Hospital bag - OMG, ought to pack, what goes in it??!!

[dizzymama]

This might seem like a really trivial question, but it's beginning to give me (even more) sleepless nights! I'm at the stage in my pregnancy where I need everything to be ready to go. Most things are prepared but the bloomin' hospital bag! What on earth do you take with you? How long can I expect to be in? What the heck do I put it in...a suitcase (presumably not!), a tesco's carrier bag (being daft now I know!!!) Please help me, my brain is no longer capable of making obvious leaps!!!

The cream is called kamillosan I think. Good stuff it is too.

I left the hospital asap after my last 2 - only had to wait for paed to check baby and think it had to be 6 hours after births? Couldn't bear staying in after experience with 1st! Bed like a table, pillow like a brick and nutters clattering about all night....so only took baby clothes and nappies, plus lucozade with straws.

Arnica for the bruising! A big bar of chocolate! Jelly was good too! Our best preparation was a list of all the phone numbers of the people we wanted to share our happy news with (written in priority order).

Dettox spray (sometimes you get a mini size in Bounty Pack) and a few disposable j cloth type things to wipe toilet seat, bath (if you have one after birth) and shower tray. The hygiene in many hospitals just beggars belief. If you have stitches you will particularly not want to catch something off a toilet seat. There are a lot of other mums' ,ahem, bodily fluids on postnatal wards. Ironically the cleaning team will probably disturb you just as you and babe are nodding off, but you can bet the place won't be immaculately cleaned. My advice is to get home asap, or have the baby at home.....Def. pack light, but one thing might be to have dh/dp bring a small cool bag, one to fit in your bedside cupboard, then you can keep your fruit, cheese, chocolate etc. nice and fresh.

for my first labour I had all the stuff recomended by everyone & Dp had to lug a huge bag around as we moved thru' the various rooms!
Next time i took loads less - just initial essentials - 2 nighties/pads/knickers/breast pads (cloth not disposable) & feeding bra/chocs/clothes for baby (3 sets)/nappies/lipsalve/camera & phone & car park change. machine in hospital sold drinks.

Definitely some disposable cleaning wipes - essential for cleaning the sinks/loos/baths before you use them just in case!!

Also - make sure the towels you take in are dark in colour - or ones you're prepared to throw away once you get home...

I can only echo most of what everyone else said on here.

Am I the only person who took earplugs in

Definitely snacks for during and after the birth. It's madness that they push breastfeeding but aren't prepared to feed you the gigantuous amounts of food you need.

I remember our antenatal teacher told us to tick everything we were allowed to on our meal request form, even if you weren't going to eat it in one sitting. I stashed things away and can remember eating a packet of mini jammy dodgers at 3am one morning as my new dd suckled away.

Definitely take a pillow. Don't worry how silly you'll feel (get DH to carry it) when you arrive with a pillow tucked under your arm. The hospital pillows are wrapped in plastic below the pillow case and they make you sweat. Also, when you lean on them, the air seeps out of the plastic and smells of old men's breath!

If you have no reason to suspect you're having a large baby, take some babygrows that are newborn size. I took only 0-3 months and my dd was 6lb 5oz and swamped by the babygrows. (It could have gone any way - my DH was 10lb 10 when he was born, I was 6lb 6)

I am someone who had leaky boobs from the minute I was in labour so take loads of breastpads.

And like everyone else has said, you'll need way more maternity pads than you could imagine.

I bought mothercare nighties that button down part way and found them crap. Perhaps I have low hanging boobs or something but when I unbuttoned it and tried to latch my dd on, she got a mouthful of nightie, I couldn't get the nightie out of the way. I felt better off in PJ trousers with a t-shirt on top, which I lifted up.