Fly? Drive and Other Questions

*Erin&Mike*

A few Questions ladies...

BM is in a state where papers can be signed after 48 hours and after they are signed they are irrevocable.  ICPC paperwork will be started after that.  We are traveling literally across the country for baby-so my question is-can we leave the state that baby is in if the ICPC paperwork is done before our homestates paperwork is completed?  We are still undecided on flying vs. driving.  Driving gives us much more freedom to come and go as we please as with flying we would need to buy open ended tickets which is a lot more expensive.  So what did you do?  Fly or drive and what do you know about ICPC regulations??

TIA!

TTCgradstud

I'm pretty sure you can't travel until both states confirm that ICPC paperwork is done. 

Instead of open ended tickets check for one way tickets.  This is what we did when we flew out for our failed match.  We figured out that booking one way tickets was actually no more expensive then a round trip ones.  Especially since we were unlikely to be flying on a weekend so we could avoid the higher weekend rates. 

GLynn2009

We are waiting on a VISA to travel from Canada with DD so I have not idea how this works for you.

If we go to get her on say Friday from Montreal we will drive because DH hates to fly. If have to pick her up in Vancover we wil fly. We we flew to Vancover in March it took 23 hrs because of delays. UGH. So driving we could be home in 6 to 8 hrs which I would love.

lisanjay

We drove but the Bmom was only one state over...9 hour drive. But we did have to wait for both states approval to leave.

jacksjerseygirl

You cannot leave the birth state until the attorney calls you with the clear. This means the paperwork is sent from one state to another and back again. Typically, the release is not given via phone or fax but by overnighted document. In our case, an exception was made as our state made an error in where to send the clearance to and our attorney was able to get a fax release to leave the birth state.

You can travel any where you want to within the birth state. So if you want to drive right up to the boarder than that is okay but you can't leave until you get the call.

I'm in NO WAY advocating breaking the rules but there isn't lo-jack put on the baby ;-) I firmly believe that it is not in the best interest of a newborn nor new parents to have to stay in a germy hotel (even the best of hotels have a ton more germs and growing bacteria than a home). The governmental red tape annoys me to no end and I encourage you when all is said and done to inform your representatives of how the process could and should be made more effecient. Rant over.

We made a rule ahead of time that we would drive if the total drive time was less than 12 hours. Which would mean we would do the drive probably over the course of two days because you will have to stop the car every 2-3 hours with a newborn for feeding/changings. We were fortunate to have a drive time of 6 hours which took us probably 8 hours to do because of stops.

We were WAY nervous about flying with a new baby - mostly because of us being nervous about how to handle a new baby on a plane - not so much about germs or other health issues. I remember when the two weeks were over and we came home that DH and talked about 'what if we did have to fly' ... after two weeks you will be amazed at how well you know your child and their schedule and temperment. We would have been able to fly with G no problems. So for #2 I won't be as nervous about it.

I also know that with flying - even if you get the clearance quicker than the 2 weeks you may not be able to fly with baby depending on their weight and age per airline and pedi requirements/recommendations.

Good luck! YAY!