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 usePink 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 jerkyEnsure 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.
3 comments:
OH WOW...great list. Will keep this in mind/bookmarked for when it is our turn! Some things I would have NEVER thought of....thanks so much for taking the time to do this for those of us who will follow you!!!
Hello
I have been reading your blog, as we are getting ready to leave for China May 1 to pick up our daughter.
I am leaving my other 4 children at home and really want to communicate with them. Could you use email and skype when you were in China? How would a VPN have made a difference?
And thanx for the packing list!
hi Nancy,
there were a few issues with our internet with out a vpn we could not access sites like skype or facebook or sometimes even hotmail or yahoo. we downloaded free software but it did not work. The second issue was that internet was mostly not free in our hotel room and at one hotel it was about the same price per minute as a long distance call.
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