Hospital & Postpartum

You’re gonna be tired. (Duh Jay, everyone knows that!) You’re also going to have a lot of information thrown at you. Take. Notes. And repeat things back to the hospital staff!

We were at the hospital from Tuesday night until Friday evening. I would send Andrew home to shower and get a solid nap in his own bed so when he came back he had more energy to help me, especially throughout the night. It helps too to accept visitors while your partner is gone so you aren’t alone!

Pump while you are at the hospital! It takes a couple days for your milk to come in. You want to stimulate as much as possible. Remember that, it’s not about output at this point, it’s about stimulation to establish demand!

I wish I would have frozen my colostrum in little cubes to add in in smaller doses rather than having to thaw a whole little bag of it. Because once you thaw frozen milk, you have 24 hours to use it! I recommend taking Milkology's course beforehand! Mommy Labor Nurse usually has a discount code for it. I highly suggest her Instagram and YouTube account too!

While you’re at the hospital, USE ALL THE MEALS! You’re about to be billed out the ass, use it to the max! Take everything you can from the hospital. If they wouldn’t reuse it in another patient’s room then it’ll just be thrown away anyway. When you're getting ready to leave, don't be afraid to ask the nurses for extra of things to take home. They want to help you as much as they can. That being said, leave room in your hospital bag or pack an extra empty bag to bring home the things!

If you tore, when you pee you should lean forward and touch your toes. This way the urine doesn’t trail back and burn your tear. Funny enough this amazing advice was given to me by a non-medical hospital staff in passing!

If your baby needs the light therapy for jaundice, I suggest trying to nurse and do diaper changes under the lamp too. I know I wanted to get out of the hospital as fast as possible!

For a while, I kept getting random pain around my diaphragm. Now of course always consult your doctor… but I realized it coincided with when I needed to burp. It kinda makes me giggle because I was pretty concerned. But it was just burps!

Things to bring

1. A pumping bra to the hospital. If you don’t have one, you can always make one. Flip the hospital mesh undies upside down. Cut a slit in the crotch, that’ll be the neck hole. Put your arms through what was the leg holes. Now cut small holes at your nipples so the flange can poke through there.

2. One of those big double wall insulated water bottles. Of course they have water and ice there but this will keep it colder for longer.

3. A Fire stick or something to connect to your Netflix/Hulu/HBO. Our hospital TVs didn’t have an HDMI input so we couldn’t use it but maybe yours will! (I have tried Roku and the Amazon Fire Stick and VERY MUCH prefer the Fire Stick!

4. My hospital didn’t provide shower soaps. I am so glad I at least brought my shampoo and conditioner. I asked housekeeping for body wash and was given some weird dry body wash. Should probably have asked the nurse instead! But you’ll feel best using your own good stuff anyway. I literally washed my body with the dish soap they gave me for the bottle/pump dishes.

5. A nursing night gown or two that has an opening big enough to just slip the whole baby down the front of your shirt so you can easily do skin to skin. One of my favorites buttons down all the way.

6. A folder for the load of papers you'll be given.