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Adoption
Waiting in hotel for ICPC - what to bring?
Since it seems like there are quite a few situations that require last minute travel, I thought we should get ourselves prepared. It's very unlikely that we will adopt from our own state, so we need to plan for about a 2 week hotel stay. For those likely to travel by plane, what baby things will you bring with you? Obviously we need a car seat, and we have this. Did you bring an entire travel system, or is this not helpful to have (I don't know how much walking around we'd be doing)?
A big question of mine is where should the baby sleep? Even a pack n play seems big enough to be a pain to fly with. Do you have any recommendations for small bassinets that are easy to travel with?
How much baby clothing should I bring, keeping in mind that we'll be at a hotel without really easy access to laundry?
The daunting task of caring for a newborn is foreign enough, but I have no idea what else we need to consider for a 2 - 3 week stay at a hotel and also flying with a newborn. Any advice is appreciated!
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Re: Waiting in hotel for ICPC - what to bring?
can you see if the hotel has a crib? (a lot of the time, the hotel crib is apaprently a Pack-n-play) A lotof them lend them--just gotta talk to 'em in advance.
(I have no other useful info)
No advice about ICPC specifically, but I have advice about hotel time with a newborn.
First, I would skip a full travel system and just get a snap n go. It is lighter and easier to travel with. Or you could just get a sling (Moby is a good one, but practice with a doll beforehand so you feel comfortable).
Hotel cribs are iffy. We have always brought our own pack n play on car trips, and plane trips have all been to grandparents and they all have pack n plays. I am not sure that I would trust the hotel crib. Not to be a paranoid person, but crib safety is super important and I wouldn't trust the hotel to keep them up to date and inspected.
Some options for packable bassinets/cribs:
Phil n Teds travel crib ($200 on Amazon.com but I have seen it frequently for $100- still not cheap!), like a pack n play but only about 6 pounds and smaller to travel with. I have never seen them in real life, so I can't vouch for the quality.
Snuggle Nest, a little sleeping area for a newborn on the bed with the adults. Again, never used one, but it looks safer than co-sleeping but you'll have to decide how you feel about that.
Kidco Peapod
Cozy Baby Travel Bed- at One Step Ahead (this one looks pretty good to me: https://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=536573
Sorry that I don't have any personal experience with these products. We decided just to buy a Pack n play for our trips, but we haven't flown with it yet.
Good luck! I hope this is helpful.
All hotels have cribs (they are just PNP's though) and they are required to keep them in safe condition just like everything else in your room. Don't bother taking a travel bed with you.
You likely won't need a carseat. Just hold the baby on the plane and rent a carseat from the rental car place. Trust me, the less luggage you travel with the better.
Newborns go through 2-5 outfits a day, but mostly sit around in onesies or footed sleepers. You'll need several receiving blankets and burp cloths. You can buy diapers, wipes, bottles, formula and anything else you need. Figure out where the nearest Walmart or Target is where ever you are traveling.
For laundry, you can send your laundry out through the hotel, or they also likely have facilities on site, so bring quarters. It's easier to throw a load of laundry in, than to pack a ton of stuff to fly with.
I feel like I can barely remember those first 2 weeks...the first week was fairly easy because the baby slept all the time. The second week was the start of the first growth spurt and was brutal. Be prepared to sleep when the baby does, but there were many hours I spent on the internet or zoning out in front of the tv with a sleeping (or nursing) baby in my arms. Maybe bring something you can do this with?
I recommend getting some kind of baby carrier (a moby is a great option for newborns) and avoid a stroller (too much work). Holding and carrying the baby will also promote bonding.
We took a carseat and were glad we did. Our flight home let us take it on the plane (FAA approved) and put H in his own seat since the flight was not completely full. We did not have to pay for his ticket. Even if there wasn't room you can check it for free. We did go out a bit while out of state (we were going crazy in the hotel) and it was nice having him in the car seat to put in the stroller. I don't know what the carseat rentals would be like so those might work just as well. We packed pretty light so we didn't mind lugging it to the airport. We did get some strange looks on the way out, though.
We did not take a pack n play. We used the one at the hotel and it was fine. We took a pack n play sheet.
For clothes. It was all about onesies. We had to do wash several times because he got his stuff pretty messy. The hotel had laundry machines we used.
The best thing we did was find a Suites hotel that had a full kitchen and a separate living space. I'm pretty sure we would have gone nuts in just a regular hotel room. This time around we are actually probably going to rent through VRBO if we can find someone who is flexible enough. We already know the area really well and feel comfortable with that route.
We got formula, diapers and all that stuff once we were there. No need lugging it out. The hospital gave us a ton of things too. They gave us a stack of the hospital blankets too which were very handy.
We also packed some basics that I didn't want to be searching for when we were out there like shampoo, creams, etc. We use special ones so I wanted to have those.
We took a lot of movies.
Make sure you get a list of supporting documents for your homestudy that ICPC will need that may not be required instate.
In our state, as long as the SW sees the document, she just notes it in the homestudy, but the judge doesn't require it to be part of the homestudy package -- or a copy is sufficient. For ICPC, they require originals or certified copies of documents, so for our failed out of state adoption, we had to rush to gather copies and originals of documents to make sure we took them with us.
We needed:
- homestudy
- marriage license
- divorce decrees
- birth certificates
- tax returns
- financial statement (and our ICPC worker asked to see our last month's bank statements and a paycheck stub)
- letter of employment verification from husband's employer
- medical clearances
- letter from counselor/psychologist
- letter from vet
- reference letters
- copy of SW's state license
There were others, but these are the major ones I can think of off the top of my head. We just took a huge binder with all of this information in it. You may not need it, but we had a "picky" ICPC worker.
We only went through 1-2 outfits a day, but we have a very "neat" baby. Mostly onesies and sleep 'n plays.
Plenty of socks and hats for the first 2-3 weeks.
Send your laundry out through the hotel.
Remember lots of burp clothes.
We went through 12-15 diapers a day (Payton hated being wet).
The hotel should have a crib -- their bedding is often loose though, so be very careful with that. I would take your own PNP and bedding. There is a great mattress cover and jersey sheet available on Amazon that fits the Graco PNP -- it's marketed for a small crib though. If you want to know what kind it is, I can look it up in my receipts. Just email me: MrsB2007 at gmail dot com. You will pay to check the PNP, but your stroller and/or carseat will be free.
I'm sure you have been asked this already, but which facilitator/consultant are you working with? We are "shopping around" right now.
TIA
Michelle
As far as sleeping goes, we used this when we went out of state at Christmas: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OBDKJ2/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000COW7WS&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=02RHZKZBK2FFPEWAY9QB.
You could also use the crib at the hotel. We liked the travel bed because it fit in one of our suitcases - it folds completely flat.
I would stick with footed sleepers for the trip -- I found those much easier when dd was a newborn. I would say maybe take 5 or 6 sleepers and wash them as you need to -- that way you'll have a couple on hand and a couple in the wash at any given point. (I would buy detergent when you get there - too heavy to travel with.)
Our dd's hospital gave us pre-made formula (already in the bottles), diapers, and a couple of swaddling blankets. The hospital may send you home with some of this as well. I would try to wait on the formula and see what they are giving him/her at the hospital. Diapers, too. You could just pick that up at a Target or drugstore.
We took a laptop with us, so we could email friends/family. Don't forget your camera, video camera, batteries, chargers (for all cameras, batteries, and your phones!), cell phones, list of names/phone numbers of people to call...
We have a Graco snugride car seat -- it's very light weight. https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3420747 We also got the Grace Metrolite stroller -- very light weight and folds up. The car seat pops right on top of the stroller. https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4042459
We just got back about a week and half ago so it's still pretty fresh in my mind. We took a travel bassinett which we placed inside teh hotels pack n play. We took a good number of clothes, onsies, sleep gowns, socks, and hats. We didn't take a lot of diapters, we just bought some while we were out htere. We took a copule of bottles until we figured out which ones we/she liked and then went and bought a few more. If you're hotel has a microwave, you can get some Modela sterilizer bags, we used these for bottles, nipples, and paci's while we were there b/c we didn't have a dishwasher. Take a bottle brush too. Don't buy formula until you know what the hospital is starting your LO on then you can go buy more. We took our laptop and camera so we could share pictures while we were there. We ordered a car seat online and had it delivered to the local adoption agency's office. WE didn't take a stroller, we really didn't go out much wiht her nad it was easy to carry her when we did go out. I carried her mostly in a moby wrap on the plane ride back.
Hope this helps, good luck!