I-130 questions

Hello. I have 2 quick questions. My wife adopted a child through the Russian adoption process, and consequently we have to wait 2 years and apply for the I-130 (we are more than half-way now). One question is, can we apply early for the I-130 (since it is taking about 8 months to process)? There is not much info about this on the web, and the government sites say to wait the full 2 years before applying (of course). The other question is, if my wife spends 80% of her time in Russia with our child (her mother watches our child when she returns home for short visits), can we count the entire time (including the breaks) as part of the 2 years? We seem to never get clear answers on these matters. I was hoping that people here could share some of their wisdom and experience. Thanks in advance...