As we count down the weeks (hopefully less than six) until we board the plane and head to China to pick up our sweet baby girl, I am starting to get a little nervous. Just two years ago I was in a very similar place. I was eight months pregnant, had a wild and crazy toddler, we were packing up our old house and doing a major renovation on our new house, I wanted to decorate for the holidays and nest but didn't know which house we would be in and couldn't prepare a baby's room until two weeks before my due date. Today I am in much the same place. I am less than six weeks from having another child, we are in the middle of another major renovation, I have a wild and crazy preschooler and a wild and crazy toddler, I want to decorate for the holidays and nest, but I don't know who will be in what room and when the renovations will be done. I finally came to the conclusion today that it will all work out. Last time it was fine and this time it will be fine too! I am a planner and organizer by nature and if it were up to me I would have the baby's room decorated and fully stocked half a year before the arrival. I guess it is good for my type A personality to be tested and stretched to the limits in the more stressful times in my life.
The good news is I have set up a crib up in our bedroom. Baby Hadley will have a place to sleep when she comes home! I kept both of our other girls in our rooms the first four months or so of their lives so it is only natural/fair/appropriate that Hadley should have the opportunity to spend some time sleeping in our room with us too. Although I had considered this to be the plan I didn't like the idea of sticking her in a pack and play. It didn't feel right to me. I was hoping to bring Hadley home and have her sleep in her room, in her crib right from the start to limit the number of unnecessary transitions for her. This poor baby is only fifteen months old and already suffered more loss and more uncertainty/lack of stability than most adults. To add to her unknown past, we will pick her up spend one night in our hotel with her, drive four hours back and forth to her home town (eight hours total in the car in one day with a baby and no carseat. They don't use carseats in China), spend another three nights or so in that same hotel, then take an in-country flight from Taiyuan, Shanxi to Guangzhou where we will spend another week or so then take several more flights including one very long flight home, then strap her in a carseat to drive to our house, then stick her in a house, with other kids and animals she has never seen before. I am stressed just thinking about all of those transitions and I am an adult who knows what is happening and knows what to expect (as much as I can at this point). So at least I have a place for her to sleep (with a real crib, not a pack and play) until the uncertainty of our bedrooms/renovation situation settles down and we get the older girls settled in their new rooms and then when Hadley is ready she can move into her own room in her own crib where she will stay. Unless she wants to bunk up with one of her sisters which I hope is the case down the road. I would love for her and Isla to share a room. They will only be seven months apart so I hope one day soon they will want to share a room and lay together, giggling and staying up too late.
I have started packing which should be a whole other post! I am a planner and over-packer by nature. Everything I read from other adoptive parents says to travel light. While I see the freedom and ease in that and wish I could, I know it will not happen. I overpack for a morning trip to the zoo, a weekend at the lake, a week trip to the beach. All of these places there are American products for purchase within a few minutes. How could I not overpack in this situation where I am going to another country to pick up a child that I know almost nothing about? I do not know what size clothes or diapers to pack, is she walking, crawling, eating regular food, baby food, formula, drinking from a bottle or sippy cup, will she be sick, will I get sick from the food and water (not to be a pessimist but I am expecting that I will)? All of these uncertainties lead to only one thing....serious overpacking! My small pile of things in the corner of the closet is slowly turning into a mountain of things that is spilling over and taking up my entire closet floor. I realize there are Walmarts in China, but will they carry my favorite brand of sensitive wipes and diaper cream that my other girls with sensitive skin require? Will they carry my favorite name brand, organic sensitive infant formula I insist on using...most likely, no. I am feeling guilty enough that I am going to have to give this baby formula when my other girls were EBF for the majority of their infancy. I am going to overpack and I am proud of it! Check with me again in mid-January when we are back and I will tell you what you really should and shouldn't take on your adoption trip and I will let you know what I donated/left behind. Unfortunately the weight limit for in-country flights in China is only 44 lbs. per bag. This could make my overpacking very tricky! I am going to have to spend the next five weeks packing and repacking to distribute that weight evenly amongst all our bags. Add in there Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping and decorating, major home renovations and preparing to leave the girls for two weeks and I am going to be one busy, stressed mommy, but I couldn't be more excited for what's to come!!!
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