Laddy has recently decided he was going to bump his [first] breakfast up to the wee hours of the morning and I can never fall back asleep if it’s past 2:30, so here we are. Drinking coffee and tending to the bloggy. Today’s write-up is super helpful for all of my preggy friends out there. And for those of you who will have kiddos in the future – take note. Packing your bag for the hospital is very important – especially if you deliver out of town like we did!
The day I hit 30-weeks, I had my bag packed. #planner
As we got closer to baby day, I would even take my toiletries that I planned on bringing and bag them up every morning and night just to be safe. Turns out the day I finally gave up on doing that was the day Laddy decided he was going to come. Such a sneaky little rascal! You’ll also want to make sure your husband has a bag packed with clothes (and a pillow and blanket for the hospital).
When the day came, we ended up with 4 bags total. Yep. We were those people. But ask a girl in labor if she cares what people think. Nnnoooooope. I had a very “Outta my way, b*tchesssss” mentality going on.
Believe it or not, with all those bags I still missed a few things. Shocker. It’s like I had never done this before! Tehe.
We’ll start with the things I did manage to shove in the four bags:
I am an Amazon Associate and may earn from the affiliate links in this post. LaddyBoy’s gotta go to college one day! 😉
NURSING NIGHTIE

The hours/day after you have your baby, the nurses are going to pop in frequently and push around on your uterus to make sure all of the things are going back to their respective locations. It’s fantastic. So unless you want to keep pulling pants up and down, plan to stay in your nightie. And anyways, #NoPantsAreTheBestPants. I have one like this and it is the SOFTEST nightie EVER.
NURSING PADS

*drip, drip, drip*
HIGH-CALORIE (healthy) SNACKS

After pushing that baby out, you will be FAMISHED. Thankfully I was thinking ahead and got the highest calorie protein bar I could find (that didn’t taste awful): Peanut Butter Cliff Bar! I still ate about five more things other than this, but this was a good first course. You will have hospital food, but that gets old. And if there are any issues, or you have a jaundice baby like we did, you may be there longer than planned. If you are going to be breastfeeding, you want to make sure you are eating food with sustenance; whatever you eat, baby eats!
GIANT WATER BOTTLE

I have a giant water bottle that I carry everywhere with me. It’s 0.79 gallons and I drink at least 2 a day. It’s a real conversation starter. I can’t find the exact one I have, but here’s one that is pretty big too. LADIES. When you are nursing, your thirst will NEVER CEASE. So unless you want to buy one of those Camel backpacks with the straws that hikers use, get the biggest water bottle you can find. And take it with you eeeeverywhere. The little cup at the hospital last me about .02 seconds.
ROBE

Hospitals are cold. And I’m a robe gal. Not necessary, but I was happy I had it. And back to the nursing part – if you are going to be feeding little baby via boob, then a robe is wayyy easy. Because breast feeding for the first time is tricky and you don’t want to add pulling a shirt up and down to the equation.
MASCARA & CC CREAM

This may sound ridiculous, but it made all the difference on the day we were finally able to go home. If you know me, you know I’m perfectly fine going make-up free and channeling all the hobo vibes. But after feeling like a dog for 3 days, it was nice to look fairly decent going home. This is my faaavorite CC cream from Juice Beauty. It’s all natural so you don’t have to worry about chemicals on your precious face. (Plus, it smells like Fruit Loops.) And when you are breast feeding you will double-think everything you put on your skin. And mascara is just a given; enchanting lashes make all the difference.
NURSING PILLOW

I’m pro-nursing pillow, but I honestly didn’t start using it until Lad got bigger and heavier. I actually ended up putting the nursing pillow around my neck and using it that way while we were at the hospital. Because stitches down-under are uncomfortable and regular sitting for hours in a hospital bed is for the birds. TMI? Whoops. I even have this super attractive pic I sent to my dear friend Chelsea the morning after Laddy was born. If you want a real look at labor aftermath that you won’t find on the ole “gram”, here ya go. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I call an exhausted new mom that is confused why her newborn baby has pooped six times in one morning, and has aching lady bits:
I know what you’re thinking: SO HOT!!
BUTT PILLOW

LEMME TELL YA. If you have to get any kind of stitches, you may want to consider investing in one of these bad boys. Don’t be ashamed, gurl. After pushing a child out of your hoohah, if you want to sit on a hemorrhoid pillow, then you do that. And tell the world.
What I wish I packed:
BREAST PUMP

Because I began trying to nurse Lad as soon as he popped out, my milk came in pretty quickly. I wish I would have had my electric pump for a million reasons, but mostly because I was still trying to figure out breast feeding and as time passed, I kept making more milk so it was making it harder for Lad to eat. And then it just started to get frustrating. So bring your pump. Even if you don’t think you’ll need it or want to use it – BRING IT. Also, I don’t have this one, I just think it’s pretty. You can get a free pump through your insurance – SO DO IT! Don’t not do it because you don’t think you’ll need it. If you buy pumps from the store you will be spending over $200 on the cheap ones. We pay tons of money every month for this dang insurance, so make sure you get everything out of it that you can!
What I packed & didn’t need:
Lavender, headphones, dried pineapple – These are all grouped together because they’re all crap when it comes to delivery. All along I knew I wanted to have a natural birth without any meds, so I was all about reading up on methods to get through it. (I’ll do a post another time on that, because it’s totally doable and I 100000% recommend it.) Anywho. Everything I was reading insisted on these three things and to be perfectly honest, they were not helpful. SHOCKER, KY. I sniffed lavender once during contractions and I think I got angrier. Speaking of angry….headphone cords while you’re in labor? NEXT. And dried pineapple is supposed to help with pain and the sugar is supposed to give you energy. That is FAKE NEWS.
So moral of the story, no oil sniffing or special snacks or any other nonsense items are going to be the trick to pushing out a baby sans-meds. You just gotta do your squats, suck it up, and remind yourself that it will all be over soon enough! 😉
A few other things that were helpful to have: phone charger, extra blanket for YOU, dry shampoo, nursing bras, and an extra vehicle to bring home all of the goodies people will bring you. 🙂
Well that’s that. This post is kind of wordy, but I’m kind of wordy, so you shouldn’t expect anything less. I have soooo much more to say about the whole natural delivery/hospital/first few days home topics, so hopefully I’ll manage to keep up with my posts on a regular basis! We shall see.
Hope everyone has a (stress-free) Merry Christmas!
~KG