Did you ever see the Friends episode where Ross takes everything from the hotel. He tries to explain his philosophy of what is okay to take vs. not okay to take. For example, the remote control? Not okay. The batteries in the remote control? Okay.
I am not as bad as Ross when it comes to hotels. I will take the toiletries for tossing in our guest bathroom at home, but I don't take the lightbulbs or free Bible. I did accidentally take a washcloth once (which even under Ross's liberal guidelines would have been a not okay, but I have learned to live with the guilt).
However, I have to confess that I was a veritable Ross when we stayed in the hospital with Will. I wore their nightgowns (and took one home), I used their gargantuan undies (and took a couple of pairs home), and I don't think I touched my suitcase that I had carefully packed until it was time to put on my clothes at discharge (I did use my own toothbrush, but that was it). We also used everything they had at our disposal for Will. . . diapers, swaddling blankets, nasal aspirator, wipes, kimonos, you name it. And many of those things ended up in our suitcase going home.
I have a pile of things to toss in a hospital bag (no, it's not packed, I like to live dangerously). It's a small pile with an outfit to wear home, two nursing bras, some nursing pads, a pair of slippers, my hooter hider, a diaper bag for Emma (that is packed), and. . . that's about it. I need to toss the camera and my toiletries in when it's actually Go Time, but I am not planning on bringing a lot. Is there anything absolutely essential that I am forgetting? And am I weird that I prefer to use the hospital-issued stuff instead of bringing my own?
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6 comments:
Oh heavens, use the free stuff that you don't have to wash. I did. In fact, at my mandatory discharge class, I was the ONLY one wearing all hospital stuff. I think those other people are crazy. In fact, I even used the hospital toothbrush (I had one, I just didn't get it out, easier to use the one on the sink) and now I use it to scrub the sinks.
Having a baby is messy and tiring. My vote is to let someone else clean it up. Use their stuff!
I found my bag worthless. Cause in the end I just wore everything the hospital provided and used everything they gave me and since I only had to stay one night the stuff I did pack wasn't needed.
I packed socks, a pair of clothes to go home in, a towel and my toothbrush/brush/deodorant. Also had my laptop and charger for both my camera and my laptop. I didn't pack the camera because it has it's own bag to go in.
I packed more for my daughter and her stay with my mom than I packed for myself.
When I got to the hospital I put my bag in a corner and it literally stayed there until they said I was being discharged.
Anyhow use the hospital stuff, you pay for it in the end whether or not you use it. So take it all. I took a crap load of stuff home, most put together by the nurses. They said to take everything. So I did.
Um, you forgot something really important. THE INTERNET! To show us pictures!
Make sure you take your laptop or phone PLUS charging cable.
Otherwise, we will wither from anticipation. :)
No, because it IS yours. You are paying for it- if it goes near you or Emma, it either goes home with you or goes in the trash. Less wasteful to take it home, IMO. And, usually they know what they're doing and have exactly what you need (may be different from what you packed, as you've learned already).
You are going to have to pay for it anyway so you might as well use it!
We were told to take everything in the hospital room, and they really meant it. We left behind several things that we didn't need, like unused disposable diapers (because we were planning to use cloth once we got home) and an orderly breathlessly chased us down the hall at discharge time to hand us all the stuff that we "forgot" to take.
Also, we discovered when we got home that the hospital blankets were much better at swaddling than the ones we had purchased, but when we asked our pediatrician where we could get blankets like the ones at the hospital, she looked at us blankly and said "Why didn't you just steal several of the hospital blankets like everybody else does?" Lesson learned.
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