Hellobee Boards

We went from Australia to Canada and back again at 9.5 months and 10.5 months. A 10 hour flight, and overnight layover, and then a 13 hour flight (and the reverse on the way back). Not going to lie - it sucks. The longest stretch he slept on either flight was about 5 hours. We used every trick in the book to keep him entertained, but for the last 2 hrs or so of all 4 flights he was pretty miserable and we ended up walking him up and down the aisles to keep him occupied. But, looking back, I think it could have been a lot worse.

For sleep, our only option was for him to sleep on us so we usually waited until he was really tired, then I BF him or gave him a bottle and he'd fall asleep eating. Then I would sit as still as possible! But I could still watch movies which was nice.

For entertainment, we packed a bag of new toys (small, colourful ones that don't make noise - for the other passengers!), and rolled out a new toy about every 1-2 hrs. He actually was a lot more interested in the stuff on the plane - cups, cutlery, blankets, remote controls, the flight attendants - than he was in our toys! He is not into iPads or cartoons so we couldn't use that. We survived!

Will there be a big time change? Jet lag was SO MUCH WORSE than the flight. At least with the flight, you have an end point - jet lag seemed to go on.....and on..............and on...............................not to scare you, but I really wish someone had warned me. Hopefully your baby won't be affected as much as mine was. All I can say is thank got for grandparents cause we got no sleep at night for almost 5 nights.

Good luck!!

I wish I had advice I've taken my son home twice (at 4 months and 9 months) and both times it took about a week to fully recover. My advice for jet lag is:
- get her out and about in the day as much as possible, and try to stick to her normal nap schedule as much as you can. Waking her up will be torture - but it will be worth it to keep it consistent. When she wakes in the night keep it dark and quiet, feed her if she seems hungry but don't prolong it. For us, the night wakings got shorter and shorter every night, but it took about 7 nights for them to stop completely.
Again, good luck and just remember through it all that it DOES pass! And use as much help as you can from family - take naps and get out in the sun yourself.

Took a 14 hour flight at 10 months. And then one back home.
Was really nervous but it went okay.

Tips:
1)sling carrier is your friend.
My hubby or I will put LO in our ergo and just walked Her up and down the aisle to get her to sleep. Bc they dimmed the lights, she went down easy.

2)pacifier also helps. True story. LO was EBF and hated the bottle and pacifiers when she was younger. About a month before our trip, she found one and stuck it in her mouth. It helped her soothe on the plane. She spat it out one day after we got home and didn't ask for it again.

3)bc she wasn't mobile yet, we put a blanket on the floor, by our legs and she just played there. Sanity saving bc she could "roam"

@Jass: for jetlag I've found that the rule "one day for every time zone crossed" to be pretty true for my LOs.

@Jass

It went okay. We didn't force her normal schedule. When we landed, it was almost 6pm so by the time we met family, had dinner, it was time to sleep and she fell right asleep. The next day, we let her dictate her schedule. If she was tired, she would take naps, etc. By our 3rd day there, she got it down pretty well. Us, on the other hand took longer

It was a little harder when we got home but we did same thing. We didn't force naps and she would sleep when she got tired. At night, she would lay in her crib and play a little bit but eventually fell asleep bc it was dark. It turned out okay.