I know logically it gets easier with time but we are very much in the trenches with it at the moment. 90% of the time it's a joy and ds is the most adorable chilled out wee dude, but when his sleep is messed with, well he's absolutely my son!
The issue I'm having is that my family live a few hours away and they are regularly complaining that they don't see ds enough, that when they do see him we ask them to meet us halfway. In the last week we've seen them twice because we've been off on holidays but my issue is that every time it completely throws ds sleep out of whack because he sleeps on the way down in line with his nap (which is fine) but it's too long a journey for us to keep him awake the whole way home after and even when we try getting him ready for bed and then trying to do a gentle transfer into the cot he wakes up immediately and that's us on the go for hours trying to get him back down. That's frustrating in itself. But the next day is when it really gets us because he's exhausted. Today has been a particular doozy. He went to bed at midnight (after 3 hrs of trying to wind him back down to sleep) then woke up at 6.30 crying and wanting resettled... except that's the time we normally get up so I had to get him ready and take him to nursery. He has cried purple all morning. Did settle in nursery eventually and had a nap so I was hoping this evening would be better but it's just been more of the same. I love my family and I want them to have a good relationship with my son but I really question if it's worth it when trips are messing with his sleep so much and then he's miserable and cranky for days after because he's exhausted.
How do others manage this? Staying down there isn't really an option, we've tried in the past but my mum has a dog with a significant bite history who she insists "means no harm" and shes shown that I can't trust her not to let the dog around ds when I'm not there watching so it means I can't even go to the bathroom by myself if we're staying over.