While I was still pregnant, and packing bags for the hospital, I remember filling my diaper bag with a few “essentials” I thought I would need. I stuffed it with diapers, every type of baby cream you could think of, toys, and a few bottles. The diapers made sense, it was a diaper bag after all. The creams were a little over dramatic. The toys were just poor judgement, I blame “pregnancy brain” for thinking a newborn would benefit from any type of toy. But the bottles? What was I going to do with not one, but two empty bottles? I didn’t even own any formula, and my baby actually ended up furiously refusing a bottle once I offered him one anyway. Naive much? Yes, you could say I was very naive.
Well, that was over 9 months ago, and now I’ve got my diaper bagged stuffed to the brim with actual essentials that I actually use! Of course, the contents of your diaper bag change with the stage of your baby, and what one mom finds necessary is not always the same as another, but here is what I would have packed for my hospital diaper bag if I could do it again. Which I’m sure I will do, again and again.
1. diapers -newborn size, with the cut-out for the umbilical chord
2. burp cloths- my little man spit up a ton! and my favorite kind are the cloth diapers (with cute fabric and embellishments of course) because they are super absorbent
3. wipes- don’t underestimate the power of newborn “mess”
4. baby wash cloths- to use as a protective shield during diaper changes (if it’s a boy). trust me on this one.
5. extra clothing for baby- leaks, leaks, leaks.
6. extra clothing for mom- not all that spit up is going to make it on that burp cloth. Not to mention breast milk leakage, which leads me to my next point…
7. breast pads- you can never have enough. I loved the reusable cloth ones.
8. baby blankets-if your baby has a diaper blow out, chances are the blanket will too
9. snacks for mom- breastfeeding burns a lot of calories
10. nursing cover- if you’re into modesty 😉
11. hand sanitizer- because even non-germaphobes turn germaphobe around newborns
12. travel changing station- these are are so great for diaper changes on the go. even when changing tables are available, it’s nice to have something clean to place on the table.
I hope if you are expecting and planning on what to pack in your hospital diaper bag, you might learn a little from my mistakes. Now if only I could get my hands on a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. Swoon…
