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Not pleased with our flight time (Whine and poll)
Our flight to Europe leaves around the dinner hour. This means that our 2.5 year old will likely miss his afternoon nap as we will be checking in when he typically naps (and he nearly always naps for 2-3 hours). I had thought our flight took off much closer to midnight and therefore, LO would sleep most of it. Not so much. LO will be awake for at least 50% of the flight. And, when we land, which will be the middle of the night for our bodies, we have some required business to take care of before traveling 90 minutes to the city where we're moving.
I know that it is best to try to stay up as long as one can when trying to adjust to a new time zone. This was a challenge for me 18 years ago, when I was, obviously, considerably younger. We landed around lunch time, and I did not have business or a toddler and I was exhausted and wiped out. (Though, truth be told, traveling hungover likely did not help!)(And yes, I'm that old that 18 years ago, I was legal to drink!)
So, trying to turn this whine into something positive, please share your best tips and suggestions for dealing with and/or beating jet lag.
I'm headed out to have dessert and drinks with a friend (as part of my farewell tour), but I will check back in later. Though, I also realize with the time difference, many INers are likely sleeping!
I know that it is best to try to stay up as long as one can when trying to adjust to a new time zone. This was a challenge for me 18 years ago, when I was, obviously, considerably younger. We landed around lunch time, and I did not have business or a toddler and I was exhausted and wiped out. (Though, truth be told, traveling hungover likely did not help!)(And yes, I'm that old that 18 years ago, I was legal to drink!)
So, trying to turn this whine into something positive, please share your best tips and suggestions for dealing with and/or beating jet lag.
I'm headed out to have dessert and drinks with a friend (as part of my farewell tour), but I will check back in later. Though, I also realize with the time difference, many INers are likely sleeping!
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Re: Not pleased with our flight time (Whine and poll)
I don't have kids, but I would suggest starting to operate on "target time" as soon as possible. If your flight leaves around dinner, I would eat before you get on the plane and try to get some extra rest in lieu of the rubbish plane dinner (unless you're flying business or first, in which case ask if they can serve your entire meal at once so that you don't miss out on the food but you also don't have to wait through the whole n-course meal). This will probably be harder with a LO, since he'll probably have a tough time settling down when all the lights are on and everyone is awake.
Sans child, my strategy is to bring a travel pillow to support my neck when I'm sitting upright (as a side sleeper, I love using my TravelRest up against the window), don an eyemask and good earplugs, and try to doze through dinner. The more sleep you can get on the plane, the easier it will be to deal with the next day.
ah yes I understand
we left at 9am last time for the states, dd missed her nap and was up for nearly the entire flight!! by the time we got to the US she was exhausted. On the internal flight she slept and then when we got to MN she went to bed at her 'normal' time - but MN time, after her night cue of a bath
we had a few rough nights - 3 nights or so to get her back onto a semi normal schedule
my theory is just try to keep them up as much as possible during the day in your new time zone, but really I just let her sleep during the day if she REALLY needed it, and still stuck to our normal bed time. After a few days of lots of cuddles every few hours at night she just adjusted.
GL - I'm travelling with dd in June when she'll be nearly 2 - shall be interesting - at least this time I can give her some antihistamines to help her sleep too
I think you will be surprised, the white noise on the plane could actually put him to sleep earlier than you think, especially if he misses his nap.
We find with our kids that we kind of just let them lead, if they are tired they sleep, if they aren't we let them stay awake. And spend time outside, the sun helps!
We have a toddler. We used to leave the US at about 6PM (which meant getting to the airport about 2-3PM). He wouldn't sleep on the flight. When we got to Amsterdam it would be about 8AM and we would get to our apartment about 9AM. We always arrived earlier than the flight time said we would. We would get back to our apartment about 9AM and let him sleep from 9AM - 1PM. We would wake him up at 1PM and make him stay up the rest of the day and let him to go sleep about 8PM Amsterdam time. It was a HORRIBLE day but it usually reset his system. We would deal with jet lag for a week where his little body was completely confused and he was a pain but it was only a week and usually he was fine. We would bike to the park and spend most of the day outside for the fresh air and sunshine. It sucks but it is only a small amount of time.
THE WORST thing to do is to let him sleep all day. It will take forever to get his little body reset and he will be up in the middle of the night. Just fight through that first couple of days and you'll be fine.
They sell melatonin in GNCs. You might want to grab some before you leave to help him out. GOOD LUCK!
I just noticed you live in Alexandria so you are probably flying out of Dulles. Don't take the shuttles. Walk the little dude the mile in his stroller. Maybe he will fall asleep. You have to go up and down elevators but it might be worth it.
Remember it is ONE day of your lives. You will get through it! I promise.
I should add that somehow, and I guess we are lucky, my kids have never, any of the times we have flown back and forth to the UK, tried to sleep all day (they do sleep the whole flight over usually though). They seem to just be groggy at first, take an early nap, and then be good to go the rest of the day. We actually find they stay up late the first night, sleep in the next morning and then usually by that night they are on their usual schedule again.
Same for me. My kids don't miss a nap bc if the departure though. It leaves at 8we're at the airport around 5/530 and they get on, eat a bit and go to sleep. Wake up as we get off, sleep in stroller through customs and baggage sometimes, then fall asleep in the car on our way to wherever we are going. Up when we arrive, midday nap, and then maybe a little early to bed (30 minutes maybe) and up normal time next day.
yes i certainly wasn't advocating letting our kid sleep all day - but I let her take a long nap if she needs it (considering she barely slept on the flight!)
I do think its a good idea to wake them 6 or so hours before bedtime though so as to try and get them back on a regular schedule asap
When we went to Europe in September DD was 16 months old. Since we live in CO we were leaving early morning so we had been up since 4. It was her first time flying in her car seat. She is usually ready for a nap for that 8 am flight. I still nursed her on take off and she fell asleep, then let her sleep too long before transferring to her car seat and she woke up....that was it for her nap. We had a long layover in DC and she napped in the Ergo for maybe 30 minutes. Our flight was at 6 pm. We had dinner once in the air and then she slept on me (we got an upgrade to business on the flight to Paris but only for DH and I so she was a lap child for that leg) off and on. It was one of her fussiest flight but still not too bad. She got about 4-5 hours of sleep which is what she did the year before when she was 4 months old.
Once we got to Paris (got in at 7 am) we still had a 3.5-4 hour drive to my parents house in the Netherlands. We stopped a couple of times to have coffee and "wake up" but DD slept for most of it. She would wake when we stopped but fall back asleep when driving. We got to my parents house at about 1 pm. We had something to eat and drink and then DH and I went down for a nap. We always nap for about 2 hours mid day the day we arrive. We set an alarm clock because otherwise we would not wake up. My parents watched DD and she was happy playing but after about 1.5 hours she was tired and laid down on the hard cement in the back yard and went to sleep (did not want a pillow or anything). When we woke up about 4:30 she was asleep but I woke her up because I didn't want her to be up all night. She went to bed about 7-730 ( her normal time) and did fine, She woke up every 3 hours but had been doing that at home too so I couldn't really blame that on the jet lag. She slept til about 7 the next morning and went into her normal routine without too much trouble.
We always arrive early and always take about a 2 hour nap mid day and then go to bed our usual time. It has worked well for us and keeps the jetlag to a minimum (and we are "old folk" too, I was able to legally drink 18 years ago as well and DH is even older....
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Not sure what time you guys have to leave your house or how long your drive to the airport is but can you wake your DS up earlier that day and have him go down forna nap earlier. Or if you have a long drive to the airport have that coincide with his nap? I probably wouldn't worry about it too much, more than likely it will work out fine whatever you do. Since you guys aren't just going on a vacation and you will be there long term it is not like it will be a big deal if his sleep is messed up for a few days while he is adjusting. But I would recommend going back to his normal routine/ sleeping schedule the day after you get there (and have him go to bed his usual time that first night).
We have found that going that direction is usually easier as far as jet lag is concerned. Once we came back to the US DD was up at 3 am for 3-4 days, we would get up and do some puzzles or read books with dim lights and go back to bed around 5. She would then sleep til 7 or 730 and after 4 days she was back on US time. Kids are pretty flexible and probably adjust more easily than adults.
Good luck and have fun on your new adventure!!
I'm so jealous that your kids sleep so well! Georgia never sleeps anywhere except for her crib, and the occasional once or twice she's been exhausted enough to fall asleep in the stroller (usually late at night, like when we were in Paris, eating dinner at 10pm). That being said, I think as she gets older, travel will be easier for us because she doesn't "need" as much sleep as she did when she was younger. Also, she seems to understand that we are away from home, but mommy and daddy are still here and everything is okay.
The last two international trips we've taken have been basically torture for me. She refused to breastfeed on the planes, she wouldn't snuggle or lay down, she eventually fell asleep out of exhaustion and slept 45 minutes on the flight to the US (11 hours) and slept maybe 2 hours on the night flight back to the UK (9 hour flight). When we arrive in the US, it is almost bedtime so I put her down for bed at a normal time. She will wake up every 2 or 3 hours, and then around 3am refuse to go back to sleep. It takes about 5 or 6 days to get her on the schedule. Going back to the UK, we usually arrive around 10am so we'll all take a nap when we get home. I try to keep her up until bedtime around 7pm or so. I'll put her in bed, and then she'll be wide awake a couple hours later (thinking that she had a nap, not really bedtime) and will usually stay up until 3am. She eventually will go back to her schedule around day 7. Its so rough! And because all these trips DH is working, I'm the one up with her in the middle of the night.
Flights can be exciting for kids no matter what time they take off. I've flown internationally with DD a few times and sometimes she falls asleep as soon as the flight takes off and sometimes, like on a flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina that took off just around her normal bedtime, she's wired and looking and around and trying to talk to our fellow passengers. For that flight, I thought I would do so well since we were taking off at 8pm NY time and landing in BA at 8am (I think there's an hour difference?) and that she would end up getting a full night's sleep. Nope. She didn't fall asleep until after midnight on the plane and when the plane landed, there was no way I could wake her up. I ended up carrying her through customs dead asleep. Luckily, she woke up by the time we got to baggage claim since there's no way I could have continued to carry her and deal with our luggage (I was traveling alone).
Once we got into a routine in Argentina on that trip, we were still kind of "off" since dinner time there tends to be a lot later. DD ended up sleeping 11pm-11am just about every day we were there. It took a few days to adjust back when we returned to New York.
The two times we've come to France (once for vacation and once to move here), we had radically different experiences. DD got pretty much right on track and didn't seem bothered by jet lag the first time- at 15 months. We landed around 7am and I just tried to get her to keep going until her usual 12pm naptime and she did. She went to bed at the same time as usual that night and the next day, everything was totally fine. But this time, she was a mess and it took about a week for her to get past the jetlag. She would wake several times during the night and be a cranky, tired, whining mess begging for a nap during the day. Since she doesn't actually nap anymore (dropped it at 23 months), letting her sleep during the day perpetuated the cycle of late bedtimes and nighttime waking. We survived, however!
Anyway, all this to say that no matter what, it's hard to predict how your child will sleep on international flights and how the adjustment will be. It would be ideal to stick to your schedule, but you may find that other things dictate your schedule when you arrive (appointments you may have or what time restaurants are open for lunch and dinner, etc.).
I'm a little afraid for trips home. The adjustment going East sounds rough.
We are flying out of BWI. I hope we re able to find something decent to eat before boarding. . .
We always fly in and out of BWI. Good news is it's quiet-ish (better than Dulles), so if you do get there early and your little one is likely to sleep in a stroller, you can walk up and down the length of the airport (to domestic departures), nad the international departures is open and quiet (both before and after security). No food really to speak of after security, and I'm not sure what is before - most likely fast food. (MY parents live 30 min from BWI, so we always eat early before going to the airport.)
Mine don't sleep well on flights either. When they can BF, they've usually only slept at the boob - for 6-8 hours. W slept okay the last flight - on H. THe flight before, he was doing okay in his own seat, until the baby in front cried for 45 solid minutes (a long story) and then he was awake most of it.
We generlaly follow their lead as well, the next few days, but them down within an hour or two of bedtime the first night, and gently nudge them into their normal schedule. We are helped by having to take a connecting flight from London, which gives them time to nap (we coulnd't keep W awake last time), and then he was still so tired from teh travel that he was down at a fairly normal time that night.
I have to say, we decided after last summer's trip, that we won't be doign it again until M is two, able to be entertained more by things like dvds and films, and a better sleeper. I found the 6M-24M the worst for travel. But, like others have said, ti's one day of your life and you will get thru it.
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This can be rough. Some kids do not transition well from nap to awake either. I've babysat kids who get really upset when they have to be awaken from naps vs. getting up on their own. Or they are really clingy.
One time the poor parents behind me let their 3 year-old sleep almost till we landed and couldn't get him to wake up. He became super whiny and clingy which is a problem to deal with as you deplane and head through customs.
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Coming back is 100 times easier. We usually land about 4PM and by the time we get through customs and to my parents house, it is 6:30PM so he goes to bed at 7PM and wakes up the next morning reset.
And this is where our kids differ again
I hate flying West. Hate.It. We have jet lag for days, whereas flying to Europe it is like a day.
This for us too although I don't hate it necessarily. It just takes a little longer to adjust for all of us compared to going East. Most of the time we come back late (around 10 or 11pm) and just go back to work the next day because we are up early anyway (like 4 am).
This times a million. When DD and I flew to the States over xmas it took her over a week to adjust. When we flew back to Europe, she was pretty much back to normal in 1-2 days. I, on the other hand, have a much easier time flying West since you just have to stay up longer than usual. That's easier than making yourself go to bed when you're not tired.
The flight will be fine. He will be fine. If anything, you WANT him to miss his nap, so you can get at least a couple hours of sleep on the plane while he is sleeping.
This is what we do everytime we come back from the US.
1) We take a nap as soon as we get back to the house. This CAN be an issue with the 90 min drive from the airport, so I am not adverse to giving her a bit of caffene and sugar (a small amount of European coke) right when we land, while going through the customs brief at the AMC Terminal.
Yes, she is bouncing off the walls when we are waiting for the luggage (which DOES take longer than a commercial flight, since they have to divy up the luggage between those getting off at Ram and those going on down range.). But it gets her through the ride home.
2) Once we get home, we go down for a nap. I give us both 2 hours.
3) Then we get up and go out. Even if it means walking in the rain. We get a good hour of exercise OUTSIDE. You will learn, you go out even in the drizzle, over here. If you wait for a nice sunny day, your never going to be outside. We will do another outing 3 hours before our bed time - so that's about 9pm.
4) We have a good meal 2 hours before bed.
5) one hour before bed, she gets to drink some sleepytime tea with valerian root. I make sure that the tea has seeped for at least 5 mins.
At this time, the lights have gone out, except for the tv.
6) 30 min out she gets a warm bath. Then her milk. We have not given up the milk before bed because of the various studies that show milk helps with sleep. Monkey's sleep issues have always been a PITA.
7) We co-sleep. Now, since its all of you, you can get away with it. But for Monkey and DH, I keep her with me so DH isnt bothered.
My biggest suggestion is to get as much exercise as you possibly can over the first week here. The more you get outside, the faster your body clock gets on the new schedule.