Don’t make the same mistake I did. When my wife went into labor barely eight months into our pregnancy, I had to run around the house like a madman on a scavenger hunt trying to find everything we’d need. You should put your go bag together four to six weeks before your due date at the latest.

Luckily, my wife had written down a list of items to take. Had I not had that list, I would have been twice as lost.

The whole purpose of the bag is to have essentials and comfort items “JUST” for the delivery room. Your hospital bag will probably be much bigger and should be left in the car when you go to the hospital until after the baby is born.

Delivery rooms aren’t very large and there isn’t much storage space. If you show up with a fleet of bags packed like you’re going on a european vacation, you will end up miserable, trying to keep them out of the way and you may end up dragging them from room to room if they move you.

In our case, since I wasn’t prepared, I grabbed the first bag I could find, which was a large duffel bag… Too large, would be a better term. By the time we were settled in the delivery room, I had a large duffel bag, my coat, my wife’s coat, and another bag with the clothes and shoes my wife wore to the hospital.

It was hard enough trying to find space for all of them, but when the doctors decided we’d need to do an urgent cesarian Section, I had to load all this stuff on my back and carry it down the hallways like a pack mule. It was made even worse because I had to change into scrubs and carry all my clothes and shoes in yet another bag! I also discovered that there are no closets in the operating rooms, so I ended up having to leave all of our stuff out in the hallway. I ended up having to repeat the process yet again when we moved to the recovery room after our newborn baby made her arrival.

All that being said, pack a SMALL  bag with just the following essentials, plus any small comfort items you can fit:

Chapstick – The hospital air can be dry and mommy will be breathing heavily during labor which will dry out her lips.

Hair bands – Mommy will be sweating and moving around a lot. You don’t want her hair tangled in the tubes and equipment. Also, take my word for it, if you don’t tie it back, wifey’s hair will look like a bird’s nest by the end of the event.

Advil or other pain and headache relievers – For daddy! The hospital will often not give a non patient any medication. If they do, you can look forward to an item on your bill charging you $20 for a nurse “dispensing” medication.

Light snacks. Inevitably, you will end up getting to the hospital when the gift shop or cafeteria is closed. Pack some snacks and drinks. Again, most of this will end up being for dad since mommy won’t be allowed to eat once labor and pushing has begun.

Pack two old pillows with pillow cases. Put one in your delivery go bag and the other in your larger hospital bag. Hospital pillows are usually well worn and flat as can be. Pillows from home can be much more comfortable and comforting. Plan on throwing away the pillows when you leave the hospital as you don’t want to bring home any hospital germs with them.

Bring prescription medications for both mommy and daddy. You may be at the hospital for a couple of days so bring your pills with you.

Cell phone chargers. Bring chargers for both mommy and daddy’s cell phones. Hospitals still charge an arm and a leg for a room phone and you have to give the number to everyone. Your cell phone is already paid for and as long as you’re not obnoxious to your neighbor by being loud, you can most likely use it freely once you’re moved to your room. Be courteous and put it on silent ring tone so you don’t disturb your neighbors.

Cameras and chargers. Make sure you keep your camera battery charged and ready to go. Put your camera and its charger in your delivery bag for your newborn baby’s first pictures. I suggest you also bring a spare disposable film camera in case anything goes wrong with the digital. You will be mighty unhappy if your digital isn’t working or get’s dropped in the excitement and you have nothing but crappy cell phone pictures of your newborn baby! You can also test the charge on your camera from time to time by taking some of mommy’s last pregnancy pictures before the baby comes.

Thick socks. It can get chilly at the hospital and you don’t want to walk on the floor with bare feet or the cheap hospital slippers alone while heading to the bathroom. Bring some thick socks for mommy to wear. Several pairs should do so that you don’t accumulate dirt and germs on the same pair for days.

Copies of your insurance and prescription cards. Even if you usually carry your insurance cards in your wallet, put a copy in your delivery bag in case you happen to forget your wallet in the heat of the moment.

Obviously you can bring anything else you thing you’d need, but try to keep your hospital delivery room bag as small as possible.

Good luck with your pregnancy and your newborn baby!

What did you pack in your bag? Let me know with a comment below!

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Since my wife’s sister had a baby 8 months before Alex was born, we had an idea of what to expect. My sister in law and her husband, started out by keeping the baby in their bedroom. Every time the baby would wake up and cry, both of them would get woken up and both would be up until the baby went back to sleep, even though only one of them was actually changing or feeding her.

While this is very noble and full of camaraderie, I am completely against it. The two of them both looked like zombies for months.

Wifey and I talked about it and decided the best approach for us to try is for us to split up. Since my company allowed me to take a couple of months off after the baby was born to help my wife, we were able to get more creative than we would have been had I needed to go back to work right away.

Since we had converted our guest room into the baby’s room, we already had a bed in there. Instead of both of us getting up all night, we’d split the duties. One of us would sleep in the room with the baby and take night duty.

In the morning, the one that slept through the night would take over and let the other one sleep late to catch up on sleep. This way, at least one of us is always fairly fresh and functional.

The first night mommy and baby were home from the hospital, I decided to try being the overnight caretaker so wifey could get a full night’s sleep. It didn’t go well. First off, I was paranoid so kept waking up to check on the baby. Then, I had apparently done a crap job hooking up the anti SIDS (movement monitor) and as a result, I got woken up no less than three times by false alarms which scared me senseless. I finally got up and corrected my mistake of only connecting one of the movement pads, which solved that issue. Then came the issue of feeding the baby. Since we were trying to breastfeed only, I had to bring the baby to wifey. Since this was waking her up anyway, both of us wound up suffering.

By the morning, I was totally destroyed and so was my wife.

We decided to regroup and come up with a new plan. Wifey said that since she hadn’t been sleeping well at the end of the pregnancy and had also been getting broken sleep in the hospital, she could deal better with it than I could. Our new plan was formed. Wifey would be dedicated to the night shift and I would take the day shift as well as keep up with house work since I’d be better rested.

The second night, wifey went to bed in the baby’s room early around 9pm and I stayed up with the baby. We were feeding the baby every three hours and her next feeding would be at midnight. I decided I would stay up with her until about 1am so that wifey could get at least 4 hours of continuous sleep.

The plan actually worked beautifully. I put the baby to sleep in her room without waking my wife at around 1am. The baby got up for her feeding at 3am and went back to sleep until 6am. I got up at 7am and took over and let wifey sleep until 10am. The bottom line is that I felt great because I got 7 hours of undisturbed sleep and wifey felt pretty good since she got to sleep for a few extra hours despite it being broken sleep.

We have stuck with this plan since then and it has continued to work. Since the last time the baby gets up with my wife is at 6am, as long as I get her before her 9am feeding, wifey doesn’t get woken up and gets her rest and so do I.

I’m writing this post on the couch with baby Alexandria in her bassinet sleeping. I’m going to wake her up in about a half hour to change and feed her, which will give her a little time to settle back down before I put her to bed with mommy. I do get sleepy towards the end of my night, but it’s not terrible and is a heck of a lot better than being woken up every couple of hours all night and then being z0nked the next day.

UPDATE:

We have officially abandoned the two shift sleeping arrangement. After about a month of wifey doing the night shift, she was pretty much ready to crack mentally. Although she had felt fine about it at first, the constant broken sleep eventually got to her.

We now split the night. We go to bed between 10pm and 11pm. The baby will usually sleep until 2am or 3am. I take that feeding and go back to bed. When the baby wakes up next around 6am or 7am, she takes that feeding. While it does make my night a bit rough, the difference was immediate and dramatic for my wife. She woke up the next day feeling like a brand new person and her attitude came right along with it.

At the end of the day, you have to do whatever works for you, but my advice for the guys that have their wives doing all of the overnight work, give her a break and either take a whole night from time to time or offer to split the work. It’ll help your wife’s whole state of mind and is the right thing to do.

Do you have any tips or tricks on getting your newborn to sleep better? Please leave a comment below!

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