[ptadopt]

We are in VA and the baby we are adopting will be born in Utah. Can anyone share their experience with an adoption like this - long-distance, flying, waiting out the ICPC paperwork?

I have the silliest logistical questions:

- Should we take the car seat/base out with us or buy it there (so we have it in the rental car)?

- When we come home, if we have to take a taxi home, do we have to install the car seat in the taxi? Is that time consuming (we haven't bought ours yet).

- Do hotels rent bassinets?

Any other advice?

Tyra

[mommieof2cuties]

The best advice that I can give you is the following:

Depending on the town you may want to buy the carseat ahead of time and take it with you. Since carseats are so important and you cannot leave the hospital without one! However you might be able to rent one to go with the rental car? You don't need one in a Taxi, at least all the times I have been in one, we have never used them.

My hotel advice is find a suite, with a good rate, and a microwave, and Fridge. Some have full mini kitchens. This will be helpful for you to warm the bottles, boil water etc. Also a livingroom, usually means someone can be in the bedroom without waking the person in the livingroom. Most hotels have cribs, I would call in adavanced and make sure you have one. Also many of these hotels have laundry areas another plus. Maybe find out if anyone from on here is in the area and can host you? Or lend you baby items to use while you are waiting to clear? Flying is not bad, just run the risk of getting sick. I hope I provided enough advice for you and wish you the best.

[Amber76]

Find out if there is a Babies R Us or similar near where you will be. If so, buy the carseat when you get there! I know the rental car company WILL rent carseats, but you get whatever they have and they often aren't the highly rated seats. As for in a taxi, I don't know if they are required, but I would DEFINITELY use one anyway. If you have one of the infant pumpkin style seats, you can usually install it very quickly with the car's seat belt, even without the base. The convertible ones can be a little trickier, but I would still take the time to put it in anyway. Taxis are just cars, so if your baby isn't safe in YOUR car not in one, then he/she isn't safe in a taxi either!
I second the suggestion for a hotel with a fridge, microwave, and if at all possible, a full mini kitchen. We had one of those in Texas and it was WONDERFUL not to have to take the baby out for every meal or pay to eat out every meal either. I bought a pack n play once we arrived to get our son because I didn't like the ones the hotel provided-no bassinet part and it is way too hard to get a tiny newborn in and out of the bottom of one of those. Plus the one we bought had a changing table part, so that was a big bonus for us. We recently flew with our son (who is 16 months now) and we could check a carseat or stroller for free at the counter and then check the other for free at the gate. If you checked the pack 'n play it would either count as a suitcase or cost extra. Another thing that was a lifesaver for me while we were in Texas for 2.5 weeks-a bottle rack to dry all of those bottles on! Good luck!

[jp4ga]

When you check in let the clerk know that you will be "adding" a family member during your stay. This can come up naturally when they ask when you are planning to check out. We ended up being in the hotel for 17 days. We made friends with the hotel staff and they made our stay wonderful, we received a free upgrade to a better suite after 5 days and the manager took $500.00 off our final bill at check out.

We were called on a Thurday had to be 6 states away the next day, and had purchased nothing. It was a baby born situation, so we had no notice. We bought everything in the town in which the adoption took place. It made it easy for us to travel there, and we were not tempted to over pack.

Good luck with your travels.

[yehudit]

Hello,
First of all, congratulations!!

I agree with getting a suite with a kitchen. It was essential to our ICPC stay to have ready access to a fridge, stove, and microwave (for heating and sterilizing bottles) as well as extra space. I also recommend letting the staff know the purpose of your visit. We had a lot of time to kill waiting for ICPC, and often took walks to the front desk just to say hi and ask what there was to do in town. Our hotel gave us a Pack 'n Play, but DD was so small that we ended up using our infant carried with a Snap-n Go stroller instead. She seemed cozier in there and it was easier for us because she was higher up.

As for airplane travel, for your trip home I recommend using a Baby Bjorn or sling of some kind so you can carry the baby hands-free and also protect the baby from curious strangers. Just keep the hands inside the ouch and no -one will touch them. Also his/her face will be facing you, not the outside world. Also know that you can check car seats with no additional charge. I wouldn't rely on the car rental place because we've had mixed experiences renting them, and they will give you a convertible seat that's better for other infants and toddlers, not great for newborns.

Good luck!

[Lovebug]

We flew from CT to Utah for our first adoption. We brought our own carseat and checked it at the gate. We also staying in an "extended stay" hotel with a kitchenette and separate bedroom, etc. We were able to use a pack-n-play from the hotel.

Good luck!

[CAToso]

We aren't matched yet, but I spent some time this weekend doing a baby registry online at Target - I actually think I'll end up making two separate registries. One for our travel and one for everything else. I figure that way I can send my husband to the store and just say "get everything on this list". We plan to get a pack-n-play with infant sleeper for use in the hotel during ICPC.

[Nevada Jen]

You got good advice. I would only add that you should not bring the base to the car seat. Your best bet is to bring (or buy when you get there) a car seat/stroller combo. Its no fun lugging a carseat through an airport. If there is an extra seat on the flight home they will let you use it and keep the baby in the car seat. Otherwise, you can just check the whole thing at the gate. Before you go, check the rules for home much formula and liquid medicine you can bring through security in liquid form. It changes frequently.

Finally, if you are headed for an area that is normally a ski area before ski season, you might actually be able to get an awesome deal on a rental house instead of a hotel.

[Lovebug]

We checked it with our luggage....we didn't lug it through the airport. Then on the way home we checked it at the gate.

[mandirenee]

You recieved good advice already, I'll just mention a few things.

We travled for both our adoptions. We took our infant carrier car seat with us and checked at the gate on the way. I would not recommend buying once you get there because the store might not be close to the hospital or they might not have what you want. The infant car seat is easy to carry (you don't need the base) and it will be one less thing to worry about once you are their with the baby. DO NOT rent from the car rental place. They are old, disgusting, and well just disgusting in all my experiences renting them.

I wouldn't recommend taking a pack-n-play or purchasing one while there. They are very heavy and would cost you extra for baggage on your return. Most hotels have them that you can use for free.

I would recommend a house or condo rental. Try vrbo.com for your area. It will be much nicer if your stay is more than a couple days to have all the ammenities of home.

I second, the baby bjorn or snugli for the return. It was a life saver when walking through the airport, connections, etc.

The #1 piece of advice. Tell everyone where you are going and why.... the checkin at the airport, the hotel staff, everyone. We found that people/businesses went out of their way to make things more comfortable and more affordable for us, like giving us the extra seats on the plane, getting lower rates for the long stay, etc.

You could also investigating renting baby equipment during your stay. There are a few companies:

babysaway.com
awaybabyrentals.com
babysawayrentals.com

Congrats and good luck!

(ok, that became longer than I thought - sorry!)

[aclee]

If you are going to check your infant car seat/carrier...I would recommend borrowing one that someone else is done with or won't use again. We didn't travel with our nice carrier because I was afraid of how it would get toss around etc during flight. We have a seat that we use just for travel because we check it. We also have cheap stroller that we use. Coming back from getting Ty, the airline broke out snap and go, and the last thing we wanted to do was fill out paperwork on that. Because we bought it used for $15, we were able to just leave the airport with our newborn and get home to friends and family!

[ptadopt]

Wow - thanks, everyone! Such helpful advice (SO helpful I'm printing it out and putting it in our travel file).

As it turns out, a friend we have in Utah has offered to host our stay. It's a relief because she's an experienced mom of 5 kids and has already lined up a bassinet from her church and has a car seat she's done with (her youngest is 5 y/o).

So I haven't figured out all the details, but I'm chipping away at them -with your help.

One more question - did you all just buy a refundable/changeable plane ticket since you didn't know the exact date you'd be returning? Or a one-way ticket there and then a last-minute one-way ticket back once you knew when you'd be returning?

Thanks a million!

Tyra

[viannqueen]

I would just buy a one way there and get a flight to return home once you know when you'll be returning.

Before our DD's birth we purchased a return flight leaving us a cushion of over a week over when we through ICPC would clear. Long story but that didn't happen. We didn't want to spend $100 to reschedule the flight and good thing we didn't because our timeline got shot to heck and we would have had to reschedule even the second flight. We ended up just getting a flight home once it was all over with, but had lost $$ on the original flight we had purchased. So I'd wait, but that's just me. Our return flight ended up being cheaper than the original one we had purchased but I'm sure some pure luck was part of that. A refundable flight would work also, but I guess it would depend on the cost difference.