I'm starting to pack my hospital bags and buy postpartum recovery items a little at a time. What things did you find essential postpartum?
I'm starting to pack my hospital bags and buy postpartum recovery items a little at a time. What things did you find essential postpartum?
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
Advil ( at home for pain), thick pads, bought some granny panties just for pp, squirt bottle ( took home from hospital), tucks pads.
pomegranate / 3225 posts
The Lansolin GEL breast pads. They cost $10 but are so worth it! Send DH to get these many times. They helped so much when I was engorged!
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
Also if you use Lansolin nipple cream, don't let the gel touch clothes, it stains. But it on, then a nursing pad, even if you aren't leaking!
honeydew / 7504 posts
LOTS of pads, Tucks pads/wipes, hydrocortisone cream (NOT the ointment), Earth Mother Angel Baby nipple butter, and a rubber donut. And colace! Take the mesh/paper panties from the hospital, and those ice packs, too. And the peri bottle. I know a lot of people swear by the sitz bath, too, but I found it to be extremely painful (?), so I only used it twice for about 10 seconds each. But take that, too, cuz most people seem to love it.
I lived in the Old Navy maternity yoga pants, nursing tanks, and an Old Navy maternity robe.
honeydew / 7589 posts
Peri bottle, tucks pads, washcloths, dermoplast, depends, giant pads, colace, applesauce, juice, disposable nursing pads.
My bathroom routine went like this:
1. Do your business
2. Fill up the peri bottle with warm water and gently spray everything clean (usually took 3-4 bottles).
3. Very gently pat dry with washcloth (toilet paper hurt too much).
4. Very gently pat with tucks pad.
5. Spray liberally with dermoplast
6. If nighttime, put on a depends (yes, an adult diaper. Leaks a lot less often then a pad, and if you want to save your sheets from blood stains...) or if daytime a giant pad in granny panties.
The colace is for obvious reasons. I ate applesauce like crazy too (it was the only thing I wanted to eat for like a week) which also helped in that department.
Disposable nursing pads hold a lot more than cloth ones. I would soak through the cloth ones in ten minutes.
GOLD / grapefruit / 4555 posts
Everyone else has everything covered but I do have this one to add - those heat pads that you can stick to your skin? Forgot what they're called but I'm sure you've seen the advertisements for them... Anyways, I got some that were specifically for the abdomen and I found those super helpful the first few days after giving birth to DD. They helped ease the cramping pain when the pain medicine just wasn't cutting it and I was able to put it on and still move around comfortably instead of trying to hold it in place like a re-heatable one.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
I didn't use colace, instead I used ground flax seeds. I also didn't use dermoplast or the mesh panties, but I did use a crib sized mattress pad both in my bed and on the couch (pretty much wherever I sat those first 6 weeks).
pear / 1563 posts
Minor TG from another mama at the end of pregnancy, - does it have to be granny panties or do you think like boy shorts would work for PP too?
I kind of hate the way elastic sit on regular old underwear, but I wasn't sure boy shorts would hold everything in place.
pear / 1570 posts
exactly what @Arden said.
i took the mesh underwear from the hospital too - those things are GLORIOUS!
Also: sitz bath. That thing saved my life.
pear / 1570 posts
@Revel: i liked the hospial issue ones because they held everything in place. I wore materity yoga pants over the whole thing and I liked how 'fitted' the whole thing was.
I also like the cloth mattress pads from the hospital for the couch/bed in the leaking/staining department. I didn't bleed much but I feel like there was breastmilk EVERYWHERE.
honeydew / 7589 posts
Oh, one more thing. I bought a plastic tablecloth from the dollar store and put it under my sheets to protect the mattress from blood and breast milk that seemed to always be leaking during the night.
persimmon / 1153 posts
@Arden: Does your get bed get too hot with it on? My midwife wants us to make our bed with a couple of plastic drop cloths for once we're in labor (I"m planning a home birth) but she did warn me that it can feel very warm/hot. I was thinking of doing the same thing after the birth to protect the mattress although we do have a mattress cover, but I just hate washing that thing over and over.
honeydew / 7589 posts
@emg86: No it doesn't get hot, not that I've noticed anyway. I mean if I were laying directly on the plastic I'm sure it would be hot, but with the sheet over it I haven't noticed much of a difference.
For homebirths I've doula'd for, we usually make the bed up with plastic, sheets, plastic, sheets. That way after the birth, we can pull off the upper layer of sheets and plastic and the bed will already be made for mama and baby. It's quick and easy to change and she can lay right back down.
I would either buy really cheap sheets you don't mind throwing away, or getting them in a really dark color so stains won't be obvious. Or get white so you can bleach them....
papaya / 10473 posts
@Arden: Good ideas! I will need to remember to break out our spare sheet sets since they're super dark and I don't mind them getting ruined if need be.
pear / 1946 posts
Super maxi pads
Granny Panties - I wasn't a fan of the mesh hospital undies
Breast pads and a sports bra for nighttime
Yoga pants and nursing tanks
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