What to pack for delivery

With Peyton's arrival just around the corner, I realized that I still hadn't packed my hospital bag. I made a list of all the things I wanted to bring and tried to remember some of the necessities that help make my life easier after delivery. I thought I would share some of those things with you.

1. Dermoplast.

First and foremost, my all time favorite thing to have after delivering a baby (This really only comes into play if you had a vaginal birth). This stuff is from heaven! Thankfully, after delivering Mason, my nurses shared the wonders of Dermoplast with me. It makes walking around and even sitting that much easier. Basically, I like to call it magic in a can. When I delivered Taylor, I asked one of the nurses for a can at the hospital and she looked at me like I was nuts. Not really sure why, because I thought all maternity nurses were aware of how wonderful and necessary it is for healing. I will probably buy some just to have an extra one around the house.

 2. Johnson's Nursing Pads.

I seriously wish someone told me about nursing pads before I delivered my first child. I have tried many different kinds and for me, Johnson's worked best. I will say that I gave reusable(washable) pads a try and they just didn't cut it for me.

3. Medela Lanolin.

Nursing is a beautiful and natural thing, however it can also be rough for the first couple of days to weeks. This helps with the transition and allowed me to enjoy nursing.

4. Pacifiers.

These pacifiers are awesome. I also really like the Avent pacifiers. My son took to pacifiers right away, where my daughter never took one a day in her life. She was a thumb sucker, which I didn't like at first, but proved helpful in that she could soothe herself back to sleep.


5. Soothies.

Again the nurse I had when I was in the hospital with Mason, told me about these wonderful gel pads that make nursing easier. I used to put mine in the fridge to keep them cold and it was even better.

The list is much longer than these items, but these are some of my favorites. Here is a tip that one of my nurses shared with me when I was in the hospital with my first:

When they bring the baby into your room, there are drawers underneath the cart and they are filled with items you will need, like diapers, wipes, lanolin, formula, pacifiers and a couple of other things. Every time they take the baby away to the nursery, they check the drawers to see if they need to be refilled. She said to basically empty those drawers and make your own stockpile of items to take home with you. We had almost a month's worth of diapers for Mason before we even broke into what we had at home. With Taylor, we weren't in the hospital for a full 24hours after her delivery and they never took her to the nursery, but we still stocked up on what was in the cart.