Having a Baby: When Mr. Disaster Recovery Packs The Hospital Bag

Welcome to Risky Baby Business, our Saturday discussion about pregnancy and babies, especially those on the high risk side.

Last week when we discussed tips to ease the stress of Labor & Delivery, we mentioned the hospital bag. In the comments, Angela McGill asked for me to share the packing list my husband made, though I’m not sure she knew what she was in for at the time.

When I say my husband, Steve, is Mr. Disaster Recovery, I’m not being snarky. He really is Mr. DR at work. It’s on his resume and everything. When you are in a certain segment of the Information Technology field, part of your job is to plan for disasters and outages. If you are in charge of planning data centers and the like, this skill is vital.

I cannot tell you how lucky I feel to be married to someone with strength in this area. If I’d been in charge of packing for the hospital, I would have ended up having to call up my girlfriends in a panic from the delivery room to “go get this!” or “OMG, I forgot that!”

It’s likely the Birth Plan would have made it, because I was focused on that, but items like underwear and hairbrushes would have been left behind if I was in charge. I’m just not wired that way. Lucky for me, my husband is so, between us, we’ve always stayed on top of about 90% of everything. (With the baby in the mix, that’s dropped to 60-70% of things, which is still better than I would do on my own).

Back to his list. It took him weeks to fine it down to everything he wanted but I’ve given you the entire list. Keep in mind that our hospital provided many of these items, much to our surprise. I’d recommend you take your birth bag packing list to your birthing class and have your instructor tell you which items your hospital provides. You’ll pack less. 

For your convenience, I’ve crossed out the items that were provided or unnecessary and made notes about various helpful items in green.

For Jen: 

Clothing:

a) Glasses (Contacts / Case / Solution)	i) Bathrobe    (I was so happy to have my own!)
b) Sun glasses	j) Going home outfit    (Be sure this is maternity!)
c) Pajama pants (several)	k) Socks
d) Breast feeding tank top (Due to C-section, these weren’t used)	l) Grip socks    (Very helpful on slick hosp. floors)
e) Nursing bra	m) Flip Flops
f) Maternity bras	n) Big girl panties
g) Breast pads	o) Sanitary pads
h) T-shirt / comfy shirt	p) Sweater / Sweatshirtq) Several comfortable nightgowns

 Toiletries: (Having my own stuff was SUCH a comfort!)

a) Hand lotion	n) Mouthwash
b) Massage Oils	o) Conditioner
c) Back massager (Tennis ball)     (Not used due to C-section)	p) Shower gel
d) Hair clip (keep hair back)	q) Dove Soap
e) Lip Balm	r) Deodorant
f) Breath mints – Life Savers P-mint    (white / individual / blue bag)	s) Hair brush
g) Tissues	t) Hair spray
h) Toilet Paper (Tucks medicated pads)	u) Razors
i) Make-up	v) Nipple cream (Holy mother of God, I would have died without this!)
j) Toothbrush & electric toothbrush	w) Lanolin
k) Tooth paste	x) Bag Balm
l) Dental floss	y) Witch hazel
m) Shampoo	z) Numbing spray or cream

Other:

a) Focal point	l) Pens
b) Journal of labor and delivery (Please. You don’t have time for this.)	m) Book
c) Ice / hot pads (rice sock) (You have no place to heat these.)	n) Pad of paper
d) Facecloth (not white)	o) Cell phone and charger
e) Spray bottle	p) Pillow(s) (not white)
f) Nalgene bottle (didn’t need)	q) Nursing Pillow
g) Small hand-held fan	r) Prenatal Vitamins
h) Bath towel	s) My prescriptions
i) Hot water bottle (didn’t need)	t) Collace / gentle stool softener
f) Hair Dryer	u) Dermoplast
j) Eye mask (this helped w/sleep)	v) Tylenol / pain reliever     (This is for your husband.)
k) iPod & Speakers	u) Ear plugs

Bring cookies or some kind of treat for the nurses. (You’ll be surprised at how appreciated this gesture can be. We brought a 2 lb box of See’s candy.)

For Baby Girl:

Clothes:

a) One undershirt	i) Hat
b) One outer garment	j) Pair of booties
c) Several receiving blankets	k) Scratch mittens     (These saved us in the bilirubin tank – Baby Girl was jaundiced.)
d) One outer blanket	l) Baby’s homecoming outfit
e) Blanket to take home to Hoshi	m) Pacifier
f) Side-snap baby clothes	n) Diapers
g) Burp cloths	o) Diaper covers
h) Changing pads

We saw this recommended and didn’t have enough time to do it, but we LOVED the idea:

“Birthday shirt” for baby to wear the day he/she is born. I like to make a special one that I fill in all the birth stats on once baby’s born. Then I take “birth day” photos in it to send out as birth announcements.

Documentation:

• Camera – memory chips, batteries and charger
• Camcorder – memory storage, batteries and charger
• Baby book
• Stamp pad (making sure it’s safe for baby’s skin – washable does not always mean non-toxic or skin-safe). Use it to stamp baby’s feet and hands into your baby book.
• Purchase a copy of the local paper so she can look back and know exactly what was going on the day she was born

 Other:

a) Diaper Bag	f) Cotton pads
b) Baby wipes	g) Sm. trash bags for dirty diapers
c) Diaper cream	h) Several bottles w/ lids & nipples
d) Baby lotion	i) Breast pump
e) Rubbing alcohol

 For Steve: (Note how much shorter his list is. If you are NOT married to Mr. DR, make your own list of personal items and give it to him.)

Clothing:	Toiletries:
a) Levi’s	a) Toothbrush
b) Sweat pants	b) Toothpaste
c) T-shirts	c) Razor
d) Sweatshirt	d) Shaving cream
e) Socks	e) Dental floss
f) Grip socks	f) Deodorant
g) Slippers	g) Bathtowel (not white)

Other:

1.  Cord Blood Kit – Call to have picked up

2.  Large battery clock with a second hand to measure contractions

3.  Hospital Folder

• Birth Plan – Several copies
• Insurance cards
• Hospital preadmission forms
• Contact list

4.  Car Seat

5.  Head support inserts

6.  Cover for car seat to shade sun / rain

7.  Who are we letting into delivery room

8.  Who are we letting into Recovery room

• Send out directions to Hoag
• Directions on where to park
• Directions on where to go once inside

9.  Laptop

10. Reading materials (Please. You’re too busy staring at your baby, caring for your baby, or sleeping…or having the whirlwind of visitors.)

11. Snacks (do you really want to run to the store each time you’re hungry?)

• Protein bars
• Trail mix
• Cereal
• String cheese
• Cheese
• Crackers
• Turkey meat

12. Water

13. Small Cooler

14. Champagne (non-alcoholic)

15. Cash / change

16. Several bags to transport hospital extras / gifts

17. Emergency directions

• Name / Address of hospital
• Directions to hospital
• Map where to drop off
• Where to go once inside
• Jennifer’s full name
• Copy of insurance card
• Steve’s name and cell phone number

Are you tired? Because I’m tired just looking at all this. It’s unbelievable that he got all this to fit in two carry-on sized bags, but he did. I ended up having to have a C-section because I never dilated beyond 5.5 centimeters, so we didn’t use whole sections of this list. But with birth, you never know how things are going to go, especially when you’re high-risk.

If you’re still with me (and you’re not clutching your sides laughing or hanging your mouth open in shock) what do you think of THE LIST? Anything he missed or that you’d recommend for other first time parents? We’d love to hear about it!

Jenny