Thursday, July 20, 2006

More News!!!!!

We got our tentative Embassy/travel dates yesterday. I can hardly believe that in less than 5 weeks we will be leaving for Ethiopia and meeting our son. Unbelieveable. And to top it off we have so much work to do but are now without power due to one hell of a storm last night with straight line winds over 70mph. Our power could be out until as late as Tuesday of next week. Yeah, not so good timing. I am certainly glad the gods are excited for us, but they could have tamed down their excitement or at least let us keep our power. My dad and brother both still have power so hubby, myself, and the two dogs are going to set up camp at my dads at least for today and tonight as the temps are going to top out at over 100 today with close to 100% humidity. Those of you from the midwest know what this feels like. In the city where we live the heat index is expected to hit 120. Not the best timing. But we will cope. I hope the cats will be okay as we aren't taking them with us. They usually hang out in the nice cool basement anyway.
I am sure I have a fridge full of spoiled food as power has been out for well over 12 hours. I am hoping I can salvage somethings from the freezer, but who knows. Okay I have about 33 days until we are going to go to Africa and pick up our son. I still can't believe it and I certainly am not ready yet. Well, I guess I really am as ready as I am going to be aside from some basic housekeeping details, like finishing up the nursery and putting the crib together and that kind of stuff. I am so excited I can hardly see straight. I just don't know what to do now. Where to start? What do I bring with me? How in the hell will I sterilize the nipples when I am in Ethiopia, do I need to sterilize the nipples? HELP!!!!

I am sure it will all work out maybe. I just don't know. There are so many unkowns that I can't even begin to know where to start or what to do first. How will I get it all done? Will the world collapse if I don't????

6 comments:

Danielle said...

Congrats, Dawn!! You must be excited, because you're an English teacher who usually posts with perfect grammar and spelling and you just made a lot of errors in that last post. He, he. Babies. They make you crazy.

As for the nipple sterilization and bottle sterilization...everything I've heard from others is that this is a huge issue with the water being unsafe. Some people brought one of those plug in kettle things for their room (to boil everything). I found a website (www.welcomeaddition.com) where you an order premixed, prefilled bottles of formula with individually sterile nipples. The formula is Similac. Heavy, yes, but easier I think. That's what we're planning to do. They sell them by the case and my Dr. Sears book and some math tells me 2 cases should be enough for the week for a 6 month old.

But feel free to ignore me as I am the blind leading the blind! Congrats again!!

writex3 said...

"I'm sure it will all work out maybe" - my sentiments EXACTLY!!! Congrats on your date. What great news!

5KidMom said...

I don't want to come across as a "know it all", but with five kids, I've fed my share of babies. You should wash all the hard plastic parts of the bottles in your dishwasher before you go. The water gets hot enough in there to kill off anything that might be on them from the manufacturing process. Then, you put the soft rubber parts (nipples, pacifiers, etc.) in boiling water for a few minutes. Once everything is dry, pack up your bottles, formula (Nestle Good Start is similar to what the babies have been eating at Layla), rice cereal, etc. for your trip. Make sure to use bottled water to make the bottles.

As far as washing in Ethiopia, I recommend bringing a small container of dish soap and a bottle brush. Use a tiny bit of soap in a sink of bottled water to wash, and then rinse with bottles water. Sterilization is NOT necessary every time the bottles are used. Honestly, do you think the babies have been eating out of sterilized bottles for the last few months?!

This worked very well for us. We didn't deal with tummy upset, and everything stayed clean. I know it seems like a lot of bottled water, but you will find that you can get it very cheap at the Fantu Market, and it is the safest choice.

Happy Traveling!!

Dawn said...

Danielle, thanks. I went back and edited it mostly...I am having a hard time concentrating. Go figure.

30 days until we go....Whoopeeeeeeeeee

Thanks for the sterilization advice I feel much much better now.

Fizzle said...

Congratulations! That's great news. Danielle is so ahead of her game. I'm totally impressed!

Anonymous said...

Congrats, congrats. I am also impressed by Danielle's infinite wisdom! Also, glad to hear you made it through the storm, hopefully power will be back soon, I was in the city today and it is quite a mess! No stop lights is a very bad thing!