Packing for the Hospital and Delivery

Tags: delivery, packing for the hospital, Pregnancy, what to pack for the hospital

You’ve waited for months to deliver and cherish your new baby. The crib has been assembled, the diapers are stacked, and the booties line the drawer. Everything is ready – except for your bag for the hospital. Just what are you supposed to pack for one of the most physically demanding, emotionally amplified, wonderful moments of your life?

Keep an envelope or file folder ready to go with some of the boring, but necessary information. You never know when you might start labor so keep this file in an obvious, accessible place to help ease the process. For my first child I didn’t even realize I was in labor and I went to my regular doctor appointment – he sent me right to the hospital and I had to scramble directions together over the phone for family members as to where to find everything at my house. Other basic requirements for your folder include:

Insurance card and any required precertification papersPhoto ID (some hospitals and birthing centers also require labor coaches to show ID)A complete list of contact information, including your partner’s or labor coaches contact numbers and a list of who to call to share the great newsA separate set of instructions for anyone who you are having check on the house, the pets, or care for your other children while you are at the hospitalBirth plan

You’ve planned for months how you hope this moment will transpire and have maybe created a birth plan to help facilitate the experience. Your bag should include everything you need for delivery and the day or two before you take your new baby home.

Eyeglasses and contact suppliesToothbrush and pasteSoap and shampoo – use mild, unscented soap, especially if you plan to nurse so you don’t irritate your baby’s sensesDeodorantHair brush, barrettes, and ponytail holdersSanitary pads – while the hospital can provide these, they are usually not the brand or fit that you would choose on your own (just remember that your flow will most likely be heavier than a normal period)Nursing pads – even if you don’t plan to breastfeed you will go through a period of engorgement and need the coverage for leakingSlippers and socksUnderwear – extra pairs you can throw away if they become too stained from bloodNursing brasPajamas – if you are planning to breastfeed consider ones that button in the frontBathrobeComfortable clothes for the hospital – By day 2 at the hospital I always preferred by own comfortable clothes than pajamasComfy outfit for taking baby home – consider layers as your body will be adjusting to fluctuating hormone levels and you may go through hot and cold flashesPillow – use a colorful case so it doesn’t get confused with hospital issue casesMusic or other comfort measuresPicture or item for focusing on during labor

Your partner or labor coach will need their own little supply bag for the delivery. My husband always left those details up to me, but he was glad for the extra supplies when the days got longer than anticipated.

Swimsuit – you may want a water labor or even just to shower while in laborChange of clothes – you never know how long labor will last or what your partner might be doing when you go into labor (I had a friend whose construction-working husband showed up at the hospital with his orange vest and coveralls on!)Money for vending machines and other minimal purchasesCameras and battery charges, and explicit instructions on when and where you want those cameras aimed!Snacks like gum, mints, oranges, and protein barsA copy of your birth planA copy of contact information

After our first child there were a few extras I always packed in my bag.

Gifts for older siblings to receive when they come to meet the newest member of the family – I made t-shirts for them pronouncing their new roles as Big Sister and Big Brother and a special giftPictures of older siblings that I taped to the inside of the hospital bassinet (so when older siblings come they feel they have a special place)A gift for the new baby that the older siblings chose – My 8-year-old still has his small teddy bear that was waiting in the bassinet for his birthA baby book – you might feel exhausted from labor or you might sit up all night staring at your precious child. I always took a few moments to record those emotions and details that I always wanted my children to know about their true first birthday.Thank you cards – there will be a good chance that you might get flowers in your room or have visitors stop by to congratulate your family. Get those thank you notes done right away, and while your baby is still blissfully sleeping away.

Your labor and delivery probably won’t go exactly as hoped or planned, so probably the single most important thing you bring with you to the hospital is acceptance. Accept that your body will do amazing and sometimes crazy things. Accept that you will wish things could go a little faster, easier, or with less pain, but that in the end you will have your beautiful baby in your arms.

Chris Oldenburg has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 12 years. She is also on an incredible journey as she home schools her 4 children, and is supported through it all by her husband of more than 15 years, Steve.

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Find Great Clothes for Your Kids

Kids really do seem to grow like weeds some days, and as a mom to 4 kids I can spend more money on shoes for them than my electric bill. Between those boys of mine who feel the need to slide in the grass, no matter what they’re wearing, and my daughter who likes to have fun with and experiment with different outfits, my time and purse can be stretched when it comes to finding clothes for them at prices that aren’t scary. Over the years I have found several ways to have fun with creating their wardrobes with them without giving up their college funds.

If you don’t know what is in the closet, you won’t know what to shop for their wardrobes. Each season I make an assessment of the clothes in the closet, and make sure they still fit the kids. If it just barely fits in October and you need it to last until April, be prepared to look for a replacement sometime soon. Keep a list of what each child needs so that when it goes on sale, you find it at a consignment shop, or your Aunt Annie wants a gift idea you know just what is needed.

Also keep a list of sizes for each child, especially important if you have several kids. Two of my sons are so close in size and age that I take a mini-magic marker and mark on the tags of their jeans their first initial. It makes laundry time so much easier and when I inventory things I know exactly who has what.

No matter how much money I have had, or not had, throughout my life, I have never just chosen to pay full price for something. Children’s clothing is one area where you can almost always find it on sale somewhere, which is why inventorying their clothes is so important. I always find brand names, high end fashions, and even socks go on sale at certain points every season. The key is to have patience and learn when your favorite stores post their best deals.

You can also save on money for your kids’ clothes when you shop ahead in sizes at the ends of seasons. This fall I found some great t-shirts and shorts for my boys at amazingly low prices, but we live in a cold climate and I knew they didn’t need them right now (or for several months). I bumped up a size for each and stocked up, setting them aside for the warmer spring months.

This is probably my least favorite way to shop for clothes for my kids, only because a couple of my kids are so tactile that unless I can feel the fabric, I’m not sure I want to invest in the clothing for them. Kids’ clothing is also so hard to size sometimes that unless it is a pair of leggings it is almost impossible to accurately choose a size for a brand or style we haven’t had yet.

However, online shopping has its advantages, especially if you look for coupon codes or use sites like PriceGrabber. Sometimes if I find a pair of great jeans for my child at the store, I can go online and find the same brand and size at a lower price. Online buying and selling for kids’ clothes is a popular way to recycle through wardrobes. Everything from Ebay to app alerts can let that parents can find great clothes for their kids and save a few bucks in the process.

I feel very fortunate to live in a community where second hand shops are considered trendy and environmentally friendly. You can drive 5 miles and find 5 secondhand stores, all with different strengths. Not every second hand store has quality merchandise, but there are a few things to look for if you are shopping at a thrift store.

Always check the zippers, buttons, and other fasteners (even the top button you’ll never use).Hold up the garment in different lighting to check for marks or stains.Ask about a return policy.To save time shop in thrift stores that organize clothing by size, style, and even color.Know your brand names and comparable prices when purchased new.

My children, especially my daughter, actually prefer to shop second hand sometimes over the mall. The reason? She knows she has a budget either way, but she loves to mix and match outfits and have a few fun things in her wardrobe. She gets more bang for her buck shopping secondhand. Then she also knows that she can use “leftover” funds for a few special things at her favorite stores in the mall.

There are two other great lessons for my kids when we shop second hand: they learn the importance of reusing and recycling, and they learn the value of supporting second hand stores which are often community based organizations.

I find swaps with other parents as one of the easiest and least expensive options. I have always offered my children’s clothes to my niece and nephews, and eventually this moved beyond family to involve a mini network of families. I think it started when I had more clothes from my daughter than my niece needed or wanted, so I offered the extras to a family I knew for their daughter. I unknowingly opened the door for others to offer me clothes from their kids, in a disorganized shuffle of kids’ clothes. This can be a thrifty way to get some great clothes for your kids, but you have to be very flexible and not the least offended if the other families don’t just love the purple sweater that used to be your daughter’s favorite.

Only give to others what you would still put in your own child’s closet if it were the right size.Don’t give away dirty, torn, stained, or otherwise disheveled clothing.Let the family know that it is OK if they don’t want to keep everything. They can pass it on to someone else or donate it to a thrift store (that’s where all of mine would end up if I didn’t swap).Don’t be offended if your favorites aren’t their favorites.Don’t offer the clothes and then ask for or expect money in return. Have a garage sale or go to a consignment shop if you want reimbursement.Be certain the family you offer clothes to doesn’t see it as a charitable action. There are plenty of families who swap clothes and can afford to shop in any store, but there are also families who have a hard time letting their pride step aside for receiving clothing.Be thankful for any received clothes. My kids think it’s almost like Christmas to get a bag from my friend filled with cool shirts her son has outgrown.

Shopping for kids clothes doesn’t have to break your budget. Get creative and consider unique ways to bring a little style into their wardrobes. Your wallet and their college funds will thank you.

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Holiday Gifts Your Kids Can Make

Christmas is coming, the gift list is getting fat! It is inevitable that children get stars in their eyes and dream about magnificent toys and gadgets at night. One of the best ways I have found to encourage my kids to keep their gift wish lists reasonable is to have them focus on their gift giving list.

In our family the kids start with a list of all the people who have made special contributions to their lives during that year. This is not limited to family members, but includes neighbors, friends, music teachers, and those who have impacted the kids’ lives. Then I help them go through the list and choose which people they know for whom they definitely want to create something unique. The younger the child, the shorter I try to have them keep that list.

Talk with your kids about the types of gifts they might want to make. Encourage your kids to turn their interests and talents into gifts they can give this holiday season.

If you have a budding baker he can

Make Christmas cookies and give them in holiday tinsMake cocoa in a mug or brownies in a jar (supplying the ingredients and directions)Dip plastic spoons in almond bark and sprinkle with cookie decorations for cocoa or coffee spoonsGive a coupon for a free order of (fill in the blank with something he can make fresh at a later date for the recipient)

If your child is an artist she can

Make homemade placemats or bookmarks and laminate themDesign the covers to greeting cards to give as a stationery gift setPaint the matte border of a frame, with a picture of her and her special recipient inside

If you have a child who loves to be active he can

Give a certificate for leaf raking, lawn mowing, or snow shovelingCreate coupon for dog walkingPresent the recipient with homemade tickets for a shared walk at a park or game of 1:1 basketball (great for older siblings to give to younger ones)

Take the month of December to teach your child a new activity or work on one they already enjoy. When my kids were 6 or 7 they learned to latch-hook and cross-stitch, creating gifts for family and friends. These were great projects for them to work on while I read aloud to them or we watched Christmas specials or even a football game on TV. The boys even took up the hobby, one creating a large deer print pillow for his grandparents.

Your kids don’t have to be expert craftsmen or master knitters in order to create special gifts. Head to the craft store and pick up some blank wooden ornaments or even flat wooden or plastic cut-outs in holiday shapes (these are anywhere from $0.20/each to just over $1). Have your kids paint, color with markers, or add glitter and ribbons to these and turn these into ornaments or refrigerator magnets by adding some self-stick magnet pieces.

Teens and tweens can take their favorite songs and create CDs for family members, or get creative and make a digital scrapbook and burn it to a DVD. Older kids are also the perfect ones to give certificates for babysitting, household chores, or lawn services.

It can be really easy for our kids to get caught up in the excitement of gifts for the holidays, but not always as easy to get them excited about the giving aspect. If you have some kids who still aren’t excited about sharing their treasures and talents, take them to do some volunteer service work, particularly for families, and let them see with their own eyes how important it is to give of ourselves.

By the time that Christmas morning arrives, my kids are typical kids and are excited to see what might be hiding under the wrapping paper. However, they are fortunately just as excited (sometimes more so) about the gifts they spent the month creating. I am the proud recipient of a hand-painted birdhouse, numerous artistic picture frames, and even a card-carrying member of the “Son who will clean the junk drawer” club. I can’t wait to see what ideas the kids will come up with next!

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How to Find Work-at-Home Jobs Online

Working from home became my end goal as two things happened: my children grew older and my expense lists grew longer. Add into those things a yearning for contributing more to the family finances and the sense of accomplishment that brings to me and I began my journey. Deciding to pursue working from home, often while also raising children, is a large enough decision by itself. Deciding, it turns out, is the easier job – find the work can be more challenging.

Cloud commuting is the modern twist on telecommuting. Where is once seemed a luxury to spend an extra day or two working at home each week instead of commuting to the office, cloud commuting means the home is the office, and often the client and the provider never meet in other than the virtual world. While this is a strange, convoluted notion for my grandmother, it is the opportunity that my mother never had. It is the ability to work at home, on my own schedule, and around the lives of my family – who are still my top priority.

There are important lessons I have learned over the years when it comes to working from home on the cloud commuting bus, and doing it without losing my sanity or wasting my time. The first 3 steps that can help you develop your plan include:

Make goals. You won’t be able to make decisions if you don’t know the purposes for making them.Determine a minimum amount of money you need or want to contribute to the finances – realistically.Determine a maximum of hours you can spend working from home, including paperwork, invoices, and seeking or maintaining connections.

These 3 steps are essential to working at home as a cloud commuter successfully. If you determine that you want to earn $1000 each month, you need to compare that with how many hours you can devote each week to reaching that goal. Stay at home moms and dads are busy people. I have met many who don’t feel they have any more than 12 hours each week to spend working from home. This calculates into 48 hours each month. In order to earn $1000 in one month, you would need to find a job that pays roughly $21/hour. Now that you have your goals set, it is time to move on to finding those jobs.

Update your resume and portfolio. Legitimate employers will want to see your resume, work history, or work samples. They probably won’t ever meet you in person, so they need to make sure that your virtual version is capable.

If you earned a degree long before the kids came along, go back and add in those additional skills and experiences you have acquired since, including things like CPR training, leadership certificates you earned through church, or classes you helped teach through community education. They fill in gaps on your resume and show a continued interest in education.

Make a list of targeted job possibilities. These could range from anything in the following:

Computer programmerApp developerAd copy writerTranscriptionistGhostwriterBloggerEditor/proofreaderTutorial servicesAnd an endless list of cloud commuting possibilities

For many parents who stay home and try to pursue additional work (this time paid), the first place they turn is the internet. While there are a host of possibilities and options, not all are legitimate, and many don’t pay nearly enough to provide you with the means to reach your goal.

Be careful. Potential employers who ask for your money in order to proceed through a hiring a process are not going to be your ticket to financial freedom. Be wary of employers who advertise “no experience necessary” and who don’t actually tell you what you are going to be asked to do. Legitimate companies and employers will want to make the most of their advertising dollar and bring in people who best fit their needs.

Think back. When I decided that I wanted to pursue working from home on a more regular, consistent basis, I went back way too many years to count and reached out to my one client I met while in college. I let him know that I was ready for editing work if he needed any completed, and asked him to spread my name and contact information if he heard of colleagues who were searching for editing services as well. This was my little nudge that got the ball rolling and the editing work trickling in, and for new clients I met through my original contact. All of this was done online, in my cloud commuting world.

Set yourself up for success. Make sure that you have the tools necessary to complete your work as efficiently as possible. One distinct difference between working in an office and working from home is that you have to create your own space that supports your goals. Make sure your computer has the programs you need, you have peripherals like printers and faxes, and your workspace is organized. You don’t want to fumble through your grocery lists and PTA forms to find the information a client needs.

Be ready to be rejected. Don’t expect to apply for a job that meets your financial and time commitment needs and be accepted on the first try. Just as you are searching for that perfect work-at-home job, so are millions of other people. In the cloud commuting world you are also competing on an international level, and your expectations for payment might not be anywhere near the going rates in other countries.

Be open to starting out small, but ready to quickly move ahead. As you compete in a global online job market community you need to be open to the possibility of taking on a lower-end job just to get your name, experience, and virtual ranking established. Don’t keep a habit of this though, or potential clients can see that you are willing to work for little and won’t be jumping up to give you more.

While there are many sites that cater to those wanting to join the ranks of cloud commuters, sometimes the best bet is to contact trustworthy employers directly. Don’t underestimate the power of networking, and keep pounding on those virtual doors. If you are stuck on getting started, try some of the following sites, but beware of scammers and low-ball job bidding.

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