Packing Advice

This post is not going to be very amusing for anyone who reads this blog that isn't waiting to travel to pick up their child. Sorry. I know that as we were getting ready to travel it was very useful for me to read blog posts of moms that had gone before me. I also sent out a mass email to my local adoptive mom friends with the subject line "HELP ME!" right before we traveled. Can you tell I was having a mini freak out? I was thinking that some of you may not have a group of experienced moms to email and a good blog buddy contacted me today with a few questions so I thought it was the perfect time to post about this stuff before I forget.

A few things to note:

LB was going to turn 7 months while we were in Ethiopia and we were going to be there for 1 week. I think a lot of this stuff is applicable for a wide age range but if you are staying longer or shorter then you will need to adjust.

1. Diapers/Wipes: The advice I received was to err on the side of taking too much. We planned on 10 diaper changes a day so we took around 70-80 diapers and we took 3 large packages of wipes. It seemed like I had heard tons of horror stories of massive blow out diapers and that a lot of the kids turned out to have parasites that caused those issues. LB had the opposite problem, which I was not prepared for at all! We didn't even go through 1 package of wipes so we had way too much stuff but I was glad we had it just in case. I was completely thrown for a loop with LB's bathroom situation. (It upsets me a little that my blog has taken to talking about poo but it was the reality of our situation. I think I have talked about poo more in the past month than my entire life!) Travis (Gladney in-country staff) told me that stress does cause both problems on lots of the kids so my advice is to be prepared for both! Luckily, one of the other Gladney moms at our guesthouse was prepared and had brought stewed prunes and her son had no need for them. LB gobbled them right up and it did help his situation. Gladney also has a doctor on staff so we got a medication as well. I saved his prescription for his baby book and I was shocked when I went to the pharmacy and it cost the equivalent of $2! All I have to say is that we were initiated into parenthood very quickly! If your agency doesn't have a doctor on staff then I would recommend talking to your pediatrician about what you could bring. Okay, I am glad that topic is over with.

2. Formula/Bottles: We decided not to bring formula and just to buy whatever they were using at the Gladney foster homes to help avoid even more tummy troubles. I think this was a good idea. It was easy to buy in Ethiopia and was just one less thing to pack. I was very eager to switch him over once we got home and probably did the switch too abruptly. I would advise a gradual switch. For bottles we used the Playtex drop-ins. Since they have the disposable liners it worked really well while we were in country and on the plane. We took two boxes of the liners and there are 50 liners/box. The only thing that needed cleaning was the nipples and the staff at Bejoe boiled those for us, which was really nice. We obviously made sure we had enough to get us all the way home. We ended up being wrong about the flow of nipple that he was on and had way too many of the fast flow. I am sure this varies from kid to kid but take several of each kind. Luckily the same mom that gave us prunes also had more of the slow/medium flow nipples that she gave to us. I also think because your child is still at the very early stages of trusting you that a lot of them can be fierce about their bottles. At least, LB was. We always tried to have a few ready to go so all we needed to do was add water and he could eat ASAP. How should he know that we are going to feed him no matter what? Of course he didn't and he was/is still learning to trust us. The faster we got him a bottle the better.

3. Clothes for your kid: I took enough clothes for 3 outfits per day. For our case this ended up being excessive but again I was glad we had them. We were there during the rainy season so we took a mix of short sleeve and long sleeve onesies and then we had lots of comfy pants. We ended up using long sleeve stuff in the mornings and short sleeve in the afternoons. We also took A LOT of sleepers. It was chilly at night so I think that worked well for him. We also used sleepers for the plane so I think we took around 15.

4. Clothes for you: Even though we were there for the same amount of time on the second trip, I took more just in case I got puked on. I was glad I did. Ezra wasn't much of a puker but he would spit up occasionally and that stuff just smells so I was glad I had extra shirts to change in to. Most of the guest houses have laundry services but most don't have dryers so the clothes are line dried. This is great when you are not there during the rainy season. Basically nothing dried when we were there. It was even hard to rinse out a small bib and get it to dry. However, if you aren't going in the rainy season then you can always have them clean a few things if needed. I also set aside several shirts and an extra pair of pants for the flight home. He did leak through his diaper and peed on me during one of the flights so again I was glad to have a change of clothes.

5. Extra Stuff: We took tons of bibs and burp cloths. We noticed when we visited LB during the first trip that he was drooling like crazy. I was really glad we had enough bibs so he could just wear one all day and that saved us from having to change his shirt several times. I still keep him in bibs because of the drool. Let's hope a tooth comes along to soon to make all this drool seem worthwhile. LB was also on an antibiotic for a respiratory infection and the medicine was pink and he hated it. I was glad we had tons of bibs since the ones we used while we gave him his medicine were totally stained pink. We took ones that weren't that cute and ended up throwing some of them away while we were there.

6. Medicine: We took baby Tylenol, diaper rash cream, gas relief meds, Little Sneezes saline solution and one of those nasal aspirator things. I would check with your doc to make sure you know the right dose for your child's age and size. Luckily the only thing we used was the nasal bulb thing, which he hated. Take meds for yourself too. I was glad we had stuff like aspirin, Tums, immodium and an antibiotic. I did use my antibiotic on the first trip and was VERY glad I had it.

7. Other random thoughts: We didn't take a ton of toys but I was glad we had some teething rings and other small toys for the plane. He is at an age where he could play with a piece of paper and be entertained by the cool crinkley sound so I think the toy thing is very age dependent.

Several people had mentioned on blogs that they used gallon size ziplock bags for clothes on the plane. This worked very well! We put a sleeper, diaper and disposable changing pad in a ziplock bag. We also had a travel size wipe container packed in our carry-on bag. So when you are on the plane and it is time for a diaper change then you just grab one of the ziplock bags and the wipe container and head to the bathroom. I would then put the dirty diaper and the pad in the trash and put his dirty clothes in the ziplock bag. It was an easy and clean way to travel with all his dirty stuff. We prepared about 5 of them for the flight home and I think used 4.

Bring a journal. It was such a life changing week that I didn't want to forget anything. I wrote an entry on the flight to Ethiopia and then while he was napping I wrote about things like our first day together, the coffee ceremony, birth-parent meeting, etc. I actually journaled as if I were writing letters to LB. I am going to put them in his baby book. I hope he'll enjoy reading them someday.

Okay, that's all I got. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. There are no stupid questions! As I was having my little freak out before we left about all the packing stuff one of my good friends, Jen, gave me really good advice and it helped put everything in perspective. I actually just re-read her email and it was good advice even now as we are home and transitioning into our new life. I didn't ask her if I could quote her so hopefully it's okay. She said, "Try not to worry, I know that is easier said than done and freaking out right now is totally appropriate. But you'll be perfect, you're his momma. Things will go well. Small things may go wrong that feel big in the moment, but that's just life. You'll work it out."

Isn't she wise? I need to read that everyday!

Happy Packing!