Introductions schedule day by day

[Broodymomma]

We are linked with a 3 year old and was wondering if anyone could give a rough idea of what happens at intros. How many days on average intros last and how many hours per day you get to spend with lo. Thanks

[Moomoomie]

When we adopted first time around.... 2 and a half year old and a six month old baby. Intros lasted a week.
Day one..... Couple of hours with our SW there too.
Day two...... Just DH and I for the afternoon, took the dc out for a walk to the park.
Day three..... DH and I all day, put them to bed.... Etc....
Most intros are around a week, starting of with a short time, increasing as the days go on.
For us, we had a 2.hour journey on top of the time with the children, so was absolutely exhausting.
Second time when we adopted dd3 who was six months old, it was also a week, but much more relaxed. Her fcarers where a lovely family who made us all feel so welcome, it was a much nicer experience all round. Also they live in the same town as us, so journey time only 15 minutes.
Normally at matching panel they talk about intros....
Best wishes.

[Broodymomma]

Thanks for that we are just trying to get a general idea of how it will go so that really helps. We are lucky that his foster carers only live 10 mins from us so no long journey involved.

[Moomoomie]

Very good that the FC are close. Saving time on travel.
Hopefully you will be able to build a good relationship with them, as it does much the intros so much easier.
The fc's to our oldest two children were very difficult to get on with, they made the whole I tro process so hard. So much so, I was really dreading meeting the FC to our youngest dd.
It was such a positive experience it rebuilt my faith in FC.

[Bananaketchup]

I will try to list it out by day which shouldn't hard as it was only a month ago, but it seems like forever! This was with sibs aged almost 5 and 21 months:

• 2 hours at FC
• afternoon at FC including a hospital appointment DS had (very surreal to be asked 'are you mum?' and to say 'well yes, but only since yesterday!')
• morning at FC, then took DD out in the afternoon (this was unscheduled I was meant to be checking into my hotel by myself but FC suggested she come with me to see it and play in the park), back to FC to do bedtime routine

-at FC 6am-12 to do getting up, breakfast etc then park (without FC)
-day out all day local to FCs house, with me, DC and my parents
-FC drove DC to my house, FC stayed 1/2 hour then left, we spent the day here then I drove them back to FC for dinner
-collected DCs first thing, brought them home all day, gave dinner bath put into PJs then drove them back to FCs for bed.
-plan was for introduction review meeting at SW office then to go to FC but the SW cancelled the meeting, so I went to FCs, stayed til 2pm then left them to have a quiet goodbye tea.
-went to FC first thing, SW did a bit of paperwork, then we left asap and that was it!

FC was 110 miles round trip from me, I found the driving incredibly tiring on top of all the emotional stuff so it's good you haven't got a long journey. FC was lovely, I really couldn't fault how lovely, but I had definitely underestimated how hard I would find being in someone else's house. Hope it goes well for you.