Help i have a very early flight with a 20month old

[jaynel]

Hi, i am going on holiday in may with my dh,dd,sd and ds. our flight is at 0700 in the morning,we have to check in at 0500 which means we will have to leave at 3am. i am worried my son wont sleep in the car when i get him up so he will be grouchy for the first couple of days(which i really dont want). does anyone have any advice what i should do, im thinking of putting him to bed about 5pm, just not sure he will sleep. Does anybody know of any cheap hotels at gatwick. its not really an option cos we are struggling to find spending money as it is, but if its cheap enough it may be better.

Hi jaynel, sorry, meant to reply to this yesterday and I lost my mumsnet connection

I wouldn't waste money on expensive hotels if you don't really need to.

My ds is 17 months now and I find that when we go away or have an early start I just put him in the car and within minutes he's back asleep again. We're going away in 2 weeks and I am going to put him to bed at normal time - but put him in warmer fleece lined pjs, and then as we're about to leave the house I'll just wrap him up warm and put him straight into his car seat. Then when we get to the airport - I'll put him straight into his pram.

From past experience, he'll wake up as he's being moved but as long as he's settled somewhere comfortable within a a minute or so he goes straight back off. (And I always have a bottle of water or milk on standby if I need some extra help in getting him to go back off!)

I think if you get him up, completely wake him up, wash and dress him etc - he will probably be really unsettled and wide awake and that's when you might have problems settling him again.

Also I really wouldn't worry too much about him being grouchy - his sleep pattern may be off for a day or so but IMO when babies are shattered they'll just sleep in their pram to catch up. I'm sure he'll be loving his holiday so much that he'll be fine!

And even if he is awake from 3am when you have to leave the house, by 7am when you're on the plane he'll be really tired and hopefully sleep through the flight - now that would be even better!!

Good luck

great advice mylittlestar thank u