The trip home was LONG!! It seemed so much longer than the trip over (actually it was longer than the trip over) We had 4:30 am wake-up calls and a 5:45 departure from the hotel. Usually, this would be no big deal (I do it all the time for work), but having to wake up the baby and get her ready for what would be a 30 hour trip was difficult.

I actually packed everything for the baby the night before. I prepared for nine feedings and 12 diaper changes and 3 changes of clothes. I thought I would be overprepared vs underprepared. Well, I used every last diaper and all but one formula mix! I even needed to get into our checked luggage in Chicago to pull out another outfit (we went through customs in Chicago, so we were temporarily reunited with our luggage, thank goodness)

Zoe was great on the trip. She only slept for 5 hours on the 14 hour flight, but it was a straight 5 hours. She slept the entire way home from Chicago to Boston. She didn’t seem to have any issues with take off and landings!

I was exhausted when we arrived in Boston! Both of our families met us at the airport! They were all amazed by Zoe (she really is adorable!) I don’t really remember too much about the airport because I was really wiped out.

My sister Beth drove us home. We were so happy to be home and Beth, my Mom and Heidi had cleaned the whole house for us and stocked the refrigerator (my Mom says Beth did most of the work, but Beth says my Mom was very helpful) I can’t tell you how great it was to come home to a clean house stocked with yummy food!

Beth had made some homemade chicken soup for me because she knew I was sick. Tom and I ate the whole huge bowl of soup that night. We were starving for some normal food! There was so much other yummy food in the fridge (much better stuff than we buy for ourselves!!) and Beth even stocked up on baby food for Zoe! She also went out shopping for other things for Zoe, like 9 mos size clothes for her because she is so little!

I went to the doctors the next day (I was so exhausted I didn’t even have a voice for two days) and I got some antibiotics. I am feeling so much better. Zoe went to the doctor yesterday for a check up and he says she looks great!! She only weighed in at 15lbs, 3 oz, which makes so much more sense to us than the 16 lbs they said she was in China (she wasn’t fitting into anything for 16 lb babies, it was all too big!)

So both Zoe and Mom are doing great. Tom didn’t feel so good yesterday, but he fell asleep early and slept through the night, so he is much better today!

Speaking of sleeping through the night, Zoe slept from 1 am to 11:30 am the first night we were home. Then she went from 9 pm to 7 am the next night. Last night, she did the 9 pm to 7 am thing again! It didn’t take her long to adjust to the new time zone!!

Now we are just trying to get unpacked and all cleaned up from out trip! We’ve already trashed the clean house, but my goal is to have it all cleaned up again after the weekend! It is much easier managing a baby in a clean house!

I’ll probably do one more update in a few weeks! Thanks to everyone for sharing our journey! It was so nice to know everyone was thinking of us while we were in China!