[bluebird38]

Do you ever find yourself "nesting" in between placements? I am washing all of the bedding and trying to do some more in-depth cleaning than usual. We've painted our ceilings. I'm also hoping to shampoo my carpets.

We haven't been without a placement for 18 months. So, only having our biokids is kind of weird. It feels like I'm on vacation or something.

The not knowing when "the call" will come and for how many and what gender and age is already driving me crazy. I like to have a plan ahead of time. So, the spontaneity of fostering is a bit of a challenge for me. I also tend to be a little impatient so the waiting is hard. All good lessons to learn, I guess.

Well, I guess I should get some sleep. Never know when I'll get "the call."

bluebird38

[Mystik]

Although I haven't ever really knowingly been "between" placements, I certainly did my share of nesting while anticipating our first little one during the process of getting licensed. I had the entire nursery set up and ready to go, safety lock type equipment ready in case of a slightly older more curious little one, a stroller & car seat to go from 5-45lbs, and I couldn't keep myself out of any baby section of a store that had one. (I won't even go into the amount of time spent online browsing baby stuff). It was all I could do to control the urge to buy clothes & bottles & diapers, and burp clothes, receiving blankets, other blankets and so on. But I really wanted to wait to know the age and gender before getting most things... although I did buy a few neutral color things here and there. After being placed with Bambino (which was a complete surprise) I went into nesting all over again getting everything needed for her.

For me however "nesting" consists more of buying things than cleaning house top to bottom. Don't get me wrong I like a clean house, but I've never been even remotely a germophone so there was nothing inside myself urging me to scrub things top to bottom or replace things that didn't really need replacing or any of the other cleaning/fixing related stuff I've hear about women doing while nesting. I have however gone through about 3 different crib sets trying to get the "perfect ones" and these girls have more clothes than they'll ever be able to really wear, and seriously what 2 babies really need 45 Avent bottles?.... I could go on....

Perhaps I'm just a baby shopaholic?

[meshsgrl]

i always nest between kids!! I also know what you mean about waiting for that phone call.... I am getting really tired of waiting for the right call!!

[blubutterflies03]

yes, we had a 3 week gap between placments and I was nesting too! I also loved when I was getting ready for my first placments, painting and decorating and anticipating. It is amazing when 1 child leaves we might feel bored, but when we get another placement, it fills out time up so quickly.

have fun! The phone will ring soon!!! ring, ring....

[Daisymay2003]

hello! I am new to this. Me and my fiance' will be licensed foster parents in about 2 weeks! I find that I am already nesting. I can't believe how exhausted I am at the end of the day because I am moving around so quickly cleaning and getting everything ready. I want our placements to feel comfortable and that this is their home too. Any advice?

[Tazer]

Originally Posted by Daisymay2003

hello! I am new to this. Me and my fiance' will be licensed foster parents in about 2 weeks! I find that I am already nesting. I can't believe how exhausted I am at the end of the day because I am moving around so quickly cleaning and getting everything ready. I want our placements to feel comfortable and that this is their home too. Any advice?

I have advice for you Daisy as well as the other posters who are nesting. I am the exhausted mother of a 9 day old son who did this>> all night last night, this >>> most of the day today and who is attempting to do this>>> again tonight. I suggest that you guys come to my house AT ONCE and put those wonderful mothering skills to use! Just grab your cell phones, jump in your cars and practice, practice, practice RIGHT HERE until you get that call! LOL...Tracy

[AmahMama]

I still LOVE "my" babies!!! I would rather be in your shoes than in mine with sibs that have NEVER learned boundaries!! I found my partial in the bathroom garbage!!! LOL Ane yes, I nest too. I work like crazy to get "everything" done and try to make "everything" perfect - and most of the time all they really need is an open heart and open mind....

But I do the nesting... and I do the loving... for however long they need us. It is never really very long between placements.. a few days sometimes.. but not usually any longer, so not really all that much time to "nest".... LOL

[lhutton]

Around here its feast or famine. We tend to either have no placement for a few months or suddenly get a sibling group of three or four. The waiting is extremely difficult for my. I also like to plan and am a bit of a control freak. At least when I was pregnant I had some idea of when the waiting would be over! I also knew how many children were coming and how old they would be.

If you want to decrease the time between your placements, you might consider expanding the types of children you'll take. For example, if you're pre-adopt only you might want to express a willingness to take all foster children. If you're only interested in singles, consider taking sibling groups. We've found that this significantly decreased our wait between placements. We also found that our wait decreased once our agency got to know us and we were no longer "untested."

[Daisymay2003]

It's definitely getting harder to wait, especially when it comes to not knowing anything. I guess it would almost be like trying to get pregnant, you know it's going to happen but you just don't know when.

[sarah3015]

I am totally there! We aren't even currently open to take another placement. I am waiting to get the okay from dh that he is ready to take on another placement. I have been ready for the past month, cleaned out my baby's room, repainted it, redecorated it, want to do the same with the guest/foster room but I have to get my dh to patch a big hole in the wall from ffs before i get started in there. I am secretly hoping my agency will call me for a respite or emergency, even though I am on hold... But they have been good, i know they won't call till we tell them we are ready... Aughhhh its driving me crazy!!!
Sarah