Tips on packing my hospital bag?

[Indiana]

Thanks everyone for your fantastic tips and suggestions...very useful and things I wouldn't have thought of!

[curlykaren]

the snoring is a side effect of being pregnant, the hormone relaxin in the body means that nasal passages are floppier, vibrate more and cause snoring, I used to wake myself up it was so bad...poor poor ladies who had to share a ward with me...def go with the ear plug suggestion !!

[skip]

Water bottle with a squirty top - fussing with a bendy straw is too much to ask when in labour - partner can just squirt it into your mouth; you don't even have to suck!

Camera

Flannel

Pillow

Rubber flip flops for showering in

Twice as many maternity pads as you think you'll need

[Fuschia]

I really appreciated lots of moisturiser for my itchy bump and my mp3 player/hpnoterapy mp3, to help me ge to sleep when I was in for a week pre-birth with pre-eclampsia

[Maki]

Champange!! My best ever present pre birth were a pair of silver champange flutes so that they wouldn't break in my hospital bag (bought for me by a friend who knows me well!)

It was the most exhilerating experience of my life and I loved celebrating the new bundle of joy into my life with my brilliant midwives.

Food as other have said was important (my husband said he would take care of the food for the hospital bag and yet the only thing he thought to pack were after eights!! I had to eat the midwife's lunch!! It's not as if he didn't have any time to prepare either - I was 9 days overdue!!)

Mittens for your baby (attached to the babygrow is best so they don't fall off) as their tiny nails can be sharp.

[woofmarkthedog]

A simple map

I got lost going to the hospital for the birth of my son,I had lived in the area for about 10 years but went all Frank Spencer at the roundabout by The Elephant castle

"Ohhh betty......I'm lost" as we drove through the antique market at Bermondsey.

Son arrived safe & well though.

W**F

[Billy]

Didn't use half the stuff in my bag but multiple cartons of Ribena and boiled sweets were essential during my marathon labour.