Baby Shipment Hiccups

Whoa Lordy we had some dramatics getting our baby shipment packed up and sent to Bangkok! So to review, Jon's company pays for your to have a 500 lb shipment sent from your home country to your country of residence if you deliver a baby internationally. This is a great benefit, but a little stressful since you're mostly shopping online and having to have someone in the states organizing everything for you (thanks mom and dad!). 

So we did the best we could, and when the packers showed up at my parent's house at noon (midnight Bangkok time) they told them they were there to pack up an air shipment that had to fit in a tiny box and therefore only about 1/3 of what we purchased would be coming our way. That lead to lots of phone calls (in the middle of the night our time) trying to disprove that statement (which we eventually did) and they ended up packing everything except a rug that they said was too big (which again, the shipment was based on weight, not size, but whatevs- small potatoes compared to when they told us they could only pack up a fraction of the items). 

So they packed it all up and told us they'd put it on a sea freight and we could expect it in 6-8 weeks, just around the time I was reaching full term of my pregnancy. Flash forward 4 weeks and Jonathan hasn't received a single update despite repeated attempts to get a tracking idea of when to expect the shipment. Finally the packing company emailed him to let him know that our shipment didn't exactly make it on the barge. Oops. It was still sitting on a dock in LA. And yea, wouldn't make it until mid-August (baby due July 26 for those keeping track). 

So I have a panic attack and once again do all the mental gymnastics of 'what do I absolutely need for a newborn that I don't have and where can I find it Bangkok?'. Luckily that day I was already planning to go to the Bangkok Baby Expo where I was able to get some swaddle blankets, a small manual breast pump, a wrap carrier, and a few bottles and Pacis (all repeats of things I had already purchased in my shipment). 

While I got anxious, Jon got mad. We were banking on that shipment, had invested a lot of time and money into it, and there needed to be some sort of reparation for that. So he did his Type A leadership thing and somehow got them to agree to pull the shipment off the docks, and send it via air. Deep exhale out. A few more weeks went by with no info. Jonathan tried contacting them. Crickets. Turned out one of the 3 air shipment boxes made it to Bangkok but 2 of them were stuck somewhere in Europe. It happens... 

Anyhoos, alls well that ends well because about a week and a half later our baby shipment arrived! We've been nesting hard for the past 2 weeks and feel much more prepared for baby's imminent arrival.