Rum & Dal

So yeah, I have searched Google to get some help with babies and jet lag.  There really isn’t much out there so the following is our experience and of course, every baby is different. Deeyan has always had trouble settling, it was only at 10 months did he sleep through the night with a fantastic controlled crying method I was taught through a good friend. (If you’re lucky I will get her to write a blog on it).

Anyway, jet lag! We travelled from Australia to the UK, stopping in Dubai, with a total travel time of 24hours. On the way there, Deeyan was fantastic. No jet lag what so ever.  He stayed up the whole day and slept through the night with a little controlled crying.The only issues he gave us for sleep were adjusting to new environments.

Travelling easterward, though was a whole other issue.  Sleeping every two to three hours, being awake through the night and taking over an hour of controlled crying to resettle (which would normally have taken only ten minutes).

Day 1 – he was up all night, going to bed at 4am (which was UK 7pm).

Day 2 – he woke up for 2pm and I carried out his usual routine of two two hours naps during the day and bed was at 1am

Day 3 – he woke up for 11 am, usual two naps during the day and I was hoping the trend for tonight would be 11 am sleep. Unfortunately he was up till 1 am again.

Day 4 – usual two naps during the day and sleep time was at 10pm but he woke at 2 am to play.  We controlled cried him for an hour and he slept till 11:30 the next day.

Day 5 – two naps during the day and sleep time for 9pm, he was up at 11, controlled crying of an hour was not successful at all. So played quietly in his room until 1 am at which point he went to sleep but awoke for 8:30!

Day 6 – 8.30 start I started to think this could be a good thing but he didn’t sleep well during the day at all.  His morning two hour nap was only 45 min and his late afternoon nap didn’t happen until 4pm. He went to sleep at 9pm begging for his bed and slept through the whole night. Waking up a couple of times but nodding off again, he awoke at 10:45am!

Day 7 – The final day and it was a great day.  Back to normal routing.  Eating heaps, good 2-3 hour naps during the day, bed at 7pm and not awake until 8am!  What a huge relief.

What we learned:

- Do not control cry your baby. He is not tired and so will not sleep but just cry and cry, as he won’t understand why you are forcing him to sleep.

- Take him/her out as much as possible during the day to get them in the sun so that their body clock adjusts itself.

- If they wake at night, keep them in their room and play with them quietly.

- Feed them as and when they need to be fed.  I found that Deeyan was eating ridiculous amounts at all hours.   Only until the third night did I stop all night feeding.

In hind sight I think it may have helped if we had landed in Australia at night.  That way Deeyan would have slept through the night and hopefully woken up fresh for the morning.  We landed at 7am and he slept till 4pm, leaving us with a wide awake baby at night. The week after we landed in Oz was so difficult that I don’t think I will ever travel twenty four hours on a plane with a baby again! Its simply too much for everyone.