Ok, I keep falling asleep at like 7 pm and then waking up at 4 am... which is really so much better than sleeping for 3 hours a night - which is what I did the first few nights. It gives me a great opportunity to blog before James and Kate get up!
We leave Nanchang today (pronounced "Nan - chung") and I know a few of you are coming here soon to adopt. It's the provincial capital of the Jiangxi province, so if you adopt in that province, you will be in Nanchang for the first week of your trip. I wanted to write down a few things about this leg of the adventure for the others of you who are adopting... this could be a super long post. So if you aren't adopting from China or from this province, feel free to skip this post! I was super blessed to have three friends who I met through Facebook and Yahoo chat groups who came to Nanchang in the last few weeks - so I knew most of this already. But here goes...
HOTEL - We are at the Galactic Peace. James had tried to get our agency to put us somewhere else because we'd heard some mixed reports on it... but they like to have everyone at the same place for ease with the guide. And really, the location is perfect. The Crown Plaza is out of the way and you wouldn't be able to walk everywhere. The hotel is super nice. Pool, workout room, spa, etc. I have a sick baby, so we didn't do the pool, but if you do, you'll need a swim cap for each person swimming. The room is super nice and the bathroom too. They had toietry bags with 2 toothbrushes, bath supplies, shower caps, all sorts of goodies. They give us 4 large bottles of water each day when they make up our room (they give us 2 extra than they give the other family we're here with - I'm thinking it's because we are making bottles?). There is a hot pot in the room. It heats up water. No microwave! So we've eaten mostly oatmeal, rice bowls, etc - things you just add hot water to. For bottles, I fill it 3/4 with room temp bottled water then 1/4 boiling water and shake up. The babies seem to like really hot formula! The breakfast in the hotel is pretty good. I eat scrambled eggs with onions in them (you can choose toppings like an omelet bar. the other things were things that looked sketchy so I do the onions. when I didn't choose a topping, they don't cook the eggs all the way, so i choose the onions just b/c they seem to cook the omelet more!). No cheese. They have hash browns, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. They have various fruits. I just eat the hash browns, eggs, and watermelow (because you're only supposed to have fruit that is peeled). I'm not sure about eating pork here ; ) But I'm sure it's fine. James has the pancakes. They have bananas too. We don't get their drinks, although I'm sure they're fine. We are in super lock-down mode with the food, more on that later. Kate (15 months) eats all that stuff too. They have hard boiled eggs too - which the orphanage said was her favorite food - but we can't get her to eat them for us. We've cut them every which way with no luck. Oh weell! The hotel rooms can get HOT. I mean like 85 degrees hot. So bring shorts and a tank top in case you have a couple days of that. Our thermostat worked fine the first few days and now it's just hot in here! There is wireless internet and a hard wire to plug into. You'll need a VPN because they block most sites - so if you want to get onto a blog, facebook, etc, you need a VPN which somehow routes you through a US connection or something. There is a safe in the room that you can leave your money and passports and important documents in. There is a fridge and freezer. We have 3 TVs (one in the bath tub!). Since we have the baby with us, they had a crib in here and a baby tub and a baby potty. i had them take out the tub and potty because I think the potty smelled bad and they took up a lot of space. Although, more on this later, but the orphanage people that James talked to yesterday (he went to the orphanage! I desperately want him to do a post! He learned so much!) but they say Kate is potty trained and can walk holding things. She won't do either for us - yesterday she was pretending she didn't even sit up! She would smile and lay back on you! She just wants to be held. But she's basically been busted! Apparently she can do all sorts of things ; ) Silly girl!!!
Ok, you don't want to drink the water anywherei in this country. So we use bottled water to wash off dishes and bottles, brush our teeth, etc. We have hand wipes to wash our hands. We don't use the faucets. You have to shower in the water (nice hot showers! there's not much to do here in the room with a sick little one so I've taken 2 a day!!! hehe ; ) so you just have to try to keep the water out of your mouth. Again, we are way more cautious than we have to be probably, but we are trying to be really careful (I have an immune deficiency so I'm glad to even have gotten clearance to come! So not taking any chances ; ) What else... of the BEDS! They are hard. Like lying on a rug on the floor. but higher! Seriously! But honestly, we have liked them! Our backs hurt much less than they do when we're home! Even the crib doesn't have a mattress! It has like the equivalent of a comforter-depth thing that has a mini-flat sheet folded around it. Molly would throw that whole thing right out of the bed, but Kate is fine with it. The cribs are in the "middle" height setting. For those of you without kids, my experience has been that cribs have 3 settings and you move the part where the baby sleeps up and down. You start with it up so that when you put the baby in, you don't have to lean over so much. Then as the baby starts to roll over and sit up, you move the mattress part down a notch so they don't come out of the crib. Then when they can stand, the crib base would be at the lowest setting - or your child will fall out of the crib (which they may very well do anyway...). So these cribs are set in the middle setting and i'm not sure if you could have them move it down one? Kate can stand and could easily get out of this thing, but she doesn't. She was in a similar one at the orphanage, so maybe they are just well disciplined not to? But if we had Molly here, this would not work. So if you are bringing an American baby over... the crib thing may need some additional attention! Maybe you'd put them in a bed. We have a sitting room area, a desk area, the bedroom, a full bath, and a half bath. It's super nice. We got a suite - it was recommended to us and it's been great. I haven't seen the other rooms but I think this is much better.
The only slightly odd thing is that I guess there is some prostitution here. You'll get 5-15 business cards each night slid under your door of half naked women! James isn't nearly as concerned as he should be! Just kidding. We have told the guide and the front desk a few times and they have tried to fix it - some nights we get none, some nights we get lots. You get a newspaper under your door too in English - it's really interesting. More on that from a more secure local! Hehe. It seems that our whole floor is American families adopting, so I think they try to put us together and you can't get to your floor on the elevator without your room key - so i think they try to cut down on the prostitution cards by putting us all together so there aren't others on the floor too. It's not threatening or anything. The other family we're with has a 14 year old son with them, so that's more alarming just to explain that and have that garbage coming in. It's distrurbing for sure!
The people at the hotel are super nice. They speak a little English. We've managed to get by just fine knowing zero Chinese words, but next time I might learn like 20 words just to help. If we get in a pickle, we call our guide and she translates. We have Mary as our guide and she is wonderful.
FOOD - I've touched on this a bit already. I eat gluten free so it's been a bit crazy. I've eaten almost every meal in the room with things I brought from home (tuna fish, rice noodle bowls, GoPicnics from Target, nuts, PB&J with GF bread - we brought one gluten free loaf and one regular loaf for James, oatmeal, granola bars, fruit gummy snacks, etc. We eat the breakfast at the hotel. James has had Papa Johns pizza (they deliever to the room and taste mostly normal he says) 3 times for dinner). I've done room service and ordered a beef and rice meal 2 times. We've eaten at McDonald's twice. That's been it! The american/italian restaurant that used to be here has apparently closed. We've heard not to eat street vendor food (although the family we're with, who lived in China, goes out for meals and can eat really cheap and they love all the food here! but they are WAY more adventurous that we are and have no food sensitivity/allergy issues...). I have fomula for Kate - I should have brought more. She takes 5-6 ounces four times a day and I have one cannister of formula and I should have brought 2 of those. I have a 6 pack of ready-made formula for the flights. She loves yogurt drops - I have 4 packages and wish i'd brought 6. I have 2 cans of the gerber cheese puff things and she likes those too - not as much as the yogurt drops. I have one bag of Cheerios and that is a hit too. I have four of the squeeze food things of prunes (thanks, Rebecca!) and I do one every couple days because i have heard that as these babies switch to American foods/formula, they get constipated. I have squeeze apple sauces too - maybe 6 of them - and she likes those.
IN-COUNTRY FLYING - Today we fly from Nanchang to Guangzhou. It's an hour and a half flight we think. We don't have tickets or time info - they never gave it to us - but I guess we don't need it! We just know we are supposed to meet the guide in the lobby with all our stuff at 3 pm. James is a details guy so he would probably rather know flight numbers and such, but we are fine! Hehe. He really likes to know WHY we have to do each thing - WHY we stay in this city for a week, WHY we need to have this hotel, etc. Ok, back to flying, our guide says that we each can fly with 20 kg of baggage (and the baby gets 10 kg). So multiply by 2.2 to get pounds. But that isn't per bag, it's total per family. So we can fly with 50 kg total. That could be one 10 kg bag and one 40 kg bag. I couldn't find this info stateside since i didn't know what airline (still don't) we're flying, but that's the scoop according to our guide!
The CITY - It's a neat city! 7 million people! And we've never heard of it. Crazy! The family we're with has done all the sight-seeing with and without the guide - cool buildings, light shows at night, pretty park, etc. There is a 50 story high ferris wheel here that was the highest one in the world for a time - now it's #3 I think. Takes 30 minutes to get all the way around! We have had a sick baby - and really, I like to play and bond with her in the room more than I like to put her in the sling all day... so we haven't done any of the fun stuff. Well, we have done LOTS of fun stuff but no sight-seeing ; ) In Guangzhou, if she gets better, I'm sure we'll be out and about more! Just having a new baby and doing bottles and such is pretty crazy! The city is smogging. This makes James a bit claustrophobic at times! Some days we look out our windows and can't see very far. Others you can see way far and the smog seems mostly cleared out (you still can't see sky or horizen every) so it's pretty different. Just looks like a gray sky all the time. Crossing the street is hard. you will want to bring a sling for I'd say any baby 3 and under. A stroller would be too dangerous - the baby would be too far from you with cars and mopeds buzzing INCHES from you. If we had all three of our girls, we would have to carry all three across streets. Maybe even down the streets too. It would have been HARD to have our 2 and 4 year olds here with us, honestly. The 4 year old MAYBE. But there is no mac n cheese, lots of adoption-y things to get done, busy dangerous streets, etc. Would have been hard. But fun to have the family all together... just a tough call! It's nice to have this time just with Kate though. Although we miss our 2 big girls so much! It's almost like vacation just to have Kate and lay on the bed with her and giggle and tickle her and all that. Would be much more of a job with all three of our little people. No early morning blogging, etc ; )
WALMART, etc - There is a Walmart! Other than everything being in Chinese, it looked pretty normal. We got bananas and bottled water (you need a bit more than what they give you in the room). There is also an RT Mart that the other family went to. It really helps to have your guide with you - she can find what you need at Walmart, help you check out, etc. I'll have to get more diapers and formula probably before too long from Walmart (maybe I can go this morning or I'll wait till we get to Guangzhou). There is a Papa Johns that delivers. It is in the same mall as the Walmart. There is a KFC in that same complex too. The McDonalds is near the RT mart and is maybe 3-4 blocks from teh hotel. We walked both times we went there. The guide took us to Walmart in the van, so I'm not sure how far it is from the hotel.
TOYS - I brought a couple books, a couple music toys, chew toys,doll, etc. her favorite is the stacking cups. She loves them! LOVES them. Others recommended this, so I think in general they are a hit! I brought a sheet to put on the floor so she would have a play area. I ended up using the comforter that they had for us to use on her crib instead b/c it's thick and soft. I just brought a few light blankets that I use on her in the crib.
LAUNDRY - We've done laundry 2 times. This seems like a lot, but since we brought all our food (and seriously 60 medicines) we didn't have tons of room for clothes! They charge per item - about 45 US per item if we use the hotel laundry and about half that if we ask the guide to take it to a site outside the hotel. We did it both ways. Super expensive both times, but half the cost to do off site. Our guide was gone with James at the orphanage yesterday so I just did a few things at the hotel - I had no idea it would be so $$! That's where a little Chinese language may have been helpful! I have started stripping off Kate's clothes before she eats and using hotel towels to wipe things up (not burp clothes) so we don't have as much to wash. It's hard with a baby! They just generate lots of laundry! And with the room and everywhere else so HOT, we sweat more so I don't want to re-wear things. I have Tide sink packets but I haven't used them. That would be a good option too if you thought something could dry quickly. I have a plastic bib for Kate that just rinses off - that's been great!
Cleft lip/palate - just a word on this in case any of you are adopting a little one with cleft lip and palate. Kate's lip is repaired and her palate is still open. She eats normally and you'd never know it was open. It doesn't hurt her. We've only seen it a couple times when she cries. I think some people clean out that area by squirting water up there, but we haven't done that. It would upset her and she seems to be fine. I brush her teeth like normal. I brought fast flow nipples that go on the Playtex drop in bottles and that has worked great. The liquid comes out if you just hold the bottle upside down. Kate can't make a suction so you'd either have to have a bottle that drips like that or one that squeezes into her mouth. I have sippy cups that she could bite on and get the liquid out, but she likes the bottles better. The sippys she hasn't figured out yet. We also have a medicine dropper that we use to get liquid in her. She loves to drink apple juice that way! She seems to like hot things from the bottle and not cold (water/apple juice) but that just may be her... Food and liquid reportedly comes out of these children's noses, but it hasn't come out of Kate's yet except for one time when when she was drinking her bottle at a funny angle a drop came out of her nose. Her nose has been pretty flattened from the lip surgery (common I hear, they will have to fix that I think) so she doens't seem to have much airflow out of her nose - she can mostly breath through her nose while taking a bottle though - but it's a very very small slit on each side. So maybe that's why the food doesn't come out!
MEDICINES - Ok, I'm writing more on packing now! But while I'm at it, the medicines we've used are: Zithromax for Kate (liquid form, prescribed by International adoption clinic doc, used for her cough/cold symptoms), Ibuprofen for her fever (we also have tylenol but haven't used it - Dr Chambers recommended we use the Ibuprofen - we called her, had her listen to Kate's cough, etc), Malaria meds for both me and James, Delsym cough syrup (1/4 tsp every 12 hours, just to help Kate sleep - or she is coughing all night long), Augmentin (I'm on that as prophylaxis). Other things we brought and haven't used: Benadryl liquid and tablets (we will use this on plane home for Kate - Dr. recommends!), Pedialyte, Immodium, pepto, tums, monostat, lice meds, scabies meds, benadryl anti-itch cream, nystatin and desitin for diaper rash, AZO in case of bladder infection, zophran, Midol, tylenol cold, tylenol PM, ambien (i should have taken this), pink eye med, epi pens (we're a bit over-prepared ; ) and i figured i'm a nurse, so i'll have everything in case anyone in our travel group needs anything), pedialax or something like that for constipation - i had pharmacist come out and help me choose all these meds, first aid kit (band-aids, gauze, tape, neosporin), electrolyte tabs for adults, Zithromax for me and for James (so some of these are prescription meds - ask the travel doc for them when you get your shots or ask your regular doc ; ), thermacare heating pads (these were recommended to us and if we had done more sight-seeing and worn sling all day - especially if we weren't used to carrying a baby - these would be great), aveeno oatmeal bath for dry skin (kate's skin is fine, but many babies have really dry skin), lotion, baby tear-free body wash and shampoo ... and that's all I can think of for now. Our meds are packed up but if I notice others, I'll add them!
Ok, that's all I can think of for now. If other useful info comes to mind, I'll add it. Hope that helps those of you who are journeying a similar path!!! Take care!
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