Hospital Bag (Mostly) Packed

Although my OB isn't too worried about me going into labor imminently, she did say that I should get my hospital bag packed this week. Thanks to my previous post on this when I was pregnant with Emi (see November 2012 posts), I have a very handy list of stuff to pack already. With Noemi we were only in the hospital for a grand total of 21 hours (yes, from the moment I walked in to the L&D wing in labor to the moment we left as a family to go home). As a result, I barely used most of the items in my bag last time. But with Joaquin we were there for nearly 4 days so you never know what you will or won't actually need.

This time, because Noemi came so quickly and the trend is that each labor is faster than the last, I want to be as prepared as possible to get out of the house and to the hospital. My plan this time is to call an Uber immediately to take me, and only me, to Hoag as soon as I feel like I am in active labor. Depending on where we all are at the time, Jay will deal with getting the kids home/finding someone to watch them and grabbing the hospital bag and will meet me at the hospital. Hopefully he's actually there by the time the baby comes!

So, as of now, I have a bag that is packed and ready to go with nearly everything on my list accounted for. Some things just can't be packed early because I use them daily or only have one. So, trying to help myself and Jay out, I am taping a list to the wall of all of the last minute things he needs to pack (like a toothbrush, comb, my makeup, a bag of snacks, etc.).

I am still hoping that we make it to 37 weeks, which is 12 days away. Ideally, we would make it to 38 or 39 weeks but if I am being totally honest with myself, this back pain is so debilitating that I will be thrilled if I am done very soon after we hit the 37 week mark. I am still taking my procardia when I feel like I am getting more contractions than normal (i.e., more than 4/hour) and will keep doing that until I'm 37 weeks. After that, I will stop the medication all together and we will just see when baby decides to arrive.