Packing list and tips

Here is our packing list, and what we did and did not use in the end.

Over the counter medicines, glad I had all of these, there was nothing more we needed although some were not used:

Scabies Medicine -did not use

Pink eye medicine - did not use

Night time Kids Benadryl

Kids Gravol

Kids Tylonol and Advil -almost ran short on advil, should have brought 2 to be safer

Orogel

Pepto pills

Immodium x2 - did not use

Adult gravol x 3

Niquil x 2

Sylvia’s allergy medicine

Daytime cold meds x2

Adult advil

Sleeping pills

Cough drops x2

Vicks for kids

Elora

12 outfits
10 pj's
hat/hair bows - did not use :(
12 pairs socks
swim suit with 5 swim diapers - she hates the water, but the pool looked amazing, did not use
2 Bibs -forgot them, but made due with out just fine

3 pairs of shoes

Travel place mat - forgot this too, but again no need
1 pack diapers diapers/3 packs of travel wipes - we downsized to 2 packs of wipes and 20 diapers, we needed more wipes but got them no problem in china. I also bought diapers there but even the largest sized pampers were too small for her and her blowouts, I wish I had more size 6 ones that I brought from home.
beach ball - forgot this one too
stacking cups - amused her for about 10 mins, could have done without
travel fork/spoon set - very useful
snack cup container - big hit!
2 bottles - playtex drop ins, rock for travel

5 nipples - I brought two flow levels, she would only take the fast ones

Diaper bag back pack
travel sun screen - we were hermits and it was raining nonstop so we didn't use it
travel shampoo/lotion/powder - you only need baby ones, the hotels are extremely well stocked with toiletries
baby snack puff - these were a very big hit, only had 2 cans and had to ration them for emergencies only

Baby food x 3 - Very handy to have, I got the toddler microwave meals since they are flat and not breakable. Some times we had to choose to go out for lunch and miss a nap or eat in the room, we often chose to stay in and these were great for those days. PS there is no microwave in the room but I just plugged the sink with almost boiling water and they warmed enough after about 5 mins for our girl who hates cold food.

Baby rice - only brought one, it was easy to get more but she preferred our home brand so I wish I had packed more

Blankie - It was needed since only one of our 3 hotels provided bedding for baby, but I wish I'd had the sleep sack instead. Now that we are home we are using that and she much prefers it, I think it is better at mimicking the snowsuits she slept in at the orphanage with their padding and restrictiveness. She is like an infant that way when she is in just a sleeper her hands and legs flail and jerk waking her up.

Mai Tie - must have for us, we used it as a makeshift highchair too since there were very few available and even if there was one it had no straps

baby Snow suit - used it only in Beijing but we were still glad to have it

Sunglasses

Other items

Ziplock Bags - used for every thing under the sun

Doggie pop bags - for tieing up dirty diapers to mask the smell

Travel sized Dish washing liquid - forgot and just used shampoo

Hand sanitizer - had one in every pocket and bag

TP and Kleenex - ran out but it was easy to buy more

CLIF bars - again great for the times we had to eat in the room

Crackers

Umbrella - forgot it, but got a cheep and good one in Hangzhou

Travel pillows - one popped on the first plane trip but we got another one for about a dollar at the mall in Beijing

Travel ponchos

First aid kit

Iphone + charger - used for audio books so many times when insomnia and jet lag hit

Playbook + charger

Laptop stocked with movies and tv shows. Great help, we would get baby to sleep and then plug in our headphones and watch a movie. We got dual head phone jack that worked well for us.

Camera + charged batteries and cable - wish I had a better camera, I feel like our photos of Elora are very limited because of her light sensitivity and our camera. I worry that some day I will really regret not having more good photos of us all together

Tuna

Juice packets

Beef jerky

Ensure meal replacements for kids - we ended up drinking them

Pedialite powder to add to water

One can of formula - We ran out with 3 days to go and wish that we had brought more, it was expensive to buy (around $55 US for a large can) and none of the babies in our group came with any formula. Be sure to take some with you to the first meeting

We brought enough socks and undies for every day for the adults and enough shirts and pants to get us to Beijing and then we used an outside laundry guy to wash 4 sets of items each for us. It was not super cheep ( I think it was 170 yuan), but kept us under the airline weight limit. That was hard to do with all the winter clothing we had to bring, you may not need to in summer, or maybe you do since you would sweat more.

Wish we had a travel alarm clock, none of our hotels had any clock what so ever. I also wish we had bought a VPN we had so many internet troubles and we were feeling very isolated at times because we could not communicate with the folks at home and our support network.

So all and all, there were somethings we wish we had more of, some things we had to (easily) buy in China but for the most part this list worked well for us.