One of the funny things about adoption is until you get matched with a birthmother, you don't have a due date. It's a little weird. You know a baby is coming, but it could be in a day, a week, or even a year. I had a minor freak out the other day when realizing several of the couples we have met through our adoption agency have gotten babies rather quickly. One was over night! One day business as usual, the next day, good morning mommy and daddy!
Because most everything we need for baby we are getting from friends and family I haven't felt a need to really gather everything, I just thought when the time comes I'll put the word out and work with the people who are giving us things to collect them. But we decided over the weekend, that when it all comes together the last thing we're going to want to be thinking about is "wait, where is that car seat and how are we going to get it?" So we agreed, let's pull together the essentials so we have them at the ready. We live in a very small house so setting up a baby room for us isn't a functional choice - we'll be able to make room when the time comes for the baby to have his or her own room (if we still live in this house) but for now it just doesn't make sense to clear out all that precious space and not be using it. Plus, I'm not really drawn to doing that anyway. I've learned in our 8 months of waiting I go through phases of wanting to nest and wanting to take a break from thinking about all things baby related. It ebbs and flows. So we have our little area where the collected baby things will live until we're ready to bust them out for real.
Our list of essentials is as follows:
- Car Seat
- Clothes
- Blankets
- Bassinet
- Stroller
- Changing Station (including diapers and other supplies)
- Feeding Supplies (including bottles and any cleaning supplies - formula will wait until we know what they are started on at the hospital since we've heard it can be explosive to change it up too quickly)
- Swing (although this isn't essential)
- Bouncy Seat (also not really essential, but will be nice to have from what I hear)
Stay tuned for more on this topic. Next up diapers...who knew there were so many choices?
One of the weirdest things I had to do was reserve a spot in our faculty day care. I had to put a question mark in for the birth date. We will just have to keep updating our reservation. I imagine getting these things together now will alleviate some rushing around later!
ReplyDeleteI definitely understand how you feel about wanting to be ready, especially if it happens so quickly. That's why I really appreciate the supply list you emailed me. And I have to say in regards to child care, I did some research but was having a hard time finding infant care, and the not knowing makes it hard too.
ReplyDeleteMy two cents...you don't know where the birth is going to be. For us, we live in Arizona but spent two weeks in the Los Angeles area after Sabrina was born waiting for ICPC. It could be shorter or longer, you just don't know. So I'd stock up on travel supplies that will elp you out during the travel and the hotel stay. You may not have much notice of when you need to leave, so have those supplies ready in advance. Pack and Play and Car Seat are the absolute must haves! Research hotels; we got a great deal and a great set up at the Marriott Residence Inn. Kitchen, two bedrooms, perfect for a long stay. Kitchen is important unless you want take out or restaurants for every meal. Get work at home permission set up if you need to do that from the hotel while you're gone. DVD's books, laptop--you'll have plenty to do with a newborn, but there are large gaps in between. And work out some "down time" for you and the hubby. It sounds great, alone with your spouse and new baby for two weeks in a hotel, but it's also stressful, so unless you want to risk killing each other, plan for alone time. We would take turns going to the gym or for a run or over to a local shopping center to get in that Me Time. It's a lifesaver. Some things we went through during travel on my blog around April 2009 if you want to see what we had to deal with.
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