Just curious for any of you that take public transportation to work... are you planning on keeping a second hospital bag at the office? In my case, work is closer to the hospital than home, so I'll waste about an hour going home to get my bag (and DH is coming from the opposite direction). But, I don't want to lug it back and forth every day either! I thought perhaps I might pack a small bag with just a few essentials, and then have my mom or someone go home and get the full bag if needed.
Re: City moms - are you packing a 2nd hospital bag?
JMHO but I think you might want to go home, shower and check in once before jetting off to the hospital, so I would probably not lug a bag back and forth for the next month in anticipation of labor.
you have so much time from the time you get your first timeable contractions until you even get admitted to L&D
Why don't you just leave the bag in your DH's car? That's what we're doing.
I work closer to the hospital (walking distance) and DH is also coming from the opposite direction. If I need to get to the hospital I can always roll myself there and wait for DH to arrive with bag in tow.
I'm only packing one which will stay in my hubby's car. So if i go into labor at work (which i hope i do b/c it's closer than if i'm at work) than my hubby will eventually make his way to the hospital and he'll bring the bag w/ me.
The last thing i want to do when i'm in labor is worry about my purse and my hospital bag.
Which hospital are you giving birth in? We're due around the same time. I'm at BI
No cars
We do have one, but both DH and I take the train every day.
We're delivering at Roosevelt. I work right in midtown, so that's easy, and DH is in law school in NJ. We live on the UWS, so for both of us it'd be easiest to go straight to the hospital (if my water actually breaks, as opposed to just getting contractions).
Duh! I totally take it forgranted we have a car but we're the only ones in our family that do. You can always leave your bag at my grandmother's, she lives right by Lincoln Center
I'm trying to think of what scenario would result in you needing to go straight from work to the hospital? The only one that I can think of is that you are GBS positive and your water breaks. Otherwise, you're going to end up in early labor for a long time before you should head to the hospital and are you really planning to continue working during labor? I guess I just don't see that as a realistic possibility. Even if your water breaks, unless you're GBS positive, you'd have plenty of time to head home first and would probably want to get the hell out of work before it was time to rush to the hospital anyway. Though now that I'm writing this, I'm thinking that bringing a towel, those puppy pee pads, and a couple depends to work just in case might not be a bad idea. ;-)
FWIW, if I start having contractions at work, I plan to head home. I work downtown and live in Hell's Kitchen. I'll have my husband (and my doula eventually too) meet me at home. We'll labor at home until I'm at 4-1-1 and then head to the hospital (I'm delivering at NYU).
Off topic, but wanted to say I'm delivering at NYU too.
I live in Hoboken and work downtown. I'm really hoping to not go into labor at work -- I'm taking the week of my due date off as vacation. As long as I don't go a week or more early, I should be fine. I guess if I went early I would go home first. I don't really want to go to the hospital to just be sent away because they aren't ready to admit me yet.