Pregnant? Some things to note...

I've been hoping to get these things posted sooner, but I don't often have two free hands!  If you've emailed me, I promise I've been trying to write back... I'm better with texts these days because it's easier with one hand :)  We just got a new carrier so that may help some... and that's another post coming at some point.

A few things I thought I'd pass to anyone who is currently pregnant...

The hospital gives you mesh panties.  Several people mentioned how great these were.  In my opinion, they're junk - at least the ones at our hospital... I sent Ollie's Papa out to pick up Depends about eight hours after birth.  The mesh panties are a great idea, but they just don't do the trick.  Depends come in a 6-pack and I only needed 3 pair.  They're great because they are big.  I had a S/M - the smallest size, and they were big enough (I was a 4/6 pre-preg) to still use the large (like, mega large) pads from the hospital.  It was nice because you could wear them a good 24 hours and just change out the inside pad and still be and feel clean.  ... and you can tear them off if they get gross.  I think I used them for only one day once home and mailed my other three to a friend who's expecting in the next week or so who's also my size.

Lip balm.  Everyone tells you to take this to the hospital for labor as does everything you read - but when you're in that much pain, it's the LAST thing on your mind.  Give it to your husband/partner/birth coach and have them be in charge of putting it on you.  You will NEED it.  Breathing that long and deep and hard... ouch.  Mega chapped lips!  It's nothing a couple nights of Vaseline won't take care of, but it would be better to just have someone else be in charge of it - period!

A friend wrote me after just having her baby and said to take soft toilet paper.  Do it.  Why the hospital doesn't think about these things is beyond me.  I didn't need the water bottle, nor did I have a lot of pain from my stitches.  Blotting is the way to go - but the thin, cheap stuff will stick to you and that is simply not cool.

Once home, you'll still be using thick pads - regular undies won't cut it.  I went out and bought Hanes briefs in two sizes larger than my pre-preg size for nighttime and one size larger for the daytime.  For me, that was a 7 for night and a 6 for day.  The 7s looked humungo, but for the first week they were great for the bigger pads.

The nurses LOVED our treat boxes.  One of the nurses came in just to meet the 'famous Oliver who was sweet on the nurses!'  It was really fun and I'm SO, SO glad we had them.  My tip if you decide to do something like that is to check and see what the shift changes are and how many nurses you will have each time.  It should be a simple phone call.  We had JUST ENOUGH for our 43-hour stay and if we'd stayed just one more hour, I would have been short due to another shift change.  I didn't anticipate the number of staff that we'd have coming in and out of our room.  I also started passing them out in heavy labor right when we got to the hospital.  I'd asked a friend about how many nurses she had and planned based on that, but she delivered in MD and so each hospital is obviously very different.  I should have thought to double check, but in the rush of getting things done I didn't.  We had 20 boxes and came home with none.

**edited to add Cottonelle wipes... for obvious reasons; and Colace... take it as soon as you get the baby out!  :)

That's all I can think of for now... GOOD LUCK!!  (It hurts!)