Hospital Bag

A month and a half before my due date, I already prepared a hand-carry bag with my things and Maddy's things for the hospital.  I separated her items from mine for easy access, especially since I'll be confined to the labor, delivery and thereafter recovery rooms, with Hanley needing to be the one to rifle through the bags for whatever's needed.

My Bag

1. Important Documents and ballpen - I brought my Philhealth CF1 Form, as signed by the employer/employer's representative.  However, it turned out that the hospital also needed a CF1 form where the baby is indicated as a dependent already (even if they're not registered yet).  On the day of our discharge, we had to send someone to the company office to give the HR a copy of Maddy's certificate of live birth, so that they could in turn give us a signed CF1 form indicating Maddy as a dependent.  This makes it two (2) CF1 forms that the hospital required.  I did not need to bring my SSS MAT-1 form.

I also needed to bring copies of our marriage certificate and our birth certificates.  For good measure, because I'm thorough like that, I also made copies of mine and the hubby's company IDs, and two (2) government issued IDs each.

2. Adult Diapers and Maternity Pads - You will experience postpartum vaginal bleeding and discharge (lochia) from the open blood vessels when the placenta is separated from the uterus, and from the stitches if you've had a tear during birth.  I used Caress adult diapers for around a day and a half, changing maybe every 3-4 hours. On my last day in the hospital or around 2 days postpartum, the bleeding lessened enough that Modess maternity pads sufficed.

3. Nursing Bras and Breast Pads - I bought a pair of nursing bras from Mothercare and a pack of Pigeon breast pads.  Although to be quite honest I didn't get to use them at all.  In the first couple of days postpartum, your breasts will only really produce a few millimeters of colostrum, which is all that your baby needs for those first couple of days.  Your milk, like mine, will only come in on the 3rd or 4th day, at which time I was already at home.

4. Change of clothes (including pajamas and slippers), towel, toiletries - You're only given a thin hospital gown upon admission to labor and all throughout your stay, so be sure to bring at least pajama bottoms and slippers. They didn't room the baby in with me immediately, so for the first day back at our hospital room, the nurses woke me up every 2-3 hours to be wheeled in to the nursery so I could breastfeed Maddy.  Lucky for me our room was just across the hall from the nursery, but imagine if you were on a different floor or so. You'd want to be dressed appropriately while being wheeled along the hospital corridors.

My going-home clothes consisted of dresses with buttons down the front for easy access for breastfeeding.

5. Disposable undies - I got mine at Watson's. You really don't want to have to think of dirty underwear just piling up during your stay in the hospital.

6. Evian spritzer - This isn't really a necessity but more of a splurge on my part, which had its good use! Since I was going through ge lai, I can't exactly take a shower.  Anyway, with all the soreness and stitches around my lady parts, it was difficult to get in and out of bed just to freshen up in the bathroom. So the spritzer helped when I just wanted a fresh face :D

7. Gatorade and snacks - It's so exhausting to be up all the time to breastfeed. And when I wasn't breastfeeding, random resident doctors and nurses were entering the room to take my temperature, blood pressure, to give me my medicine, or take the baby's temperature and blood pressure. No one warned me about this bit. You wish they could all come at the same time, instead of separately and hourly.

8. Cellphone and charger

Daddy's Bag

1. Cash - Hospitals usually require a deposit upon admission.  Make sure to call ahead and inquire about the amount to be deposited for your private room.  Ours was around Php20k.

2. Change of clothes and toiletries

3. Camera

Maddy's Bag

1. Clothes for 3 days and in 2 different sizes - I had a prenatal yoga classmate whose daughter came out so big, she completely skipped the newborn clothes sizes.  So I brought 0-3 month clothes and 3-6 month clothes, just in case.

I chose to bring side-tie or side-snap shirts and loose-ish sleepers/onesies with snaps in the leg area, taking into consideration the umbilical cord stump.  I also brought bonnets, mittens and socks. 

2. Diapers - We didn't know what diapers would Maddy be okay with, so we got one of the priciest ones - Mamy Poko, at least for the first few days or first week.  We didn't want to scrimp on diapers, especially during this first week.  It's more expensive to treat diaper rash than it is to spend for more or less Php10 per diaper.

The nurses will get the diapers from you, since they'll be the ones changing the baby until she is roomed in with the mother.

3. Receiving blankets - I never understood what receiving blankets were for, but we received quite a lot for my baby shower.  We brought around 3.  We found them more useful for swaddling! There's actually a distinction between receiving blankets and swaddle cloths.  In any case, receiving blankets are more all-purpose - as a changing mat, burp cloth, clean surface for the baby to lay down on, or swaddling. 

For us, we prefer the flannel receiving blankets from Carter's and Babies R Us, and we hardly use the Aden+Anais muslin cloths/swaddle cloths except as burp clothes.  I found that while the Aden+Anais muslin cloths are lighter and softer, they can easily obstruct Maddy's nose/breathing when she gets out of the swaddle and messes around with the cloth.  Since the flannel ones are stiffer, they can't easily "float" down on her face.

4. Baby wipes - It is actually recommended that babies need only cotton wool and water for cleaning (when changing nappies). But for ease of use at least in the hospital, we chose to bring alcohol-free hypoallergenic baby wipes instead.

5. Baby bath towel - The hospital nurses will actually be the ones to give your baby her first bath.  In our case, they gave us (well it's included in the hospital fee) a small baby bathtub/basin, Johnson's baby head-to-toe baby wash, a small towel to wipe clean her face, cotton balls and cotton buds, isopropyl alcohol (for the umbilical cord).  So we really just needed to provide the baby bath towel and the change of clothes.