Welcome to the world, Baby Streets!
Our sweet girl was born on March 10th and we couldn’t be more in love! We are soaking up all this precious time with her and trying our best to adjust to this new adventure of being parents!
I had every intention of sharing this post pre-baby but life happens and babies come when they want, so better late than never! I hope this can be a resource to all the future mommas.
Being said, I still packed everything on this list but I’m excited to now be able to give you the scoop on what I used, what is truly needed and a few items you can probably leave at home.
Let’s jump into it!
I can’t tell you how many times I packed, organized and re-packed my hospital bag. I’m someone who always over packs and likes to be prepared and have options so packing to go to the hospital to have a baby (which obviously I’ve never done before!) had me feeling like I needed to bring the entire Buy Buy Baby store with me. Thankfully I had some time to narrow down the essentials and what I thought would be most helpful.
Hospital Bag
I decided on the Barrington Belmont Cabin Bag for the hospital because it’s roomy, made from durable fabric that’s easy to clean, and both the regular straps and shoulder strap are easy to take on-the-go considering all the other things we needed to bring for us and baby.
I absolutely love that each bag is unique because you can custom design it yourself! I worked with Barrington Gifts to create this design with my monogram and custom colors. It turned out to be the perfect hospital bag and I’m excited to continue to get a ton of use out of it – it makes for the perfect weekender bag!
Now on to what’s inside!
Clothing for Momma
Barefoot Dreams Cardigan – highly recommended was a cozy cardigan to wrap up in and ya’ll know BFD is the ultimate comfort. Nordstrom is having a great sale right now – linking a few other BFD cardigans here / here / here / here
Nursing Bras + Nursing Tanks – I bought a few different options to try out. After baby, I plan to wear these tanks and throw on a cardigan or pullover for comfort yet easy feeding access. They received good reviews so we will see how I end up liking them.
Sleep Shirts – I packed both a long sleeve sleep shirt and a short sleeve sleep shirt (buttoned all the way down) and both came in handy. For the majority of the time I was in minimal clothing and a blanket but if I needed to get up or walk Taytum to the nursery I threw on one of the sleep shirts. It’s also helpful because your doctor’s and nurses will continually being checks on you. This striped sleep shirt is only $10 on Amazon and its the softest material! I cannot currently link the long sleeve sleep shirt that I brought but this one is very similar.
Cozy Pajamas – During labor and delivery I wore the provided hospital gown in order to not ruin any of my clothes. I had every intention of wearing all of my cozy pajamas for the few night’s stay but ended up being so hot the whole time I just wore a comfortable sports bra/nursing bra and a pair of sleep shorts, then threw on a sleep shirt if we were out walking the halls or having visitors.
Thankfully now I have tons of cute and comfy lounge sets and PJs to wear at home! I grabbed this star pattern pullover + shorts set from Nordstrom along with a few sets from Target’s Stars Above Line which is the most buttery soft!
Socks + Slippers – Another item that was on about every list I read was a comfy pair of slippers to walk around the hospital in. These slippers are only $23 on Prime! You’re definitely going to want a pair of cozy slippers to walk around in. I also packed these Barefoot Dreams Socks which are on sale for only $11 right now.
Going Home Outfit – when I saw this Mom Mode Sweatshirt I knew that it had to be my going home outfit. I wore this with a pair of comfy black jogger sweatpants.
Self-Care Items
Shower Essentials – travel size shower items such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, dry shampoo, face wash, etc. I also packed a travel size of my favorite TULA skincare set which I highly recommend. To be honest, some days while we were in the hospital I didn’t even have enough energy to stand up on my own, let alone shower so being able to at least wash my face made me feel like a whole new person.
Shower Shoes – these are a must! I grabbed a pair of $5 flip flops at Target which did the trick.
Revlon One Step Styler – my hair can go awhile in-between washes so I didn’t plan on washing it while we are at the hospital but I packed this baby in case I wanted to freshen up.
I could barely get out of bed for a few days after surgery so washing/doing my hair was the last thing on my mind however, I would still recommend bringing this styler or your hair dryer if you plan to wash your hair as the hospital doesn’t have a hair dryer. This T3 Featherweight Hairdryer is my favorite for traveling. I’ve also traveled with this Hot Tools Mini Hairdryer in the past and it’s a great, more affordable option.
Face Mask + Under Eye Patches – I read a recommendation to pack a face mask and thought this was such a great idea. After all the stress of labor I’m sure having a few peaceful minutes with a face mask will be so relaxing! This face mask and these under eye patches are packed.
I started laughing when I read this one back 🙂 While it sounds like a great idea, I didn’t have a second to think about self-care while I was at the hospital. If we weren’t feeding, changing or taking care of the baby we were trying to get sleep.
Postpartum Care
Necessities I packed that were recommended for after-birth care:
- Always Discrete Underwear
- Tucks Pads
- Fridababy Fridet
- Dermaplast Spray
- Bamboo Washable Breast Pads
- Earth Mama Organic Nipple Butter
- Heating Pad
I actually ended up having an urgent c-section so I didn’t use some of these items but I would still recommend packing them as you just never know how your labor and delivery experience will go.
For Baby
For little girl, our hospital was so kind to provide us with everything we needed for her including diapers, wipes, onesies, a hat, swaddles, sleep sack, etc. Being said, I didn’t need the majority of the items I brought for her.
I packed several sleep and play onesies and pairs of pajamas, socks to keep her extra warm and some of my favorite Copper Pearl swaddle blankets we received at our shower.
My recommendation would be to pack one or two onesies and a swaddle blanket if you want to take some cute pictures. We were so tired and I could hardly even get out of bed so a little photoshoot was not on our agenda 🙂
Diaper Bag – At first when making my hospital bag list I thought of course, I need to pack our diaper bag and stock it full with everything we would ever need. After doing some research and talking with my doctor, I found out that the hospital would provide everything that we need for baby so a diaper bag is unnecessary – unless of course you’re excited to use it and want to! We tried to limit how many bags we were bringing with us.
We have the Kate Spade Ellie Baby Bag and love it. I also currently have my eye on the Freshly Picked Classic Diaper Bag (waiting for the pink color to re-stock!) as well as the Rosie Pope Diaper Bag Backpack.
We took little girl home in the UPPABaby Carseat which was recommended by so many of you mommas.
Other
Below are a few other items that we packed:
Blanket & Pillow – this may seem a little overboard but take my word for it – the hospital beds are very uncomfortable! Being able to sleep with my own blanket and pillow from home made it much more comfortable. This leopard throw blanket is one of my current favorites and I brought one of my Slip Silk Pillowcases.
Extra Long Phone Charger – this is a must!
Baby Book – I did have a few minutes of down time one afternoon and I started to add more information to Taytum’s baby book. It will be such a precious keepsake as she get’s older to be able to look back on this special time in our lives.
Lip Balm – make sure you pack plenty of lip balm.
And that about wraps it up!
I hope this list can be helpful for all of you future mommas! Don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or pop on over to Insta and shoot me a DM or comment on my post – I’d love to chat!
xoxo, R
Special thanks to Barrington Gifts for sponsoring this post.