What to REALLY Pack in a Hospital Bag

By our fourth delivery, I knew what to really pack in a hospital bag. With our first baby, I had everything under the sun in my hospital  bag, but by our fourth, I was down to the “must-haves”  and I was so much better off because of it!

What to REALLY Pack in a Hospital Bag:

• Toiletries:  shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, deodorant, toothbrush
• Makeup for those first few pictures
• Hair Ties for the delivery.  I can’t imagine having my hair down during the birth.
• A nursing tank top (I bought them at Target)
• A big t-shirt (your breasts will be engorged and you’ll be glad to have a shirt that is a few sizes too big… I wore my husband’s biggest t-shirts for comfort)
• Comfortable pants (I used gaucho pants)
• Old underwear that you can throw away in a week and a few sports bras
• A roll of quarters for the vending machines (for your husband) & maybe a few granola bars.
• Don’t bother bringing books.  I bought a brand new book and it was the last thing on my mind… save it for your beach trip when you will actually be relaxing.
• Laptop
• Camera
• Phone
• Chargers
• Lip gloss or chap stick (you’ll need these)
• Flip flops – I hated walking around in bare feet, but I didn’t want to put on slippers (it was summertime), so I bought flip flops at Old Navy for $2.00 and wore those all weekend.  I threw them away on my way out of the hospital (I wasn’t about to bring those hospital germs home!)
• Your breastfeeding pillow – better to learn with the pillow than to have to re-learn when you get home.
• Sleeper for your baby and a “first picture” outfit. Reminder: your baby probably won’t fit in the newborn clothes like you think he/she will.   I took a tutu for our daughter & a cute outfit for our 3 sons. I ended up folding the tutu all around our daughter to make it look like it fit… and I had to send my husband out for preemie outfits for our sons because the newborns were huge on them.
• Pacifiers if your hospital is pro-breastfeeding (some hospitals won’t give out pacifiers.  Luckily, ours gave them out like crazy and we came home with four!)
• Don’t pack diapers, ice packs, pads, bottles, etc… you will get more than you need and will probably bring a lot home.

Remember that you aren’t going to be there forever and soon you will be home with your new sweet baby… enjoying some cuddle time.