jetlag hell, your advice please...

[Scarlett175]

as per title :(

we flew to California 21st Dec and dd, 8 months was brilliant- adjusted to time zone in a day and although naps were all over the place she ended up sleeping her usual 11 hours a night.

I should add, at home she has strict bed/bath routine and although she is a nightmare to actually get to sleep she does stay asleep and self settles etc during the night.

We flew home wed night/thurs and she slept 6 hours on flight, then 2 on drive home from heathrow, was awake for 4ish hours then we put her to bed normalish time of 7, she did seem tired so all seemed well.... and was for 2 hours, then she woke aprox every 90 mins until midnight when we all gave up, she came on bed with us and conked out until 9am. Last night was similar situation- went to bed 7.30pm, seemed tired, but woke from 8.30 until 2am, then again ended up with us.

Will this just get better with time... your experiences please... just leaving to take her on long walk in daylight hoping this will help..

In my experience it takes about one day per hour of time difference to get back to normal - eg if there is a 5 hour time difference, it will take five days.

If you are able to get enough sleep, just roll with it. Keep putting her down at the normal time. She will adjust. It is hell, I hate jetlag. But in a week's time you will have forgotten all about it.

Good luck!

Hi. I took my 16 month old to Florida, which is a five hour time difference and it did take about 5 days to get back to normal when we got home. Like your daughter he was on a strict bedtime routine so we put him to bed at 7pm local time which was lunch time in Florida. He slept for about 2 hours (the normal time for his nap) and then woke at around 9pm and then cried up until about midnight when he conked out!! The next night it was 11pm the next 10pm, etc until finally he was back in his old routine. Keep plugging away and she'll get back to normal soon enough!
Take care.

What Stranded said, although I NEVER forget (have done UK West Coast with small children too many times).

thanks all for your replies-

last night (night 3) was a bit better, eventually around 11pm she conked out and managed to sleep in her cot til 5am this morning, just seems to be the early evening bit which is still a nightmare... DH cleverly pointed out that for her this is her afternoon nap and she's probably wondering why no one is getting her up after it, which does explain why she will sleep 7-8.30 ish then is ready for action again.

oh well, at least we are slowly getting better again, we will most likely be going to Cali at least once a year to see my brother so I may as well get used to it...