Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Suggestions from the Crowd- More things to Pack
With all of this exciting referral and court travel news in the Russian adoption blogger world I thought I would throw up this post:
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I didn’t think you all had enough to do or to purchase for your child SO…

This is a compilation of suggestions I have received in various ways to add to my list of things needed for adoption travel that I posted earlier, titled: EXPENSIVE, so if you copied the earlier list- add these too if you like. Some of these things apply to everyone, some only to those adopting older babies or toddlers: (Please add any further suggestions)

For Russian or other International Adoption Travel:

Caroline suggested:
Magellan Travel Supply Store (You can request a free catalog from this site as well)
Foam neck pillow
Baby wipes, small packet for pockets or hand wash towelette packets or container
Personal lumbar pillow
Foot Exercise Cushion
Travel socks and/ or soft shoes- (maybe extra socks) warm (flights are cold)
Febreeze useful for some hotel rooms, and other places

Lisa recommended:
If you get seasonal hay fever or other allergies: Allergy pills
Saline eye drops (esp. if you wear contacts), and saline nasal spray (airplane air is dry)
Donate fruit and diapers to the orphanage- purchased there
Bring American diapers, plastic pants and wipes for 2nd trip home- they may be sturdier to handle the inevitable diarrhea


Russian Adoption Handbook suggested also:
Map of area- Russia- hotel and sites
Comfortable walking shoes and nice, dressy shoes
Other personal stuff (pajamas, under clothing, shaving gear, soap, deodorant)
Water purification pills (opt.)
Small flashlight/ radio
Blanket for plane

2nd trip:
Wrist harness for older toddler
Stickers for child- put them on your face and they will pull them off
(Spring: heavy jacket, light jacket, hat, gloves, scarf, long underwear, Summer: heavy sweater, light jacket, Winter: long heavy coat, gloves, scarf, long underwear, hat, warm packets, warm boots)
Plug for sink – some lodgings don’t have this (to wash your clothes)
Kit to check child (measure head, etc.)- Notes on what is normal for child this age- height weight head and milestones what the normal delay is
Hand lotion or baby lotion
Baby Food
Bottles with X cut you can serve baby cereal through
Cheerios, gold fish, fruit snacks, crackers, applesauce
Plastic bibs
Just in case bring Zithromax or Bactrim (antibiotic for children)
Portable DVD player with DVDs


Gaye said a stroller that reclines is a must on the second trip (for walking around and airport delays)


And don’t forget:
Itinerary
Hotel information
Flight information/tickets
Passport
Maps/ directions
Emergency contacts
Photo ID
Phone and fax of Secretary of State and State Representative
2nd trip only?- copies of dossier (1-171H, 1-600- BCIS stuff)
Visa
Photo copy of visa
US Department of States Consular Information Sheet
Extra passport photos
Copies of 1st pg. of passport
Phone number and email of IA doctor
Access number to use with prepaid calling card

For child at Home

Diaper Champ by Baby Trend www.babytrend.com or Diaper Genie
Hip Carrier: www.cuddlekarrier.com, www.hiphamock.com
Child bounce seat (Learning Patterns Infant to Toddler)
More Music: Buzz, Buzz
White noise machine
Traveling Potty Seat (Folds Up)
More books: Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale, The Day We Met You, Let’s Talk About It: Adoption, Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies
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I feel like I am going to be starting over with my newly adopted daughter, like she is my first child. This is because my youngest will have been a baby 7 1/2 years ago and this is my first girl.

My youngest sister just had a new baby girl. Congratulations! What this means is that I now have two sisters with baby girls and one sister-in-law and they are all waiting for me to get my act together and bring home my baby girl so we can all have a little girl sleep-over tea party. Doesn’t that sound fun? All I can say is that I am working on it!

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10 Comments:
Blogger A Room to Grow said...
Jen, I'm so glad you are putting together these lists. I hope you don't mind that I will be stealing them in the future.

(I messed up on Daylight Savings Time... got up too late to get to see the dogs at the humane society. I feel awful that I missed my shift... I suppose I could have been an hour late, but decided I needed some time to regroup... long story)

Blogger Maggie said...
Congratulations on your new niece. It will be nice that your little girl has lots of girl cousins to play with.

My nieces and nephews range from 16-25. Peanut is way younger than everyone else. He thought the 4 teenagers in my family were pretty cool, though.

Blogger Maggie said...
p.s. Caroline's suggestion of Febreze and the suggestion of a plug for the sink are two that I never would have thought of and am definitely going to take.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Its great that you are doing this. As for other suggestions, I wasted a few hours yesterday reading this great blog: nungesser-russia-adoption.blogspot.com. If you read the archives from May/June/July of last year, he discusses their trip.

One of the things that I really liked about it was that its very practical re: what to bring, what not to bring. Unfortunately, its not all put together in one convenient list. But some of the things he mentions: the sink plug- he even specified the size, DVD player & DVDs (for parent downtime, and for distracting kid), some sticky velcro stuff that you can buy at REI to wrap up stroller during travel, plastic sleeves to keep visa, etc, accessible but neat during travel, pants with a deep pocket near the knee to put passport in (instead of a money belt). He had a few other things too- maybe you should email him and run your list by him- I was really amazed at how organized he & his wife were.

Blogger Elle said...
Nungesser is an awesome resource. He is definately a tell it like it is kind of guy. He also has the most comprehensive story of what the court procedure is like. He also happens to be one of the forum hosts for the Russia board on adoption.com

Your lists are fantastic. I forgot about the drain stopper too. We won't do much laundry this trip, but I will definately need it for the next one.

Blogger Trina said...
I went read his blog as well. Very interesting.

It will be wonderful to add your little girl into the mix of girl cousins. How sweet to have tea parties, we run shy on those over here...lol

Blogger Gaye and Andrew said...
I am about to leave on my 2nd trip and you are so much more prepared than I am...want to come over and help me pack? :) gaye

Blogger 6blessings said...
Thanks so much!! I needed another list. I printed it off and added it to my other lists. I have been highlighting what I need and what I already have, what I need to pack. This was a lot of help.

Blogger Jennefer said...
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Blogger Lauri said...
wash cloths/laundry soap are a must as well as peanut butter- cant find PB anywhere in Russia and we often bought loaves of bread to make sandwiches. I wish I would have packed a pillow- we packed a travel neck pillow- Im talking aregular bed pillow- all of our pillows were feather pillows and hard as rocks