Advise on Babys routine on holiday

[wog]

Dd is 8 months and is in a fantastic routine
6.30/7.00 Wakes up
7.30 Cereal
8.00 Bottle
9.00 Nap
11.00 Wakes up
12.00 Lunch
1.30/2.00 Nap
5.00 Dinner
6.45 Bottle
7.00 BED
We are going to Florida on Tuesday I think our flight will be at 10.30am so everything should go fine right up to bed time because come 7.00pm our time it will only be 2.00pm in Florida - we arrive at 10.00pm our time by which time she should be sound asleep but it will only be 5.00pm in Florida - as you can see she is only on 2 bottles a day now, the morning will be fine it is bed time that is the problem - should I give an extra nap, an extra snack and lengthen the day so that she will still only have her bottle going to bed? Help please give some suggestions not just for me but so that dd is still contented

forgot to say that ds only sleeps till 2.30/3.00pm in afternoon and then has a snack (incase you think I leave her sleeping all afternoon and starve her I promise I dont)

Took my dds to Tokyo when dd2 was 8ms, and IMO,try to adjust to the new time as soon as you can. Although this does depend on how long you're staying, we were there 3 1/2 wks so it was worth my while.But whatever, be prepared for some broken nights and be flexible as to what she needs as it'll take some time to settle, both there and when you get home. Try not to stress too, enjoy it, and good luck.

Took dd to San Francisco at 9 months. We basically did what we always do ourselves which is try and lengthen the day a little - dd actually adjusted much better than we did. Go out in the sun a lot on the first day as this helps.

Finally, don't get too routine-y. I tried for the first day and then just gave up. She had milk if she looked like she needed it and it would help her to sleep (especially on the plane), she ate what and when she seemed hungry (lots of sweet things!) and we took her driving to get her to nap. All the things I'd be embarrased to do at home. But she had a great holiday and so did we.

The jet lag on the way back was MUCH worse! Hope you've got some extra days off work (if you work) when you get back because you will not get that babe to sleep at 7pm, I promise!

Thanks for your replys have now booked definateley - going on Wed flight unfortunately at 06.10 in morning so will have to get dd out of bed just past 3am (poor wee thing) so I am really worried how messed up her routine will be now.

DS2 adjusted in 2 days when we took him to Florida aged 7 months. He woke up at 5am on those 2 days and was fine after that.

I think we tweaked his routine on the flight over so we were doing evening routine things in the evening, even though his body clock would say otherwise (does that make sense???). I think his routine bedtime was closer to 9pm though with longer day time naps so there was more time in the day to tweak it.

Routine wise, write off that travelling day and nudge her back into it over the next couple of days. We've done the Florida trip at different times with DSs at 7mths old, 14 mths old, 18 mths old, 2.5 yrs and 3.5 yrs and a similar trip to Antigua with 2yo and 4yo and each time it's taken about 2 days for the boys to settle into the new time zone. (there are only 2 DSs but we've done the trip a number of times!)

Have a fantastic time in Florida!

Do you mean that you adjusted your time as soon as you got on the plane for example I will finally get on my connecting flight at Amsterdam at 10.40am so should I then try and get her to go for a nap at about 11oclock for a couple of hours and then round about 1pm wake her and turn my watch back the 5 hours time difference so that it is now back to 7oclock in the morning and start the day again or is this a completely stupid idea

It's a headache isn't it wog, to get your head around it ... does me in everytime we travel! The only advice I can give you is to be as flexible as possible for the first few days. When we went to the UK from NZ at xmas (12 hour time difference) it took about a week for DS to get his timing right but I just let him sleep if he needed to in the day (doesn't usually have daytime naps anymore) and would wake him up after a couple of hours and then let him stay up late for a few nights ... did the same on our return trip ...
Try and enjoy your holiday without worrying about the routine too much ... you can work on getting her back on track when you get home .....
HTH

don't worry,babies adapt easily - I'm doing Arizona on Saturday with a 2 yr old boy - i'll need valium i'm sure....

Personally, I always adjust my watch as soon as I get on the plane. A baby isn't going to be quite that easy to fool but it gives you an idea of what you're aiming for.

I think what we did when DS2 travelled at 7 months was to extend his day at the end rather than starting from the beginning again. The travel times were similar to yours so we tweaked his feeds etc slightly on the plane (but pretty much did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to keep him quiet and happy ), he slept in our hire car to the hotel (2hrs) and then was woken up for something fun (swim, beach etc) and then dinner and a slightly later bedtime than usual. I guess we arrived at our hotel at 5 or 6pm, I can't remember exactly!

Does that make any sense at all?? It will be fine, I'm sure!