What I wish I had brought/glad I brought to China

I wish I had brought:

1. An illuminated alarm clock. We have stayed in two very nice hotels, and neither has clocks in the rooms. Apparently Chinese people are not fond of them, because they're a reminder that time is short. We've been doing wake-up calls every day, which is fine, but when I wake up in the middle of the night I wish I knew what time it was!

2. OTC medicine. I brought antibiotics from my doctor in case we got really sick, but I had a cold and now a cough, and haven't been able to find cough or cold medicine at the grocery stores.

3. Diapers. Quinn has leaked through every Chinese diaper we have tried. I think we have spent way more in laundry service than we have on food!

I'm glad I brought:

1. Baby Bjorn. We struggled with this one because Quinn is 22 pounds and Baby Bjorn carriers max out at 25. We are SO glad we brought it. We firmly believed this helped significantly in our bonding process. Wherever we went Quinn was right there with us, feeling us against him and hearing our voices. After the first couple days he started asking to hold our fingers, which we hold up light motorcycle handles in front of him. He is ALWAYS happy in his Baby Bjorn. We will be so sad when he outgrows it!!

2. Music. We bought a portable speaker system for our iPod at Target, and it's been great. We downloaded lullabies for nap and bed time, and upbeat Asian tunes for playtime. It has really created a nice atmosphere for us.

3. Laptop. We really struggled with whether to bring it, and I'm so glad we did. Not only did it make it possible for me to blog, but we have used it to look up all kinds of things: how to make phone calls from Guangzhou, how much formula babies should have at 22 pounds, the definitions of various special needs (after meeting kids with them), all kinds of stuff. It also eased my mind when I was convinced Quinn had autism, and told us who our next president will be. I'm SO glad we brought it.

4. Baby clothes. Everyone kept telling us not to bother, that everything was readily available here. That's true here in Guangzhou, but we spent our first 10 days in Beijing, where the only children's store was a very nice, but very expensive, super store. We also went to Super Wal-Mart, but it was far away and not especially well-stocked with baby clothes.