Ferber and jetlag? Help please! (long)

chuicafina

Hi from Paris, ladies!

Things are going well in Paris, so far. The weather today was gorgeous and DH, DS and I walked to the park with sandwiches and pastries for lunch. It was really wonderful.

Everything has been pretty wonderful EXCEPT DS's sleep. We normally follow Ferber at home and I'm kicking myself for not reading up in his book to see if he has anything helpful to say about jet lag. I know he says that sometimes you'll have to re-sleep train after travel to get them back on track, but I don't remember anything specific about while they're jetlagged.

We're on night 5 now. He's been waking up at progressively earlier times each night (so night 1 was 1am, night 2-11:30pm, night 3- 10:30pm, night 4- 10:30pm again and tonight 9:40pm) and taking about 3 hours to fall back asleep. The first 3 nights, he was wide awake and we knew that we couldn't force him to go back to sleep, so we got up with him and played/read books for the 3 hour period that he was awake.

The last 2 nights that he's woken up crying, he's still seemed very sleepy, so we tried to get him back to sleep right away. I tried nursing him to sleep, rocking, etc. But he wont go to sleep that way anymore. At home, he just goes to sleep in his bed without any crying. But now that he's in a different environment, out of his routine, on jet lag, he wont go to sleep in my arms even while nursing. He just squirms, kicks me, and pushes me away. The last 2 nights we've basically had to let him cry with Ferber checks. Tonight took 2 hours.

I'm just not sure if Ferber says anything helpful about this. I suppose we could still get him up and read books quietly for a while before trying to get him back down again, but I'm afraid that will just delay his adjustment. We're trying to make sure he's getting his 2 naps a day, although with all the lack of sleep in the last week, it's entirely possible he's overtired.

Sorry this is so long. If any of my Ferber mommas or BTDT travel mommas or really any mommas have words of advice or encouragement, I'll take anything. And if you've made it this far, here is a treat from Paris. Hope you are all doing well!

ETA: It's 12:30 am here, so I'm heading to bed. I'll see any responses in the morning and can answer then. Goodnight!

 

MrsCodeMonkey

Aw! Hope you get some more sleep. I don't have any advice. I can't remember that part in the book. He does talk about it, but my memory is crap. Sorry! I'm curious what people say because we're taking a trip to Romania in Sept. They're 7hrs ahead so that will take some adjustment. 

LaRue86

We have dealt with 3 hours before, but that is it. We did an hour adjustment each day. From what I recall you have to re-ferberize. Could you download the e-copy of it?

chuicafina

cvanderh- Wow! Romania will be awesome. I would love to visit Romania. My friend went in high school and we practiced a few phrases together. The only one I remember is Nu vorbesc Romaneste. I'm sure this jetlag thing is like with everything else...every child is different. DS has always been very dependent on routines and being in a familiar place for sleeping. Travel has always been tough on him. Hopefully your DD will breeze through the adjustment.

 LaRue- Good call on the ebook. I'm going to check. I *think* we're at the tail end of this, but it would probably help to read up for the way back. 

Thanks for your encouragement ladies. I hope I didn't come off as whiny about being in Paris. Obviously, we are loving it and taking full advantage of this wonderful trip! We'd just love to have our good sleeper back too.