Talk to me about changing time zones....

[blushingmare]

So my non-napping, waking every 2 hours through the night and only ever fed to sleep dd seems to be turning a corner and napping beautifully, doing some lovely long stretches at night and even starting to self settle at 8 months.

So we thought it would be a great idea to put her on a plane for 30 hours and whisk her off to the other side of the world and the reverse time zone for 3 weeks

Yes we're off on holiday to New Zealand! Really looking forward to it of course, but I can't get my head around how DD's going to manage with the time zone change. Anyone have any hints or tips on how to make it less painful. Or any reassurance that it won't be as bad as I imagine (have in my head 3 weeks of baby up all night and miserable all day).

[Greywacke]

Take her outside as much as you can during the day to help reset her bodyclock.

We took DS to US at 10 months. He did better at getting into the time zone than we did.

We arrived in the afternoon. He slept in the car on the way to the hotel. I then woke him up when we got there for dinner, bath and bottle at the equivalent of his normal bedtime. He then slept until 5:30 a.m. so pretty normal time at that stage! He did nap more during the day, but only for a few days.

Are you doing a stop over on the flight out?

[blushingmare]

That's good to know thanks. No stopover really - just a couple of hours change of plane in Dubai. No idea how she'll sleep on the plane, but I suppose in 30 hours she's got to sleep at some point..... right?!

[Greywacke]

Does she like books? Those kept us going for a while! I would recommend doing a mix of new and old toys to keep her going?

And finger food, raisins etc that take ages to eat!

[SamraLee]

We went to the US for 3 weeks when our daughter was 5/6 months. We were on the plane for 11 hours. Make sure you request and verify bulkhead seats if you can get them. A lot of airlines reserve the bulkhead seats for people with children as the skycot's only fit on bulkhead seats. I babywear so my daughter didn't even use the skycot, but the bulkhead seats were a saving grace. I had plenty of room to get up and bounce/rock my daughter and I could sit on the floor and play with her in my seat, etc.

As far as jet lag, it wasn't bad going backwards because it was bedtime when we arrived, however you are going forward which I found a lot harder. I would try to arrive in the late afternoon or evening so you can have bath, bottle and bed when you arrive. It does take them a few days, but it's exciting for them to be in a different place with different people and I found this helped to keep my daughter awake even through the slightly grumpy I need a nap times.

I also agree with Grey about new and old toys. New toys are exciting, but old toys are comforting. Good luck with your flight. I'm sure you'll have a blast and a fun holiday :D!

[Zara1984]

I just did the trip to NZ and back, admittedly with a much younger baby. Not sure if helpful but this is what I did.

On the plane: treated the whole time (when lights dimmed) as night time. When baby wants to be awake still try to keep things as quiet/sedate as possible to encourage sleep.

When you get to NZ: straight on to the new time zone, like ripping off a plaster! Wake baby up during the day and expose to sunlight as much as possible. Get mealtimes immediately on to the new schedule. Try to keep baby in bed till at least 5am for the first few days. Took us 10 days to adjust fully with 4 month old.

[fififrog]

We did NZ at 7 months. We had 24 hours in HK both ways which to be honest was brilliant for the time change, but not much use to you. Just don't worry about it too much, like others say plenty of daylight, move straight to new time zone but if you need to add a short nap to get through to dinner time go ahead.

On the plane, DD just did what she did, which was sleep most of the three "night" flights we had (the stopover helped in this respect as she had actually had a day) but the one "day" flight was challenging to say the least. She didn't even nap longer than normal.

My tips for the flight:

1. take a whole bag full of new toys and books. Buy another bagfull in NZ for the journey home. Best items for us were a cloth rattle with a squeaker and a mirror, and a squishy rubbery spider with lots of tentacles, a tiny book with lots of flaps, another with a hole for poking things through. And individual plastic pots of butter/jam with foil lids on the plane
   
2. I'm guessing you're not AirNZ as Dubai, but the meal on the plane wasn't really suitable/to DD's taste - you can take sealed pots of food for a baby. Or buy yoghurt from pret a manger or wherever at the airport.
   
3. take a change of clothes for you in case she pukes on you!

[fififrog]

Oops forgot to say, it took DD 3 days before she was sleeping as normal again. You won't want to hear about When we got home but she caught the world's most foul cold on the way back and we came home to winter and she just started sleeping really badly. But the holiday was great!!

[blushingmare]

Thank you!

We fly tomorrow so just getting everything ready now. We have way too much stuff!!