There is so much to do and so much to know and the scary part is, most of it I won't know until I get there and actually meet my daughter. Will she still wear 12 month clothing? How many outfits should I bring for her? What does she eat? How much does she eat? How much should she eat? How many diapers do I bring? How do I brush her teeth? Clip her nails? What soap to bring for her? Shampoo? How do you make formula? How hot does it need to be? How big does the opening for the bottle need to be? OMG!!!! WHAT HAVE I DONE?????? I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!!!!!!!! LOL!!
4 comments:
Panic is normal. You will be fine. Just remember to breath and eat and occasionally sleep. lol
Suzanne!! LOL! you know exactly what you are doing!! How many neices and nephews do you have, about 20!! lol... Good advice from Jules and Danny, breathe, eat and sleep!! You will be fine!! Grace will be fine!!
You will be fine! It's so much fun!!! My must have recommendations were to save some diapers from here for the ride home, take some rubber pants for over the Chinese diapers, take more baby food then you think you may need - that was hard for us to find there amazingly (especially the fruits to get things moving, those are great to have in your bag!), California Baby lotion works for dry skin and bug bites and all other ailments - all in one! Trust your guides when they tell you they will go to the 'pharmacy' for you or your daughter - my peditrician recommended that and he was right - who knows what was in what they gave them, but it worked everytime with every baby - guess that's why they have been practicing medicine for thousands of years. We never touched any of our Western meds the entire trip. You will be fine! What an exciting adventure!!!! Seriously, use the laundry there, plan to leave your shoes behind, and take lots of pictures!!!!
You're going to do great friend!
A few thoughts from your questions. Feel free to use/ignore any you want! :o)
- I agree with Suz and take CDN diapers for travel days. My rule of thumb on travel days the entire time Hannah was in diapers was to pack 1 diaper for every hour of travel from the moment I left place A until I was supposed to arrive at place B. Never needed all of them but was sure glad to have them!! Travel can do funky things to a baby so extra diapers for blow outs or flight delays can prove priceless.
The majority of the time we were in China I used Chinese Pampers and had no problems with them at all.
- You may want to take some 9 month clothes as well as 12 and 18. Just a thought. Hannah was 8 months at adoption and wore mainly 6 month clothes.
- Packing outfits including socks, sweater, etc in ziploc bags was a HUGE help in China! Used it traveling at home too.
- Eating. She'll work with you on this one. I took a bit of baby food but didn't really need it. Took 1 plastic container of prunes but didn't need them. Baby food can easily be purchased in China.
- Formula. My choice was to purchase formula in China and use only that when there and then brought some home with me and then slowly switched her to PC Brand Formula when we got home. Changing formula can be hard on their little tummies and bowels so you may want to wait and switch here.
- teeth brushing - used one of those little rubber thingys that goes on your finger.
- nail clipping - baby nail clippers work great. You're a step ahead of me on this one as clipping her nails never crossed my mind until the day I received her. Heh....emailed home to a friend asking her to purchase baby nail clippers. Oops!
- Our personal choice for baby shampoo and lotion is Aveeno. Hannah still has sensitive skin and it's the only lotion she can use.
- temp of formula and size of hole - your sweetie will quickly show you what she likes/doesn't like. Trust your instincts...you'll do great Mommy!
You're going to be just fine friend!!
My two suggestions:
- take a stainless steel bowl for washing bottles in. Very light to pack but will save you from sterilizing bottles in the sink you wash in.
- try to find time each evening to turn the video camera on yourself and capture as much of the day as you can. It will probably just be for your personal use and memories but in the future will be priceless to you and Grace. A great, easy way to capture many memories!
You're going to do wonderfully friend!!!
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