When I was pregnant, I loved watching those “what’s in my hospital bag” videos on Youtube, so I thought I’d share what I ended up packing. I used a medium sized suitcase, which was the perfect size to squeeze everything in!

What’s In My Hospital Bag

For the New Mum:

• ROBE. Having a robe to slip on during the day helped me to feel more “put together” and to cover up when I needed to leave the room.
• PJ SET. While I brought other clothes along, I mainly wore 2 dark singlet and short PJ sets. The dark colours were great as I didn’t have to worry about any stains or my nipples showing too much, as I ended up not wearing any bras for easy access and comfort.
• HIGH-WAISTED BOYLEG UNDIES. I specifically bought a week’s worth of dark boylegs so I didn’t have to worry about stains or laundry. The high waist helped to keep my soft lower belly in place and the boyleg design helped to keep my large pads in place. These were 2 sizes up from my normal size.
• SLIPPERS. These were great to slip on and walk around in the room and hospital.
• HAIR CLIP. Great to have my long hair out of the way and also meant that I didn’t have to wash my hair as often.
• BASIC TOILETRIES. Shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, moisturising cream, shaver and deodorant was all that I needed. I brought some makeup but didn’t end up using it at all.
  
• LIPGLOSS. I was surprised at how dry my lips got, so I was glad that I brought some lipgloss!
• MATERNITY PADS. Bring more than you think you need!
• THAYERS ALCOHOL-FREE WITCH HAZEL WITH ALOE VERA TONER. Drizzled on my maternity pads, this was great for my stitches.
• LANSINOH NIPPLE CREAM AND MULTI MAM COMPRESSES. The nipple cream was thick whereas the compresses were a thin gel, so I alternated between using the two depending on how much time I had before Miss K’s next feed. Each compress can be cut in half and applied on both nipples. Both are great and I continued using these until my nipples were adjusted to breastfeeding.
• WATER BOTTLE. Breastfeeding is thirsty work and it’s important to stay hydrated. Having a full water bottle by my bedside at all times was an absolute must.
• SNACKS. During the day, I had 3 generous meals and 2 snacks, however by the late evening and early morning I was often ravenous. Simple snacks such as muesli bars, chocolate, and lactation balls, kept me going until breakfast time.
• PHONE AND CHARGER. My phone doubled up as a camera and an alarm clock, as I had to wake Miss K to feed every 2-3 hours. Although I brought a powerbank, I didn’t end up using it since the power point was near my bed.

For the Baby:

• DISPOSABLE NAPPIES. Since we weren’t sure how big Miss K was going to be, I brought along 2 small packets of nappies in different brands to try out. These turned out to be too big for her and my husband ended up buying some BabyLove Premmie Nappies!
• NAPPY RASH CREAM. I brought along 2 sample sizes that I received in a goody bag – Bepanthen and Sudocrem. We ended up buying a full sized version of Bepanthen and we still use it today.
• BONDS COZYSUITS AND WONDERSUITS. I’d read wonderful reviews about these onesies and brought along a few. They were way too big of course, and my husband had to return with a few premmie sized ones!
• BONDS SINGLETSUITS. It didn’t occur to me that Miss K would need anything under her onesies, so I’m glad that I brought some along! My husband ended up buying some premmie sized ones as well and the extra layers helped to keep her warm.
• BEANIES. We struggled to keep Miss K warm since she was a small baby, so the beanies helped to keep her nice and warm!
• SWADDLES. I packed 2 swaddles, but only ended up using 1 as Miss K was often bundled up in thick hospital blankets.
• The only thing that I wish we’d brought along but didn’t were NAIL SCISSORS. Miss K was swaddled for most of the time but it would’ve been nice to give her nails a trim as they grew so fast during that short time.

For the New Dad:

• CAMERA. The fancy camera was mainly used during the delivery and moments after the birth. I’m so glad that we have high quality pictures to look back on.
• PHONE AND CHARGER. After the birth, we mainly used the cameras on our phones since it was just easier. My husband was also in charge of keeping both of our families updated during this time.
• LAPTOP. During the times that Miss K and I napped, the laptop helped my husband to pass the time.
• SNACKS. You can never have enough snacks!

Marie xo

Welcome to my Pregnancy Diary series! You can read about my first and second trimester experiences here and here!

Week 27

When we arrived in Albury it was cold. I always thought that pregnant ladies ran on the hotter side but apparently not! Since we were moving from Perth we arrived with extra suitcases, so it took forever to get a maxi cab into town (downside to moving to a small town!). We checked into Quest Apartment Hotels, which we would call home for the next few weeks.

Week 28

My first week in Albury was a busy one. I had appointments to see my new GP, obgyn, and book myself into hospital. Interestingly, due to the small population, there’s only 1 hospital that has a maternity ward and it delivers babies for Albury-Wodonga and the surrounding towns.

My new obgyn was Dr Simon Craig and he came highly recommended by a leading retired obgyn in town. It was interesting to note the stark differences between the 2 doctors. While Dr Aitkens was full of energy and brilliance, Dr Craig exuded a calm and gentle energy. Both were great and I would recommend either if you’re in Perth or Albury-Wodonga!

Weeks 29 – 33

We hit the ground running when we arrived in town and was fortunate enough to get our first and only rental application approved, yay! The house we chose was only 11 minutes drive from hospital and in the heart of town. With no family support and a new baby on the way, we figured that living walking distance from everything would be the best.

Since we sold most of our furniture, I was tasked to setup our house while my husband was busy at work. There was so much to do and so little time! Thank goodness for online shopping and fast shipping times!

At 32 weeks, we decided to have one last hurrah and spent the weekend in Melbourne. After many toilet stops along the way, we finally arrived after a 4 hour drive. I had massive Asian food cravings, so we spent most of our time in Chinatown feasting!

Weeks 34 – 35

With only a few weeks left to go, we attended antenatal classes across two weekends. They were run by a midwife at the hospital. The classes were informative and interactive, primarily focusing on the different stages of labour, pros and cons of various pain relief, different labour positions, and what we expected from our support person during birth.

While I enjoyed the classes and learnt some new information, I would have liked to have covered more time on topics that followed the birth such as post birth recovery, baby blues, breastfeeding and sleep deprivation.

At 35 weeks, I used the pregnancy massage voucher that I received at my baby shower and it was glorious! I’d been busy putting together new furniture for our rental and running lots of errands, so it was nice to relax and get pampered. It also felt so lovely to be able to lie on my stomach again!

Week 36

Leading up to my due date, my obgyn became slightly concerned that our baby wasn’t growing enough and there wasn’t enough fluid surrounding the baby. While I’d always imagined my waters breaking in the middle of the night and being rushed to hospital Hollywood style, it looked like I would have to be induced. I was advised to rest more and had to have another check up in a few days.

On my next visit, I was hooked up to the CTG (cardiotocography) machine to measure the number of fetal heartbeats and movements made. My baby generally wasn’t very active during the day, however a cool glass of water helped to wake it up! While the CTG results came back fine, there were still concerns regarding the slow growth and lack of amniotic fluid, so the decision was made to be induced just before I turned 38 weeks.

Week 37

During the last week of my pregnancy, there was a last minute flurry to get the house in order with the help of my husband. We put the finishing touches to the nursery and cleaned the house from top to bottom. I prepped some freezer meals and my husband even made some lactation balls. Some people might call this nesting but I like to think of it as being as prepared as possible before all hell broke loose!

Two days before I was meant to be induced I made myself relax and enjoy my last few days. I slept as much as I could, went out for brunch, spent time with my husband and had a mini maternity shoot. I even prepped a pregnancy and baby scrapbooking album that I thought that I’d have time to finish after the baby arrived (spoiler: their still not done!).

On Wednesday night, I checked into hospital to have a Foley bulb inserted to help soften my cervix and help to induce labour. The next morning, I was shown to the birthing suite to get my waters broken and kick off the contractions. After 4.5 hours of active labour and a lot of yelling, we joyfully welcomed Miss K into the world!

Thanks so much for reading my pregnancy diary and I hoped that you enjoyed reading about my journey! I would love to hear about your pregnancy experiences!

Marie xo