JET LAG BABY ADVICE PLEASE!!

[newbelly2002]

Sorry for the caps,but I could really use some help.

We just found out that my grandmother is critically ill so we are flying back from Berlin early tomorrow morning (Monday) to Boston to see her. We'll be staying for 8 days.

DS is 7 months old and sleeping through the night (from 8:00-7:00 AM). Does anyone have any advice on how to minimize the impact on his schedule, both while in America and once we return?

Thanks so much,
Paula

[egoldber]

This is about the same age Sarah was when we went to Europe last year. We didn't find it to be too bad.

You arrive in the US about the same time as you leave from Europe due to the time change. So you just have to keep Dante up a few extra hours. He will undoubtedly be a bit cranky, but should adjust pretty quickly. The worst part is the day AFTER you arrive, when Dante wants to wake up at 2 AM (7 AM Euope) time. When Sarah woke up at this time, I went in her room, gave her a very quiet meal and encouraged her to go back to sleep for at least a few more hours. It took 2-3 days for her to adjust.

Going back to Europe, the flight is probably overnight. Do all you can to get Dante to sleep on the flight. When you get to Europe, wake him up and start the day as usual. It will just seem that he had a short night that night for some reason. Going to Europe, Sarah adjusted in one day.

HTH,

[Annette_C]

Paula,
I'm so sorry about your grandmother. I wish I had some advice to give you about baby jet lag but I don't. I just wanted to let you know that I'm thinking of you during this difficult time and I'm here if you need me (BTW....I live in CT).

Annette
SAHM to Sabrina 6/24/02

[nohomama]

Paula,

Here was our experience with trans Atlantic travel and it's effects
on a babe:

Going was not too bad - We took a red eye flight in hopes that Lola would sleep on the way over and be awake when we got in at 6 a.m. Germany time. Of course, the best laid plans... All the stimulation kept her awake for the most part, but in the end it worked out. She slept on the train to Freiburg, then napped with us around 3 in the afternoon, and went down for a fairly uninterupted sleep from 11 p.m. to 9 a.m..

Roll with the punches - Expect it to take a few days to get back to a more normal routine AND expect the unexpected. You may find Dante waking in the night or something else out of the ordinary while he gets his clock reset. I set small goals like not letting Lola go down for a nap until she'd been awake for 2-3 hours, but if she was obviously exhausted, I let it go. This is one of those times when the addage "whatever works" applies.

The return flight was HELL!!!!!!! - In our case, the return flight was the longer of the two and we felt every additional minute. Some advise for the flight...devise fifteen minute solutions. Lola could be occupied by anything for about fifteen minutes and breaking up the flight into blocks of time helped her parents stay sane (again, she was awake for nearly the entire flight). Another piece of advise for the flight...utilize the handicap bathroom!!! It's got a seat for Mama or Papa and uncrowded floor space for baby to play. Germophobes may shudder at the thought of this but this is another situation when "whatever works" RULES. Other solutions included but were not limited too...handing baby off to a kind flight attendant (they're not going anywhere), taking a stroll around the plane, hanging out in the galley, making a puppet out of the barf bag, etc.

Regaining a schedule is harder at home - Once we were home we had several nights of Lola being wide awake at two in the morning. We found it easiest not to fight it and for one of us (meaning Dan because upon our return home, I was struck with the Norwalk type virus that both Lola and Dan had had our last few days in Germany) to get up and quietly play or read with her until she got sleepy again.

I hope you find something here helpful.

Take care and safe travels,

[newbelly2002]

Thanks for the laugh, Sarah (the barf bag puppet!). THey're in short supply right now (laughs, not barf bags). It'll be a race to see if we can make it home in time. I fear that if we do make it, Dante will be so jetlagged that the machinery in the ICU (we're going directly from the airport to the hospital) will scare him into a screaming fit. All we can do is wait and see now.

And thanks for the advice. I'm thankful there are two of us traveling this leg of the journey. 15 minute increments, bathroom floors, and barf bag puppets. Got it.

Paula

[egoldber]

Just some food for thought. Not all airlines (or even all airplanes within one airline) have those handicap restrooms. Most newer planes do, but it depends. But when they do have them, it is SOOOOO nice.

And as Sarah suggested, don't underestimate the utility of "found" toys on the airplane. My Sarah loves to look at the inflight magazine (and rip it to shreds, but whatever), the Skymall catalog (lots of pictures of doggies and kitties in this one), the safety info cards (the best ones have pictures of real people doing fun things like sliding down slides), and playing with cups from the beverage cart.

Also, if Dante has his own seat (and I REALLY recommend this) be sure to order Dante his own meal. They have infant meals (baby food and formula) and also toddler meals (which are more finger foods). Even if he doesn't like the meal, it's something to amuse him.

My condolences to you and your family.

HTH,

[etwahl]

Paula, I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. My hopes and prayers are with her and with you and your family. I'll be thinking of you in this difficult time.

Tammy,
Mom-to-be Mar 8, 2003!

[LisaS]

Paula,

We do the trip from London to NY quite often with Sarah (13 months, sleeps from 7pm - 8am) so I do have a bit of experience with transatlantic travel.

First of all, 7 months is still a pretty easy age to travel...assuming he's not mobile. The last trip we took was by far the toughest because we had to fly during the day and Sarah wanted to crawl around the plane :-)

Here's what I've found makes the trip and jet lag adjustment easier.

1) Buy him his own seat and bring the car seat - I can't recommend this strongly enough. I don't fly unless Sarah has her own seat -- yes, for safety, but more so for her to have her own space to just relax, play, sleep or watch the seat television/movie screen. She’s much happier NOT being handled.

2) If at all possible, take a night flight -
a) Its dark (except for food and drink service which they do annoyingly often when you’re trying to sleep) and more conducive to sleep for babies who are used to sleeping through the night
b) It makes the adjustment to EST much easier
We take a flight from London that leaves just before her bedtime usually - 6:30 or 7pm. flight that gets into NY at 9:30p.m. We get her adjusted in her seat on the plane...change her into PJs and try to do the bedtime routine as best we can on the plane. And, we always plan for it to take her longer than usual to fall asleep. During take-off, she had bottle, sippy or pacifier. Usually, by 8/8:30, she's asleep and we let her sleep the whole flight - a sleeping baby is much easier than an awake one to deal with on the plane :-) We also request seats near the back of the plane – the noise from the engines is louder there and usually drowns out anything else that might otherwise bother her. Also, might act as white noise. She uses pacis as sleep aids, so we have a TON with us on the plane. It was one thing neither of us could give up b/c we travel so often and they work so well.

3) Put the car seat either in the middle of you and your husband or Build a tent with the blankets to make his own little dark sleep-y space - this probably sounds nuts, but it works for us. I do this on night flights and on day flights for naps – the stewardesses initially think I’m nuts, but once I explain, they’re quite helpful. We take 2 of the plane blankets and hang them from front to back over the back of the seat in front of DDs and the back of her seat (tuck it inbetween the plastic part where the tvscreen is and the soft seat headrest – the person in front of you won’t notice).
This makes it nice and dark and blocks out whatever else is going on …planes are VERY stimulating and exciting places to look at…can’t do this during take-off, but usually, shortly after (once DDs had her bottle and books, etc)

4) Don’t be afraid to change him in your seats – I only use the bathrooms for a big #2 diaper – if its just wet, I use the seats…much easier than trying to fiddle around in a 2x2 bathroom.

5) I completely agree w/Beth on the plane magazines being fabulous toys…as are headphones –those entertain my Sarah for ages. The laminated emergency info sheets are another big hit. If your plane tvs have a cartoon channel, that is always good for a little while. Or if you have a portable DVD player or a lap top w/a DVD rom and some Baby Motzart, Dolittle tapes – this can be a lifesaver, before he goes to sleep or on a day flight. Books are also great – just to turn pages. I also let her play with the plane cups and napkins, chew on rolls, pieces of fruit.

Jet Lag

If Dante is a good sleeper, sounds like he is, he will probably adjust fine at night going there – that’s the easy part…its naps and coming back to Europe that are tougher.

Here’s what we do:

When we land in NY, Sarah usually wakes up when we get to the airport (we take a sit n stroll so we just wheel her off the plane – but all the lights and activity are very exciting – she used to sleep through it till abt 6 months and now every flight since, she gets up). And she stays up for a little while…she may cat-nap on the car ride to my parents house, but when we get there, I let her play for a little while…keep her up till 11 or 12 and give her another bottle so she won’t wake up hungry at an obscene hour EST (since its now early a.m. in GMT) – and then put her to bed for the night…she usually sleeps till 6 or 7 the first morning and consecutive mornings later and later (7:30/8).

She normally at 7 months took a short morning nap and a longer lunch-time nap. But, when we traveled, she needed a longer morning nap and then a same length mid-afternoon nap. I tried to keep her on her usual schedule, but it didn’t work, so I just went with it – as long as she was sleeping through the night fine (we never had problems with this when we traveled to NY), I adjusted her nap schedule appropriately. Depending on when Dante takes naps, he may or may not have a problem with this. The morning nap was at 9/9:30am (which was 2/2:30pm GMT) and at home, DD sleeps from 1-3 GMT, so this was fine. The afternoon nap was trickier b/c 1-3 EST is 6-8pmGMT – before bed time but too early for it…so, she’d fight it and fight it, and eventually fall asleep at around 2:30 – which would be 7:30GMT – when she’d be asleep for thenight…I’d have to wake her from this nap by 4, so I could put her to bed by 8.

Flight back to Europe:

When we go back to London, its usually on a red-eye…same deal with flying back – put her to sleep from the night after take-off and when we land, act as if it’s a normal day – shejust had a shorter sleep – she then has much longer naps during the first day back and goes to sleep earlier that night…BUT wakes up several times unhappy b/c she thinks that its playtime. 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, till midnight, which is finally 7pm. EST when she goes to sleep for the night and sleeps later than normal next morning. The hourly night wakings get better each day. The subsequent days, I keep her up a bit later at night GMT…normal bedtime is 7/7:30…so she stays up (assuming she’s able) till 8/8:30…and that helps. Once we get rid of the hourly 8-12 wakings, then I move her bedtime back to normal… I’d say, it takes a good 10-12 days until she’s 100% back on schedule.

Good luck and I hope your grandma makes a speedy recovery! He will surprise you by how great he will be – I am always amazed that traveling with DD is easier than I anticipate – I get nervous that the trip wont go well and it always does…I think the worrying beforehand is the worst part!

[Tondi G]

One thing you might consider buying!!! If you are using a convertible car seat COMBI makes a shade that dlips on much like the sun shade on an infant car seat.... I saw it at the Right Start! It is Navy blue and says it will work with any convertible... it was displayed on a Britax RA! Looked like it worked well and could be very helpful in keeping light and noise out on the plane if your little one sleeps! and you can hang blankets over that for an added buffer!!!

Good Luck and have a safe flight... I have to tell you we considered going to England to visit family this summer but decided against it because of the long flight (from Los Angeles... DS doesn't even like the car for much longer than 2 hours) and dealing with the jet lag!!! We're probably going to try to stay a little closer to home for vacations! LOL

~Tondi and Mason 7/8/01