Thursday, January 17, 2008

Christine's random thoughts today

I have some random thought here.

If a pregnant woman is expected to gain around 30 lbs when she is expecting, how much are adopting woman expected to gain? I hope the same because I think I have gained at least five pounds since we started.

Since a pregnant woman is known to be emotional, can't I be extra emotional too?

Why does nesting come in waves? One day I'm all gung-ho to clean the house and like today, I could barely get myself to wash two loads of laundry. I didn't even feel like cooking dinner.

Do you take diapers with you or do you buy them over there?

19 comments:

Connie said...

You are a mom, and a woman - you are allowed to be unpredictable ;-)

I would say, if you have room, take some diapers. I haven't been to the Ukraine, but with all the traveling we have done with babies, I have often found 'good' disposable diapers hard to find and expensive. 'Good' meaning: sturdy and not filled with massive amounts of perfume... baby-on-formula poo smells bad enough, baby-on-formula poo smothered in cheap perfume is TOXIC ;-p ! (At least consider having enough good diapers for the flight home).

Zack, Jenn and William said...

Hi Christine - if you don't mind me asking, what age child are you requesting in your dossier?

I think weight gain and emotions are part of the paper pregnancy process. You'll be glad you gained the weight, because you'll likely lose some while over there (I lost 13 pounds in 1 month!).

Anonymous said...

Christine, As far as diapers go..I adopted a 23 month old in April 2006 and "Pampers" brand are readily available in Ukraine. I would not waste the space or your back, carrying diapers over. I did carry destin and A&D ointment and a small package of wipes. I also would recommend the bath cloths(mine were Huggies brand) that have the soap/shampoo included. They are very light weight and came in handy for more than my sons first real bath. As far as the weight gain...I don't know, but I do know you are guarenteed to loose weight in Ukraine. I lost 12 pounds in 7 weeks! Stefanie

Kathy Cassel said...

Take diapers! I take them out of the bag and use them to pad the corners of suitcases etc. Also, take some plastic pants to go over them even when using disposable diapers. Our kids had a few "blow outs" and we would have been in trouble without the plastics!

kate said...

i did a whole post on the physical effects of adoption. ;> yep--gained weight and gotten emotional here for sure. wish i knew when it would end!

Nancy said...

I gained 25 pounds during my adoption! Sounds about right! :)

junglemama said...

Stefanie, I lost 6 pounds in Russia back in 2005. :) In the back of my mind that is what I am banking on..... losing at least 10 pounds over there. :)

junglemama said...

Oh Jennifer, I see that you said the same thing about losing weight over there. Yeah!

As far as the child's age we are requesting, we are hoping for as young as possible.

Anonymous said...

This is cute. I agree. I totally feel pregnant when I am adopting!

Sandi said...

The emotional part comes from being a mom. Doesn't matter how you become a mom - pregnancy, adoption, step mother - it's emotional. And that's a good thing.

Sarah said...

I found the diapers in Kazakhstan to be fine. (I am thinking Ukraine won't be much different in that department.) I think I bought pampers. One time I did accidently buy pullups instead of diapers but they worked ok. I had to take some with me cause I was buying them for our daughter we took with us who was 18 months at the time. Because we were there for two full months I had to buy more to replace those I bought and didn't have any problems. Not knowing who you are adopting would make it hard to even know what size to bring anyways. (Or will you get a referral?)

Tami said...

You are allowed to gain as much weight as you want...and all in chocolate if necessary, because chances are you'll at least lose a little bit of while you're here! I lost at least 10 pounds, if not more during my Russian adoptions...I don't think I've lost that much this time around, but I think I've dropped maybe five pounds. It would be more if chocolate weren't so readily available!!!
Buy the diapers here. I haven't priced them, but I've seen them in all of the grocery stores I've been in lately. It won't be hard to pick some up here.

Annie said...

Oh!!!! Diapers! I'm so envious!

As regards weight gain - I trust Ukraine is a LOT different than Russia - I gained weight there! Especially this last trip as I am now much more savvy about where all the BEST foods can be found! :)

MyGirlElena said...

I'm sure you can find Huggies and/or Pampers in Ukraine. They have both these brands in Kaz. I wold buy them there because you won't know the size he wears until you meet him.

ArtworkByRuth said...

Don't even think about losing weight in Ukraine, unless you can avoid the fried goodies and ice cream...Oh wait, you're still pregnant there, going into labor...try the raw garlic with your ice cream, with smetana...
We took pull ups and a toddler toilet seat knowing we were adopting a small 6 year old. We didn't need the pull ups, but the toddler seat worked well for all of us on the train...

Annie said...

Ha!

adoptedthree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
adoptedthree said...

They have pampers and wipes readily available in the drugstores and "super" markets. They have independent baby stores too, the prices are comparable to here.

Only baby items I would take would be a travel case with baby shampoo, baby soap, baby tylenol, travel themometer, baby washcloth and a travel wipes. You can buy formula etc,, over there. I did take travel formula with me the first two adoptions with the drop in system and used them exclusively and bought baby cereal there.

I didnt gain weight becuase I wanted to be comfortable getting my pictures taken, so I would excercise and tell myself I was excercising for my children in Ukraine because they couldn't!

Life in Fitzville said...

I called my adoption the yo-yo diet. I would get stressed and eat, and then get more stressed out and have no appetite.