This post is mainly posing a question and concern I have; any advice, input, comments, and stories would be appreciated!
So... we are all traveling out of the country to Finland in about a month. (We leave July 30th, after the BAR exam! YAY!) We will be gone for three weeks. Luckily when I say ALL of us, I do mean Shad, me, Owen, AND the grandparents... so extra help will be available! But I am just looking for some ideas on how to handle and help Owen on the looooooong flight, maybe some advice on how to handle the time change/sleeping patterns, new food (OWEN is SO PICKY!), and all the new family/faces. Does anyone out there have any experience on traveling so far with little ones?? Any ideas?? I have a few tricks up my sleeve for the actual travel, but am sincerely DREADING the time change and jet lag. Oh dear! Any tips?
Thanks!
4 comments:
I've never had to experience more than an hour or two with time change - but I am a HUGE believer in sleep for babies - that they will be SO MUCH happier with it, so if it were me, I'd most likely just be chill for the first few days and let him sleep when he wanted to. but then, as soon as i type that out i'm realizing that's not going to help him get adjusted. you know what, trenton's cousin has traveled a few times from germany to the states and back with toddlers and babies, maybe i'll ask her if she has any advice, and then i'll pass it along. (as for the actual plane? portable dvd baby!!) OH - and I guess you could drug him... like with benadryl when he's supposed to be sleeping to help him sleep. but if you do try that, test it out on him before you go so that you know how he reacts. When i gave it to brooklin, she just got really out of it, but didn't get drowsy enough to sleep. okay i'm done. i'll get back to you if i hear back from trenton's cousin :) (sorry for the babbling!)
So, I don't have a toddler, but I have a friend who flew across country with her toddler and gave him a "gift" every thirty min or so (you could probably spread this out longer for such a long flight) that her boy got to open up. It would just be some little toy or something so that he could play with it and would get all excited for the next one. We flew to New York with our little Owen, but he was only 2 months and slept a lot of the time because of the motion. good luck! Hope it all works out.
A friend of mine traveled to Indonesia with her 15 month old. She got a bunch of cheap toys from the dollar store. I know that for the time change on the way there, the way their flights worked out, he stayed up the whole day and so he was on the right time when they got there so it wasn't a big deal. When they flew back though, it was a different story. She basically had to try and keep him up for 24 hours and then try to get him back on schedule. I know that the first few nights they would be up till like 3 or 4 am and then they would wake him up like at 9am and try to keep him up to get him on schedule. It was pretty crazy but I think within 3 or 4 days he was back on schedule. Good Luck!
I so feel for you Krista! I have had to resign myself to the fact that this whole long distance travel thing is going to be a huge part of our life as long as we're in the UK. Whenever we travel with the kids we try to get a flight that leaves in the morning. That way you as a parent don't lose sleep you would if you took a night flight and the little one decided to party. Our kids will sleep on a plane, but not that well so by the time we get to our destination they're ready for bed. If you do arrive in the middle of the day. Let him take a short nap. Make sure he's awake at least 3 hours before you want him to go to bed for the night. We usually end up having one or two early-ish mornings after we arrive at our destination, but for the most part there isn't much of an adjustment. We always take Tacey's crib sheet, blanket, and pacifier with us. It seems to help her transition to sleeping in a totally foreign place. As far as meeting new relatives/friends. We let the people we would be visiting know ahead of time that in order to not have totally freaked out kids, we would appreciate them giving our kids some time to warm up and not just rush in with the hugs and kisses. Food wise, we always pack peanut butter (b/c our kids love it) and loads of familiar baby snacks. Honestly, our kids survived on yogurt, bread, fruit, and cheese for the first little while. Let me know if there's anything more specific I can help you with. Hope all goes well! Have so much fun in Finland! Wish we could hop a plane over and say hello!
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