nearly every list I saw online had things that seemed pointless to me... items like makeup made my eyebrows raise. For real? Girl, you just pushed a human out of your body... do you really have to look Instagram ready while you're recovering in your oversized underwear with a pad as big as a mattress? I didn't think so. Speaking of those, I plan on purchasing these bad boys (click to see) to wear for the 4-6 weeks following the delivery date.
During our hospital stay for having our baby, I wanted to be a minimalist when it came to packing our hospital bag. My plan was to pack only what I need to get through the three-ish days that I will be in the hospital before taking the 5-minute drive up the street to our house to take our little one home. Upon looking at list suggestions of what to pack, since I am a first-time mom, nearly every list I saw online had things that seemed pointless to me... items like makeup made my eyebrows raise. For real? Girl, you just pushed a human out of your body... do you really have to look Instagram ready while you're recovering in your oversized underwear with a pad as big as a mattress? I didn't think so. Speaking of those, I plan on purchasing these bad boys (click to see) to wear for the 4-6 weeks following the delivery date.
The Obvious Things:
Our phones & chargers -- we both have the iPhone X, the camera on it is pretty awesome, but I'm still debating on breaking out the big guns, my Canon 6D Mark II.
*Our own toiletries (see below) -- we have a separate bag that is just this. Usually, when we go somewhere, the first thing we do once we check into a hotel is we want to shower. We keep everything segregated from the clothes and other things to make it easier to find and if something leaks, it doesn't get all over our clothes... It's a win-win.
For Mom, which is me ...OMG, I'm gonna be a MOM!:
For the day I will actually have our daughter, I'm bringing the gripper socks that say "I'm Going To Be a Mommy Today!" -- Aaron bought these for me at Christmas last year. We found out we were pregnant the Saturday following Thanksgiving, so it was our first holiday as an expecting couple. He's the best.
More gripper socks but these looks like ballet shoes! That's just cute! I'm not a shoe person. I like flip flops and sandals. I practically lived in my jazz shoes in High School so these socks that look like shoes are a hit with me.
My own gown. Not that I'm unappreciative of the hospital providing gowns, but all I can think of is the Jim Gaffigan bit where he talks about why they had a home birth, and he says something about the gowns. He makes up a line that one of the nurses would say, "You mean, you don't want to give birth in a gown someone just died in 12 hours ago? Why?" I plan on having a c-section so I get that for that I'll probably be in one of their gowns, but for the rest of the time, I plan on wearing this pretty thing.
My eye mask for sleeping.
More gripper socks but these looks like ballet shoes! That's just cute! I'm not a shoe person. I like flip flops and sandals. I practically lived in my jazz shoes in High School so these socks that look like shoes are a hit with me.
My own gown. Not that I'm unappreciative of the hospital providing gowns, but all I can think of is the Jim Gaffigan bit where he talks about why they had a home birth, and he says something about the gowns. He makes up a line that one of the nurses would say, "You mean, you don't want to give birth in a gown someone just died in 12 hours ago? Why?" I plan on having a c-section so I get that for that I'll probably be in one of their gowns, but for the rest of the time, I plan on wearing this pretty thing.
My eye mask for sleeping.
My. Own. Pillow! I always bring my own pillow with me when we travel. A couple of times I didn't and have ended up regretting it. I anticipate being uncomfortable after having a baby cut out of me that I'll want all the comfort of home I can get. The only other thing that would be as good as bringing my own pillow would be if I could bring our cat with us. Seriously, she's the best cat!
Speaking of pillows I'm also bringing a nursing pillow. I've held babies before, and I know after a while they seem to weigh a million pounds and it feels like your arm is going to fall off. These allow a little extra padding for the baby and less pressure on the shoulders, so I assume I won't lose feeling in my shoulder as fast.
For Dad, that's Aaron:
Aaron is being super awesome. He plans on going home to shower and stuff since we literally live about 4 minutes from the hospital. However, that first day I'm not sure he will want to leave me. So I have a change of clothes for him and some lounge clothes for him to sleep in -- I usually forget this part when we got places.
I also have other various toiletries at his disposal should he choose to stay with me... but he'll need to bring more of his own clothes if he doesn't want to leave again.
I also have other various toiletries at his disposal should he choose to stay with me... but he'll need to bring more of his own clothes if he doesn't want to leave again.
For Baby:
It's my understanding that the hospital provides quite a bit of "getting over the hump" stuff like diapers, a swaddle blanket, caps, and maybe mittens (not sure on those last two, but like I said, I'm new at this). but I want to bring some of my own stuff for her.
Mittens -- cause these are cute.
Three onesies -- I chose these at random, cause her going home outfit is what I think is the most important if there is such a thing as an important onesie.
Her going home outfit. This wasn't on our registry, but we received it from...someone. There was no note so I have no idea who sent it but it is super cute.
A voicemail from her Nonna -- my Nonna too. I got a voicemail today from Nonna (Italian for Grandma) and she has this thing that when it's our birthday she calls and sings her own special version of Happy Birthday. I'll keep it to myself for now unless she doesn't mind me sharing it. The message asked us to put the phone on speaker and have our daughter hear Happy Birthday from Nonna... and yes, I will be keeping that voicemail forever. Thank you technology.
Another thing we thought about was a gift for the nursing staff. I've seen things come up in Mom Groups and in YouTube videos about how nurses are superheroes (and I agree, they are super awesome and don't get the respect they deserve) and to treat them with a little extra something. I'm not sure how many nurses I will actually see during my stay, so getting them a $5-$10 gift card somewhere could get expensive really fast. We, and by we I mean Aaron, will go to Albertson's or Walmart and get a cookie tray and bring to them as a "Thank You for taking care of me even when I was a pain in the butt".
I don't know how helpful this blog entry was, but it was at least entertaining I hope.
Mittens -- cause these are cute.
Three onesies -- I chose these at random, cause her going home outfit is what I think is the most important if there is such a thing as an important onesie.
Her going home outfit. This wasn't on our registry, but we received it from...someone. There was no note so I have no idea who sent it but it is super cute.
A voicemail from her Nonna -- my Nonna too. I got a voicemail today from Nonna (Italian for Grandma) and she has this thing that when it's our birthday she calls and sings her own special version of Happy Birthday. I'll keep it to myself for now unless she doesn't mind me sharing it. The message asked us to put the phone on speaker and have our daughter hear Happy Birthday from Nonna... and yes, I will be keeping that voicemail forever. Thank you technology.
Another thing we thought about was a gift for the nursing staff. I've seen things come up in Mom Groups and in YouTube videos about how nurses are superheroes (and I agree, they are super awesome and don't get the respect they deserve) and to treat them with a little extra something. I'm not sure how many nurses I will actually see during my stay, so getting them a $5-$10 gift card somewhere could get expensive really fast. We, and by we I mean Aaron, will go to Albertson's or Walmart and get a cookie tray and bring to them as a "Thank You for taking care of me even when I was a pain in the butt".
I don't know how helpful this blog entry was, but it was at least entertaining I hope.
*Travel-sized shampoo & conditioner, body wash, our loofas, toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorant, lotion, face washes (mostly for me, cause I have like three facial washed I use and it depends on my mood) hairbrush, comb -- and styling things, not for me, I don't think I'm going to care much, and lastly makeup remover wipes -- I am not going to wear makeup, but until I am able to get up and shower or wash my face, those wipes are going to be my best friend. I don't like my face or my hair feeling oily... I'm gonna have to deal with the hair situation but I don't have to deal with the face feeling oily.
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