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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Listening to your baby’s heart beat can be one of the most comforting things you can experience.

From what I understand, it works similar to a sonogram. The machine sends sound waves into your tummy which bounce off of whatever they hit. It measures how long it takes the waves to bounce back and plays the result as sound.

When the heart is beating, the machine detects the pulses and plays them. Early in the pregnancy, it sounds like a little whoosh-shoosh-whoosh sound. If you get the same model we have, it has a small digital display that shows the heart rate in numbers. You’ll find that the baby’s heart rate is substantially higher than yours. My wife’s is usually around 80 and the baby’s is usually between 140 and 150. Occasionally being higher or lower is fine according to my doctor.

We bought the one below from Amazon.com, which came with a tube of gel. I suggest you buy some extra gel as you’ll need it. We bought two extra tubes which looks like it will be enough for the whole pregnancy. We paid around $100 for the monitor with one tube of gel. There are much fancier and expensive ones out there, including some that you can rent. We looked into these thinking they may be more sensitive, but the most you can really hope for is that they can find the heartbeat a week or two earlier. For us, that wasn’t worth spending two or three times more money for the machine.

Hi Bebe Heart Rate Monitor/fetal Monitor w/ 8 Ounce Lotion

One tip I must offer is that most monitors have a hard time detecting the heartbeat until around 14 weeks. We didn’t know this when we bought ours around week 10 because, being a typical guy, I didn’t bother reading the manual. It’s a dual edged sword to buy it that early because it will find the heartbeat sometimes which is really cool and nice. BUT – it won’t find it all of the time. In our case, this would often make us panic that something was wrong with the baby and we’d run do the doctor’s office only to find everything was fine.

After week 14 we could find it pretty much every time, although sometimes we’d have to be patient and search around for a while.

My suggestion while using it is to use a decent amount of gel (there should be a good layer of it between the sensor and skin) and take your time. There is a slight delay between when you place the sensor on the skin and when it gets a clear reading. Keep that in mind when you are moving the sensor around. If you move it around to fast, you may get nothing. In the beginning, you should place the sensor low on the stomach just above the pubic area. I always put it in one place then change the angle of the sensor slowly rather than sliding it all over the place. I picture it like a flashlight: You can hold it in one place and just change the direction it’s pointing to see. You don’t have to swing it all over the place.

If you are having trouble finding the heartbeat, do not despair. You have to remember that the baby does move around. Also, early on, a full stomach can interfere. Try using it with a full bladder and before eating. The good news is that every week past 14, it gets easier to find it quickly and every time. Now, my wife and I will just do a quick check to say hi if the baby hasn’t moved in a while.

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