Packing for the Baby

So, while it's still fresh on my mind, I wanted to share a list of items I took and things I used/didn't use/wished I had taken for the baby. Mind you, I'm not as fresh minded as I ought to be, but this beats laundry at 3 a.m., so here goes.



Infant tylenol -- used every four hours for teething - a must have. Check with your doctor about dosage as I didn't and had to email fellow PAP Dr. Suzanne to find out I wasn't giving enough.

Hyland's teething tablets - Even if you aren't "into" homeopathic remedies, go out on a limb and get them and use them. We combined this with Baby orajel and Tylenol to alleviate some horrible teething symptoms

Baby orajel - Take 2 or 3 tubes. We went through a tube the first week

Teething Ring (gel-filled) - We did not take a teething ring and BOY should we have. M, another PAP did send us one and it was very helpful. Take the gel filled so you can get it good and cold

Mylicon drops - Ellie had terrible gas. We aren't sure if we need to change formula from our present Enfamil to something else but we will talk with her doctor about it Tuesday. We gave these pretty much with every feeding.

Antibiotic - I'm convinced that Ellie had an ear infection early on. Once we began the antibiotics, she was able to sleep laying down

Diaper cream - Ellie didn't have a bad diaper rash; just some redness in the folds of her legs -- still invaluable. If you can squeeze it in, the orphanage has a hard time getting this (the kind with zinc oxide), so take extra tubes to donate

Sleepers - While I felt the "Princess" needed some really kicking outfits to sport around town in, truth was we didn't "sport" too much after we got her and she was in a sling all the time we were out, so no one would have seen those "kicking" outfits anyway. I should have taken many more sleepers -- especially since there were lots of "poo" issues. Take at least one for every day. More if you can fit them in.

Coat and hat - I had a large coat "thing" with a hat and gloves built in. It was too big. I wish, terribly, I'd had just a simple coat and a hat that fit. The hat I took was too big for her little head so we ended up using a sweater with a built-in hat.

Thin blankets - Ellie is a sweater. She seems to stay hot. However, she loves to rub blankets on her face. I took three blankets; two were too thick. I wish I had taken several thin blankets.

Huggies wash clothes - Save yourself the trouble of bath items and just take a few of the Huggies wash clothes with the soap already built in. Add water and viola' you have a clean baby and less room taken up in your luggage.

Burp clothes - Take several

Bibs - Can double as burb clothes; take several

Finger nail clippers (infant) - By mid-week after we got her, Ellie's nails had grown so much she was clawing us

Vaseline - We didn't take this and I wished I had. Ellie's teething made her mouth drool and we got a face rash. It would have been good to have some vaseline to form a barrier

Prune juice - I'm certain you could buy it there, but in the middle of the night when your baby is constipated, you don't really want to have to find it. We took a couple of baby-sized jars of prune/apple juice and apple/pear juice. Thank goodness as Ellie did have a bout of constipation.

Washcloths - There are no washclothes that I could find in our hotel in Kyrg. We were glad to have them.

Toys - Seems obvious, but I took quite a few and she was probably bored with most of them before we got home because it was all she had to play with. We also took a couple of books, but she wasn't so interested in those, so in retrospect, I would have packed a few more toys in their place.

Sling - I took a Maya wrap and two Peanut Shell slings. We finally, toward the end, discovered that we liked the Peanut Shell fleece best as it doubled as a coat, was cozy and fit best. I plan to get a Peanut Shell in a cotton fabric now that I'm home. The one I had in cotton was a "S" and I needed a "M", which is what the fleece one was. It literally saved my back as I could carry her, have hands free and she could sleep in it as well. She always fell asleep on the way to lunch so it provided a way for me to eat lunch and not disturb her.

Sweaters - It was good to be able to layer her if it were cold/hot. We were told numerous times we didn't have her dressed warmly enough and that she should be in a coat. *sigh*

Baby lotion - After her bath, Ellie enjoyed a massage and it helped her to sleep better

Slow and fast nipples for your bottles - Days 1 and 2, Ellie couldn't/wouldn't drink from the slow nipples. By day 3, she was drowning in the fast nipple and we switched her to slow. It allowed her more time to enjoy her bottle. When we switched to a new formula, she preferred her bottles as room temp although I know she got them hot in the orphanage.

Pacifier - Thank goodness for Andrea whose daughter had a preference for a pacifier and she gave them to me because all the pacifiers I took struck out with Ellie. She likes a Gerber brand, the Gerber soft center brand

Pacifier clip - Girl likes to spit her pacifier at you, let me tell you, the clip saved us a lot of trouble

Single serving formula - If you are changing formula in country and your brand makes travel sized pouches of formula, they are very handy to have in the car or on the plane.

White noise machine - I didn't take one, but I'm certain it would have helped. Ellie likes noise to go to sleep, we have discovered. Fortunately, her bouncy seat has a built in "noise maker" and it has helped a lot.

Eddie Bauer travel bed - We took this thinking she would sleep in it - haha -- she did use it to lay in to kick and play and since it has a flexible bar over the top, we were able to attach her toys to it to play. She liked that a lot.

Rubber pants - We were advised to take these on the plane, but we never used them.

Chamomile tea - I had planned to take some to soak a rag in to let her suck on for her teeth. I forgot it and then couldn't find it in country.

Poopy bags - We took small bags as well as ziploc bags to put them in so that we had a place to put them in the hotel and on the plane -- a must have.

I'm certain there is more, but these were the ones I think were most important, and I'm sleepy now. Ellie's napping so I'm going to catch a few "Zzzz"s so I can be up with her when she awakens.