West Coast wedding w/ toddler and infant - we're on Eastern time

[Timmersmom]

I mostly lurk, but I am coming out of the woodwork to ask for suggestions about traveling with a toddler and a baby, particularly in regards to time zone changes.

My sister is getting married in early January in Seattle; we live on the East Coast. We're flying out there on Thursday morning and getting back home early Sunday evening. My toddler (he's almost 3) is a great sleeper, so I'm not too worried about him, but my baby will be just over 6 months at that point, and her longest stretch of sleep at night is 5-6 hours. She's also a catnapper, which is a whole 'nother issue :)

My greatest concern is how to deal with the 3 hour time difference, especially since we're only going to be there a few days. I would appreciate advice from those of you who've dealt with this. Should I try to just stick to the regular bedtime/naptime and wakeup times while we're there? Or can I maybe split the difference, if YKWIM, maybe push their regular schedules back 1 1/2 hours? I'm terrified that once we're back home, my baby is going to be all messed up and waking up a zillion times at night. I so don't want to go back there.

Any suggestions/advice would be welcomed. TIA!

Elizabeth

Timothy 3/11/02
Caroline 6/25/04

[jesseandgrace]

Hi. We do it all the time, and I think for such a short time I would say split the difference as best you can. It is much easier to go from east to West IMO, because my kids don't mind staying up a little later, so I feel like the West coast is the only time I can get them to bed at a reasonable time. hopefully the toddler can take a later than usual nap to help. As far as coming back, it does seem to have an effect on my two, they go to bed later than they should- but we are usually in each place at least a month, so they are fully adjusted to the other time zone, but after a week or so things should be back to normal.