The last few weeks have been pretty hectic for us. In chronological order: my school opened its doors five weeks earlier than anticipated, I had to attend a 3-day seminar on the Asian side, my mother flew over for a 4-day stay to spend some time with Pamir and celebrate my birthday, I sold Istanbul Trails and Darria started teaching again after a 10 month break to nurse Pamir. Need I say more?

Rescheduling

My school opened its doors 5 months earlier than expected which introduced the first challenges. They came up with the idea of organizing a 4 week summer school for new and trailing pupils. Sure these kids were not too amused either by cutting their holiday short, but at the end of the day I was the one who suffered most.

I still had a pretty big to-do list to make the real school start as smooth as possible. We had to squeeze Pamir’s passport, my car service, shoe repair (yes, this takes 3 days per pair here!), yearly health check-up, obtaining a Turkish driving license, etc. all in the scarce free time that was left. This resulted in a lot of running around after work, since most of them don’t work on the weekends. The fact that it was Ramadan didn’t speed things up either of course.

Uncle

On September 2nd – a good month if I may add – my sister gave birth to a healthy girl named Milla. Both mother and Milla are doing great. Despite the fact that I couldn’t be there, I’m very proud. And thanks to the technologies at our disposal, not only did I already receive plenty of pictures of the beautiful girl, I also managed to see Milla ‘live’ recently. Again congratulations to Laila and Stefan and I wish all of them loads of happiness!

Sugar Feast

The sugar feast of course was a welcomed break, not in the least because my mother came over for a visit. Despite a rare hiccup in the weather we – this is including Pamir – had a great time. She got to spend plenty of time with Pamir, admired the fresh bread I made almost every day (later more on that), and her PC got a do-over and is ready for her trip to South-Africa later this year. We of course enjoyed every moment of her presence and the fact that she turned the sugar feast into a bacon feast!

Istanbul Trails

In the meanwhile, I learned that my school would introduce a nıineth hour. This meant that I no longer would arrive home around 17h, but more or less around 18:30h. People who have been here can testify that Istanbul traffic can change dramatically within 40 minutes.

If you know that I wake up at 6 a.m., hence try to be in bed at 23h the very latest, then you’ll realize that this left me with four hours a day to have dinner, do daily duties and spend time with Darria and Pamir. In other words, keeping Istanbul Trails – writing at least three article a week as well as moderating comments – equalled sacrificing my weekend, and my family life.

So I decided to sell it while it was still hot. A media company in the US bought it for a nice price, and part of that money will be used to hopefully visit my hometown next summer. Yes, you read that correct! Don’t ask for a date yet, we’ll announce it in due time here on The Forlanis.

Poor Darria

Pamir trying to adjust to our and his new schedule.

After nursing Pamir for over nine months, last week Darria had to find her way back to school. The good news is that she is a state teacher and, unlike me, only has to be in school when she teaches. Even better news is that her mother will take care of Pamir while she’s teaching, and that she lives on the way to school. The bad news is that Pamir often still doesn’t sleep through the night, and from now on Darria is no longer able to catch up during the day. And before you even ask, yes she’s kind enough to let me sleep. Despite drinking some of her (herbal) teas, I still can’t provide Pamir with the soothing breast milk.

Pamir Sits On a Pin

Pamir in the meanwhile is just over nine months, and seems to be in a hurry. Where at first he was determined to skip crawling altogether, during the summer – did the heat got the better of him – he apparently changed his mind. And we were not sad about that at all, on the contrary. I once read that crawling is a milestone for limb coordination practice and would benefit him later in life.

But in a seemingly hurry as he is, the moment crawling was no longer a challenge, he combined it with standing up (see video on the top right of the home page). And these days, he’s trying to – while holding himself with one hand – go from one point or object to another. With winter only two months away, he again seems in a hurry to start walking. Please feel free to participate in our new poll and make a guess when he’ll really start walking.

Related posts:

1. Where Is the Snow? My two-week term-break holiday is over. That’s the bad news....
2. Sultan Pamir Rules Our little sultan only just turned 7 months old, but...
3. We Are All Set For Junior’s Arrival I just gave the bubble bath in our new flat...

Yes, baby rights! They do have some rights that you can not argue or oppose to. The moment you find out that you will become a parent, you accept these rights by default. You might say that this isn’t what you sing up for. Yet, you simply have to. With my husband’s sister giving birth to her first child any day now, I decided this is the time to publish them.

No need to worry though, not all of them are difficult rules to obey. Let’s cut it short and hear from a baby’s tone what those rules are.

Being a Baby Gives Me the Right To:

1. Sleep or wake up whenever I want to.
2. Cry for the purpose of expressing my needs and also just for the fun of it.
3. Vomit on to you.
4. Poop and release gas in public.
5. Pee during the diaper change.
6. Pose nude.
7. Spray food on you if I feel like it.
8. Try my new teeth on you.
9. Go out when I want to and to make you regret for it when we go out together.
10. Scream in public in order to test my vocal cords and also to make you embarrassed.

Conceiving me simply means that you accept these 10 basic rules. There can also be additional demands to the ones declared above. You will be informed about these extra demands when the time is right – probably by surprise.

This agreement is valid for 3 years and will be replaced by the Declaration of Children’s Rights.

Also I hereby would like to thank my parents for bringing me to this world, all the choices they make to protect me from any harm, keep me both physically and mentally healthy. And last but not least, I thank my parents for loving me with all their hearts.

If you have already raised kids then you must know that this list can easily go longer. So, please leave a comment and add more of these funny baby rights. Alternatively, you can also inform us, the newbie parents, for the future ironies of our fate, like the toddler rights or the adolescent rights.

Related posts:

1. Smells Like Baby Spirit With Junior already having passed its biggest test, we were...
2. How to Name Your Baby for a Multi-Cultural Life Finding a good name for a newborn always seemed to...
3. These Days I Like Going to the Hospital More I have always liked going to the hospital and seeing...

Our little sultan only just turned 7 months old, but he already rules. Yes, I’m talking about Pamir, our first child. And if he keeps up this attitude, he’ll probably won’t have competition for the sultanate from any brothers or sisters. Ok, scratch that last sentence. Regardless, he really turned our lives upside down. Expected and for the better of course, but The Forlanis and The Forlanis Photos had to bite the dust over the last few months.

Four months Pamir sat on his dictatorial throne, but we finally managed to convince him that the Ottoman Empire has dissolved and has been replaced by a democratic republic. Hence, everybody should have a say in how we spend our time – equally and in everybody’s interest. He doesn’t fully comply yet, but he’s making efforts.

Razor Sharp Ambitions

Pamir seemingly took a few crash courses. It looks now that he wants to skip crawling altogether (since he’s not very good at it – see video on home page) and wants to pay tribute to the Homo Erectus as quick as possible. In the meanwhile he also mastered the Buddha position. This resulted in an anticipated small investment of ours, but earlier than expected: a high baby chair to join us while eating. To convince us this wasn’t a waste of money, he proudly shows his two razor sharp bottom jaw teeth. My almost stitched finger can testify their effectiveness!

Of course, together with the Sultanate, the harem went as well. Which keeps us and himself a bit in the dark on daily, and more importantly, continuous entertainment. True, summer has arrived and we now enjoy our nice new house with a half Olympic pool. But the truth of the matter is that we have to take a dip in turns, Pamir excluded. Indeed, he got my skin-type and doesn’t like the sun. Besides, Pamir loves taking a bath and is too eager to join us. You can’t blame him actually, having been in water for over nine months.

Come to think of it, he’s too eager for about everything. Or shall I call it over-ambitious? I’ve never put much faith in Pamir’s Chinese horoscope readings, but I may have to review that.

Plenty of Visitors

What else did you miss the past few months? For starters we had quite a few visitors! My very good friend Dash was the first to come over and enjoy the spring sun. It felt good to see him again and we had a great time, with undoubtedly our night out in Taksim and the day-trip to Büyükada as the highlights.

Second in line was a surprise visit of the Nolf family. For various reasons we unfortunately had only one day together, which resulted in a suicidal sightseeing tour of Istanbul’s main attractions, followed by a sea-side BBQ close to our house. A day to remember, and needless to say that they both fell asleep in our sofa.

Next up was my mother. She was scheduled to come together with my sister, but due to my sister’s pregnancy (also a first for her) she couldn’t make it. No late night partying here, just cozy, quality family time. Not in the least because my mother wanted to make the most of her first live acquaintance with Pamir!

And  only a week ago my father flew back home after his yearly two-week visit. Always a much anticipated stay-over. And again no travelling, except a Scenic Bosphorus Tour. He just wanted to relax (by the pool), make a DVD full with pictures of his first grandson, spend time with the family and get his iPod to work. And while he was at his tech-savvy son (that’s me, not Pamir!), he decided to buy a laptop and get it configured properly.

Oh yes, in the meanwhile I of course had to teach and help Darria out with raising Pamir. I’m sure you understand better now why we didn’t get around writing the past few months. But as previously stated, we made a pact with Pamir and reorganized ourselves – The Forlanis is reborn.

We Swear

And to celebrate this is style, we decided to use this time off to redesign the whole site. To make it easier for you to navigate – find your way. More about that in the next article. But you can already let us know what you think of the new layout in this week’s poll (see sidebar on the right).

I can make one promise already though! No, I no longer dare to talk about post frequency, but we swear we’ll publish a new picture of Pamir on The Forlanis Photos … every weekday! Brace yourself, we have over 250 pictures waiting in line. And to get you in the mood, you can already find a few of the past few months.

Related posts:

1. Hectic Days The last few weeks have been pretty hectic for us....
2. Where Is the Snow? My two-week term-break holiday is over. That’s the bad news....
3. Pamir Has To Catch Up Last week we paid a visit to the doctor’s office...

Last week we paid a visit to the doctor’s office for Pamir’s 3 months regular check. So far we are doing okay so I pray God that we will never have to see Pamir’s doctor for anything but the regular checks.

Pamir had a vaccination against rotavirus infection. Rotavirus gastroenteritis is a mild to severe disease characterized by vomiting, watery diarrhea, and low-grade fever. He will have the same vaccination again in May. I wish all the vaccinations were applied like this one: from the mouth – no injections, no pain, no cry.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kid

The first time we caught Pamir sucking his fingers.

However, I also have some less good news. In the first three month periods babies grow rapidly, approximately between 3-4 cm each month, and gain 500 – 1000 grams. Until now Pamir was going great like around 900 grams and 2 cm each month, close to the top of the average. And Max made me laugh a lot saying that Pamir grew like a cabbage. Here comes the not so good news.

As you might have read Pamir had a cold a week before the doctor’s visit. Although he got over it within a week, apparently it hit him harder than we thought. Pamir didn’t put on as much weight as expected. Between the second and the third month he put on only 560 grams. Unfortunately his height didn’t increase the way it is supposed to either, only 2 cm. The doctor told me to just keep on feeding and not to worry. Cause for the time being his weight and height are even a little bit above average. But, if the next month’s values are again close to the minimum amount, then we will have to start giving Pamir additional food.

Cry Baby

Just like always I put the blame on myself and felt terrible. But then I came to my senses quickly. If there is any “blame” to put on someone that would be Pamir himself. He barely cries for food since he discovered a new easily reached toy to keep him busy: his hands and thumbs. Basically he wakes up, sucks his thumb and falls back asleep quietly. Unfortunately I only recently found out about Pamir’s trick and immediately came up with a simple solution. Working around the clock. I don’t wait for Pamir to cry for food any more. I feed him every two to three hours, sometimes even with 40 minutes intervals, since that is the time he needs to digest.

Related posts:

1. Not Such a Happy Week for Pamir Last week Pamir turned to be two months old. To...
2. Sultan Pamir Rules Our little sultan only just turned 7 months old, but...
3. Where Is the Snow? My two-week term-break holiday is over. That’s the bad news....

Who can honestly say they never missed an article we wrote here? That’s ok – we all have busy lives. But this articles is one you don’t want to miss! Over the weekend we not only updated the site, we also implemented a fairly radical change. So keep on reading if you don’t want to miss the Forlanis train.

Pamir Moved Out

Don't miss out on the new, stylish and extremely easy Forlanis/Photo gallery.

Of course Pamir didn’t literally move out – we miss him the moment we no longer have him in our eyesight. But his pictures moved out from Flickr to photos.forlanis.com. That’s right – from now on all publicly available pictures of Pamir and us are nicely integrated in The Forlanis.

Although we had and still have a Forlanis Flickr account, the demand for pictures of our son persisted. The most heard comment was that Flickr was too big a maze to find what they were really looking for. So we decided to address this by offering an easy to navigate and straightforward photo gallery solution.

Indeed, no passwords are needed since this gallery will only show publicly available pictures. And yes, it’s very easy to navigate, read notes about the pictures and even comment on them. You can Please read all the details here!

Does this mean pictures will no longer be visible on Flickr? No, the more private pictures (no need to get naughty ideas!) will still be published exclusively on Flickr. Those among you who need access to those, already have an account and know how to enjoy them.

Pamir In Motion

The next big update is Pamir’s video. We replaced the footage of Pamir toying in his crib with a video of him fooling around just before having a bath.

There are two questions people keep on asking us:

1. Where can I see that video? I never really understood that question, since it’s right there on the right of your screen, located more at the top than the middle. Until I realised most people received the articles via mail or RSS. And thus didn’t go the the real web page (by clicking on the title of the emailed article). You of course have to go to the web page to see all these goodies. Don’t forget to click on the play button!
2. Where can I see the previous videos? Since so many people missed out on the very first videos, this too was a regular question. You can see the complete video gallery at The Forlanis Viddler account. Alternatively, you can click on the video while it is playing, and it will take you there as well. As a bonus, there you can see the videos much bigger too!

Polls

So far, every now and then, we ran a poll on The Forlanis. Very few people participated in them – on average five people I would say. However, I see that much more people read our posts. So there are two possible reasons: either people didn’t find the poll since they read the article via their mail (and didn’t go to the site) or you boys and girls are simply not interested in participating in these anonymous polls?

So this biweekly poll will ask you whether you would like us to continue with it or not. Please do cast your vote, so we have a clue. Btw, the correct answer to Pamir’s height was 59,5 cm.

Shifting Gears

As you may have noticed from Darria’s posting frequency last week, we decided to move to second gear. If you have any post requests – (Pamir) experiences you would like us to write about – do please let us know bu dropping a line in the comment section below.

That’s all folks – hope you like our changes!

Related posts:

1. Sultan Pamir Rules Our little sultan only just turned 7 months old, but...
2. Why It Takes Two to Tango? This very first piece of advice is as brief as...
3. Germs Got the Better of Us It’s been a while that I wrote something here –...

In this second post of my Herbal Remedies for Newborn Baby Gas Problems post series, I’ll share with you the herbal cocktail I still use to facilitate his digestion. This second potion is a real herbal cocktail, hence takes a little longer to prepare, but works like a charm.

Potion #2 – Ten Herb Cocktail

Ingredients

Try to get following spices in their original forms like seeds or sticks. If you can only find them crushed or in powder form that’s ok as well. 10 Grams of each spice is enough but I took 50 grams of each. I wanted to make the mixture more than I needed, in case someone else needs it too.

• Nutmeg (muscade)
• Stick cinnamon
• Clove
• Ginger
• Fennel
• Daisy
• Anise
• Cumin
• Mint
• Veronica arvensis (Wall Speedwell)

How to Prepare?

1. Crush the cinnamon sticks and cloves into very small pieces. Max came up with a good idea. He put them in between a piece of clean cloth and smashed them with a simple hammer.
2. I didn’t know that there was a special grater for nutmeg until Max got it for us. So you can use the grater for nutmeg.
3. I used cumin and ginger as powder and mint as dried crushed leaves. So no extra work there.
4. Veronica is in the form of dried branches with leaves. Fennel and anise come in the form of seed and daisies come as dried flowers. To make all those even smaller I used our most beloved kitchen tool – the chopper.
5. Once all this crushing and chopping is done, you simply mix all the spices in a pot. I used a plastic pot with a top.

How to Use?

Once you made the herb mix, it's really easy to use for weeks/months to come.

Take a tea spoonful (I leave the spoon in the pot to win time) of the spice mixture and put it in a coffee cup. Add half a cup of boiled hot water. Let it rest for 3 to 5 minutes. To give it to your baby you can use the bottle or a spoon. To make the process easier for both of us I use the medicine dropper you see in the picture.

When to Use?

When I first started giving this herbal tea to Pamir, to be on the safe side I gave it after breast feeding. Recently I give it whenever it suits me and/or Pamir. If I can make it ready just before he wakes up, I give it before feeding.

Twice a day, each time two table spoonfuls is enough to help your baby’s digestion difficulties. Again to be on the safe side I started with once a day and then increased it to twice a day. As far as I know, if you use this tea more than you should, the only thing that can go wrong is that your baby will have diarrhea. It never happened to Pamir with the dosage I mention here though.

Some More Advice

• Never boil the herbs it water, only add the hot water on them!
• Ready made tea must be used within one hour!
• If you are having difficulties on finding one or few herbs don’t worry, just use whatever is available.
• I always drink what’s left after giving to Pamir so I suggest you to drink, too. It is good for your body as well.

I started using this tea when Pamir was one month old. I was told that this herbal tea could be used just after birth. Since I didn’t do it, it isn’t included in my own experience. So it is up to you to use it for a very new born baby. If only I had known this potion the very first days Pamir was born. I would definitely use it.

Utilize On Your Own Risk - I am not a specialist on herbs or a medicine doctor. What I mention here is what I’ve heard from several people from different regions of Turkey and what I used for my own baby. If you have any hesitations, please do not apply any of them.

Related posts:

1. How to Solve Your Newborn Baby’s Gas Problem with Herbal Remedies? In this first of a two post series, I’ll share...
2. My Husband Calls Me Gargamel Do you remember the sorcerer in the cartoon Smurfs? The...
3. Germs Got the Better of Us It’s been a while that I wrote something here –...

In this first of a two post series, I’ll share with you some herbal remedies I used to solve my baby’s gas problems. Potion number one (see below) is based on nutmeg and milk, while potion number two is a real herbal cocktail. 

Potion #1 – Nutmeg with Breast Milk

How to Prepare?

If you can, stay away from ready-made grated nutmeg and do it yourself.

1. Grate some nutmeg (muscade) – half a tea spoon
2. Add your own breast milk on it – half a tea glass
3. Let it rest for 10 minutes
4. Filter it, because little particles would disturb your baby

How to Use?

• Give two table spoonfuls to your baby, before or after feeding.
• Once a day worked for Pamir, if you want you can do it twice a day as well.
• You should keep on doing it without any breaks for at least a week.
• After the fourth day I saw the miraculous result of huge burping bombs that Pamir released.

A Tip

Once I couldn’t get the timing correct, so I wasted the precious milk. Then I came up with a solution. I made the mixture ready, and put it in the fridge (max. 6 hours). If you do the same trick, take the mixture out of the fridge at least 10 minutes before you use it. To win time while waiting the mixture to get back to room temperature, you can pour it into another glass. 

I somehow couldn’t use the breast pump effectively so in order to get the required milk for this potion I milked myself. Yes, just like milking a cow! After a while my breasts started hurting – apparently milk production is an expert area for only cows. So after 8 days I quit Potion 1 and have been using Potion 2 since then.

Utilize At Your Own Risk – I am not a specialist on herbs nor a medicine doctor. What I mention here is what I’ve heard from several people from different regions of Turkey and what I used for my own baby. If you have any hesitations, please do not apply any of them.

Related posts:

1. A Herbal Cocktail That Stops Your Baby’s Gas Problems In this second post of my Herbal Remedies for Newborn...
2. My Husband Calls Me Gargamel Do you remember the sorcerer in the cartoon Smurfs? The...
3. How Other People’s Experiences Are My Treasure? My sister Deniz gave birth 16 months ago to a...

Do you remember the sorcerer in the cartoon Smurfs? The enemy of the Smurfs, the evil wizard who created magic potions? Well these days I am called Gargamel because of all the herbal remedies I search and make.

Even before Pamir was born I was aware of the challenge that most mothers face – poop, burp and fart challenges/difficulties! So I expected to have those problems with my own baby as well. I was wrong though. I felt blessed since my baby could poop easily and didn’t have any difficulty on that matter.

I somehow went from honey to Gargamel!

What I did not know was that strangely enough this evil problem had its own schedule. Apparently this sneaky annoyance emerges 15 days after the birth! I am not going to tell you here the boring and sad details how we both suffered so many nights. Oh yes! This horror called gas cramps and cries has to happen during the night, to all mothers’ joy of course.

Please knock on wood, these days Pamir is doing much better. Thanks to my Gargamel potions I don’t get nervous any more when the night falls. So long story short, I will share my magic with you.

Pamir didn’t have much pooping problems but he still had monstrous gas cramps which didn’t make much sense to me. Fortunately already after applying Potion 1 he started burping. I applied Potion 1 for 8 days and then kept on applying Potion 2.

I am still using Potion 2 every day. Since it has so many herbs in it, I believe it helps Pamir’s body in other aspects than the gas only. In the end most of the medicines we have today come from herbs and plants. I have always believed in the power of nature. And my faith in it grew stronger thanks to this experience.

So mothers-to-be, stay tuned! And experienced mothers, feel free to comment on how you solved gas, pooping or other issues you and your newborn had to deal with.

Related posts:

1. How to Solve Your Newborn Baby’s Gas Problem with Herbal Remedies? In this first of a two post series, I’ll share...
2. A Herbal Cocktail That Stops Your Baby’s Gas Problems In this second post of my Herbal Remedies for Newborn...
3. These Days I Like Going to the Hospital More I have always liked going to the hospital and seeing...

It’s been a while that I wrote something here – mea culpa!

So, what’s up? For starters, two weeks ago I was ill. With 200 children in turn trying hard to infect me with their germs – as if it was a conspiracy theory – I had to give in sooner or later. It started all with an innocent cold. But shouting teaching six hours a day, didn’t help things I’m sure. So in the end my throat surrendered and I was left with an infection of the airways. By now I’m better of course.

Salty Water

Inevitably the rest of the family got their share. I did consider wearing a mask in the house, but it was already too late. And so Pamir got his first cold about a week ago. It had to happen sooner or later of course – the first of many I’m sure. I nevertheless felt very sorry for our baby.

He still has no complete control over his limps, let alone he would know how to blow his nose. Snot ran out of his nose, or into his throat. Either way, it tickled and made him very uncomfortable. And in the process of course us. And given his ‘age’, we couldn’t even give him a junior aspirin.

No Exit

Pamir's temperature rose a bit, so we needed to cool him down.

All we could do was to give him loads of attention, reduce his temperature, pump uncountable flacons of physiologic serum (basically salty water) through his nose and quickly turn him face down. On every occasion he felt manhandled, forgetting how good he felt after every session. Luckily at the end of last week, he was already doing much better.

But then, as if he was looking for attention, he developed constipation. In the beginning it suited us Darria fine – you don’t need to change diapers too much – but after a day we started to worry. A quick call to the doctor learned that this was a perfectly normal phase in a baby’s growing curve. We didn’t have to take any action. Unless it would exceed three days or he would show discomfort. Neither happened so far luckily, thanks to a spoon of olive oil every two days.

So actually, when you read all this, maybe it’s not entirely my fault I didn’t write much the last few weeks?

Hurry Up

By the way, for those who would still like to participate in the latest poll, hurry to cast your vote because on Wednesday Pamir is going to the doctor for his monthly check-up. “Where is that poll,” many readers ask me? Well, you can’t miss. It’s located at the bottom right sidebar (yes, you need to scroll down a bit).

More or less the same goes for the video. The latest one will also be replaced soon, so if you didn’t catch it yet, hurry! To make sure you don’t all just read the mail you get but also visit the actual website – and see all the extras such as the poll and the video – I shortened the mails you get for the time being.

Related posts:

1. Pamir Has To Catch Up Last week we paid a visit to the doctor’s office...
2. Hectic Days The last few weeks have been pretty hectic for us....
3. Not Such a Happy Week for Pamir Last week Pamir turned to be two months old. To...

What to take to the hospital for giving birth? The answer to this question is not short. Experience is important in such a matter so I believe getting some advice is essential. I took my sister’s advice and packed my hospital bag according to the list she gave me.

But I ignored the amount of some items like pajamas. She told me to get at least two sets, I got one. Simply because she tends to exaggerate things. She also told me to have at least one nightgown, I brought none. I never wear nightgowns so I thought they wouldn’t come in handy – WRONG! Right after the birth – doesn’t matter whether normal or cesarean – they do come in handy.

What items to put in your hospital bag before giving birth?

Since we had to change our birth plans and go for a c-section, we had to stay longer and short of some items. For instance, I had to hand wash some of my t-shirts because I sweated a lot, and there weren’t enough t-shirts left. I felt horrible when Max had to wear a pair of my socks.

I have three suggestions for you:

1. Don’t wait for the last moment. Make your hospital bag ready around the 6th month.
2. Don’t put everything in one big bag. To make things easily reachable make separate bags for yourself, your partner and the baby.
3. All kinds of clothing items listed below are never too much. Don’t be timid and put as much as you can in your bag.

What Does a Mother-to-be Need in Her Hospital Bag?

Clothing:

• Nightgown
• Dressing gown (front-opening)
• Pajamas (front-opening) (at least two sets)
• Buttoned sweater
• Pants (high waist)
• Nursing bra
• Extra t-shirt (front-opening)
• Socks
• Slippers (non-skid)
• Going home clothes (5-6 months pregnant look, loose waist for post c-section)

Personal Comfort:

• Breast pads
• Maternity pads (night-time sanitary pads should do)
• Shampoo
• Hair conditioner 
• Toothbrush and paste
• Deodorant
• Moisturizer lotion
• Make-up items (at least a lipstick/balm and a blusher)
• Brush or comb
• Hair-dryer
• Hair clip or pony-tailor

What Does a Father-to-be Need in His Hospital Bag?

• Pajamas
• Underwear
• T-shirts
• Shirt
• A pair of jeans or trousers
• Socks
• Slippers
• Shaving gear
• Deodorant
• Toothbrush

What Are the Items You Should Put in Your Baby’s Hospital Bag?

• Going home outfit
• Undershirt
• Socks
• Cap
• Extra clothes
• Diapers and wet tissues
• Blanket
• Car seat

Extra Hospital Essentials

• Documents for insurance, registration, etc.
• Regularly used medication for you and your partner
• Books or magazines
• Camera
• Video camera
• Extra tapes for the camera
• Chargers and cables for the cameras
• Chargers for the cell phones

By the way, I was planning to go into the surgery with my contact lenses just because I wanted to see my baby right after I woke up. But that was a big no go. So if you are using contact lenses, remember to get your glasses, contact lens container and its solution with you. 

Lacking some simple items can make you feel uncomfortable during a hospital stay. Have you experienced anything like that? Do you have any more items to add to my list?

Related posts:

1. End and Beginning of an Era Last Friday Max and I spent our last night as...
2. Why We Extended Our Stay in the Hospital after Pamir’s Birth In my previous post I already described the events before,...
3. My Top 5 Pregnancy Moments The birth of our son Pamir last Saturday marked the...