Hospital Bag Essentials

I thought I would finish up my birth story recap with a hospital bag essential post.  There are a ton of these out on the blog world and Pinterest…but, when doing my research while I was pregnant, I found each idea helpful.  Keep in mind, the items below are the essentials I would suggest bringing….not necessary what I actually brought to the hospital.  We brought a ton of things not needed.  Hopefully this will assist some of you ladies out there packing for the hospital.  If you have any questions, just ask!



For Mom & Baby, I used one of those $15 carry on roller luggage bags found at Target/Walmart.  I thought it would be better organized in a roller bag.  Plus, I knew we would be carrying a ton of stuff out of the hospital, so I wanted a mixture of bags that Derek could carry all at one time.

1) Extra bag.  Believe me, you will leave the hospital with more than you came with.  I guarantee it!!  So, I stuffed one of the thousand Victoria Secret bags that I had in the top portion of the bag.

2) Old Navy flip flops.  SERIOUSLY BRING THESE!!  Out of everything, this was my most useful item.  I wore them from the time I entered triage to the second I put on my shoes to go home.  Nasty stuff hit that hospital floor every day, so I was glad I had on “shoes” at all times.

3) Baby- 1-2 outfits.  The first outfit we had, was a little personalized sack and headband.  We had this for pictures.  Honestly, I wanted to throw it on for when we had visitors…but I was too exhausted so we waited until the next day to put this outfit on Charlie.  Since we couldn’t put her in a sack in the car seat, we needed a second “going home” outfit.  I purchased an adorable pink velour Ralph Lauren onesie.  It was perfect and warm!

4) Going home outfit for yourself.  Realistically, you could probably wear what you wore into the hospital; however, it was nice to put on a nice clean pair of clothes.  I chose some maternity leggings, nursing tank top, long cardigan, and scarf to wear home.  Thankfully it was semi-warm outside so I didn’t need a jacket.

5) Toiletries and makeup.  Even though I didn’t take a shower at the hospital, having my face wash/lotion, and toothbrush/toothpaste was pretty life changing.  Also, I was glad I had my makeup to throw on for pictures when going home.

****Disclaimer- I had bought two pairs of Victoria Secret pjs to wear in the hospital.  I didn’t get them out of the bag.  I thought for sure I would be that girl that was out of the hospital gown as soon as the baby was born…boy, was I wrong!  I was way too exhausted that day.  And the next day, we were in a huge rush to get home so we left as soon as our 24 hour period came.  I’m so glad I didn’t because I doubt I would ever want to wear those bad boys again.  Things in the hospital are kind of gross….I leave it at that ;)

Also, I brought a hair dryer and things to do my hair…thinking I would take a shower.  As I said, we couldn’t wait to get home to take a shower, so these were unnecessary for us. 



For a Dad bag, we used a handy dandy book bag.

1) Snacks!  This is something we did not bring thinking Derek would be ok.  However, the whole event gets quite long, so they really are needed.  Derek ended up going down to the cafeteria when it opened back up at 1:00am.  But it would have been nice to have some snacks for him.

2) Lounge clothes/change of clothes for the Dad.

3) Chargers- cell phone, iPad, laptop, camera, etc.

4) Gift for nurses- I guess this isn’t “essential”, but we had the best nurses ever!  I would say 8-10 treats should suffice.

5) Camera- pretty self explanatory!

***We also brought a laptop to keep us/Derek occupied but we didn’t use it.  Our phones were good enough!