hospital bag - I took way too much stuff first time with Eva and only used a FRACTION of it. But i think my most valuable possession was ear plugs!!!! i bought them on a whim when ONE mother on BnB recommended i buy them, they are no where near enough to drown out your own baby crying you'll hear them EASILY as they are right next to you but it really helps drown out the hustle bustle and noisiness of the ward, when you're trying to sleep and finding it difficult putting them in your eyes and hearing the noise halve really is a god send. Also FOOD! i took some muesli bars with me that were meal replacement bars and i ate all the hospital food and all my bars, the hospital food no where near was enough for me. lol. instead of buying disposable underwear which were super expensive i just bought a 10 pack of incredibly cheap underwear (10 pairs for $10) and if any got soaked in blood i threw them out because they were cheaper than disposables anyway. But in the end they were actually reasonably comfortable and a good addition to my underwear draw, lol. I also never needed to throw any out.
Who was asking about the baby name Riley being more girl or more boy??? i have taken to searching uni-sex names on the top 1000 names for girls and top 1000 names for boys to see if they're more boy or more girl. Riley came in at no.39 for girls and no.106 for boys. We've pretty much settled on Remy for a boy, which alot of people are saying is a girls name but it is definitly more boy than girl.
Ginger i have two friends with boys named Jackson, one spelt Jackson the other spelt Jaxon, i always preferred the Jackson spelling but i've discovered Jackson get's Jack for short and Jaxon get's Jax for short! which i think is super super cute, She refers to him as Jax and i just think it's adorable.
La mere paw paw ointment is said to be vegan on most vegan websites, but some say the companies are vague on how they test the product, but then again there are alot of different paw paw brands, but it really shouldn't CONTAIN any animal or animal by product.
breast pads i HATED the disposable ones, because they've got plastic backing they don't breath and are quite sweaty and they don't really soak up the milk you kind of stay damp until you change them, the washable ones were so much nicer, more comfortable, less sweaty, the only thing is in the EARLY days you can leak STRAIGHT through these ones but once your supply settles on a day to day basis, it's really all you need. I just used the Avent washable ones, they come with a little draw string net that you can wash them in.
Eating during labour - GENERALLY they try to limit this in case of an emergency c-section, it's better for surgery that you haven't eaten. As i'm sure most of you know, before surgery you aren't suppose to eat. Obviously some women still do and still have emergency sections but generally that's why they don't like to feed you during labour. I've also read alot that states women lose their appetite during labour, i'm sure it's not true for some, but it's definitly true for me. The moment labour was over though i couldn't stop shaking as i hadn't eaten in so long they had to dig out some ice covered sandwhiches for me at 1am. But not only did i not have an appetite but i figured if i ate in labour i would probably poop during the birth, something i didn't want to do, so i stayed far away from food. LOL.
post partum bleeding - The thing that surprised me the most was that YES it lasted beyond 6 weeks, but only the first week was what i would call heavy. After that it was pretty light. I bought so many maternity pads to last the whole 6 weeks i never considered that i would only need them for 1-2 weeks before just moving onto a smaller lighter flow more comfortable pad for the remainder of the post partum bleeding. So i still have plenty left over from Evas post partum period.