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When to take classes?
Hi,
When do you guys think I should schedule the Infant CPR class and Infant Care class? I was thinking CPR first in January because they need that as part of our application, then waiting a little while like April to take the Care class? The hospital near our house is the only hospital in CO that offers classes just for adoptive parents, at least that is what they claim 
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Re: When to take classes?
I'd do it as soon as possible and get it out of the way but then again i'm also a planner and I like to check things off my to do list.
If you have the time you might as well. Who knows what could come up later or if you recieve a placement sooner!
We took them during the home study. We just took the infant care and CPR class through the hospital. Most of the couples were pregnant, but there was one other adoptive couple. That was nice. :-)
Take good notes! I barely remembered a thing from those classes by the time Quinn arrived. But I was glad for the notes. :-)
Infant care was included as part of our training with the agency.
It sounds like your agency specifically requires CPR? I know that when DS was born, we were required to take CPR through the hospital before we took him home (I'm in CO too, which is why I am bringing this up). We basically just watched a video and practiced with a doll. I would ask your agency about that before you pay for classes.
We need to give our agency copies of our CPR certification cards, and since DH and I are not certified, we must take the classes and she highly recommened taking the infant/child class, as adult CPR would be not relevant.
Our agency does not require infant care, however we need 3 additional hours on top of the training that our agency gives us, so I thought that this would be a beneficial class to have.
Whatever fits your schedule, IMO.
We aren't required to do CPR, but my co has offered a class. We took an infant care class last month. Very informative. Though I found the lingering on breastfeeding to be--interesting.
If you're talking about Parker Hospital, we did them all at once. When I called to register, I spoke with Rebecca - who coordinates the classes for adoptive parents. I asume she is still the coordinator there, but we did do this back in March. She was kind enough to schedule it all in one day for us - if that appeals to you.
I didn't worry about scheduling the care class later to try and retain more info. We knew our wait could be 6 -18 months and there was no way to remember it all. Luckily, she had great handouts and gave us contact info in case we had questions down the road post-placement.
And, yes, there were only adoptive parents in the class. There was no way I could have survived sitting in a room full of pregnant women.