10 month old-east coast to west coast travel

ellenbc

I am taking my LO to California tomorrow to visit family.  Any travel tips especially regarding the time change?  I am flying alone with her but I did get her a seat. 

chulita425

We've flown a few times cross country and most recently was at 7 months. It's really not that bad. He adjusted well and quickly. 

ras26

We just did East coast to mountain time with a 10-month old and, for the most part, we tried to keep her on Eastern time.  It was rough (for us) when she was getting up really early mountain time, but we were at my parents' house, so we could put her to bed and not have to worry about going out to get dinner etc.  It really made for a much easier transition for her. 

aimlessone

We did a 5 hour time difference recently.  If you are going to get LO on local time, it was easy to get her there.  Just keep LO up until you want to put her to sleep.  It took us about 2 days to get her adjusted.  The reverse, getting her back to local time when we got back, took us a week.  It was not a happy time for her.  

LadyMadrid08

I just did a 9 hour time difference with DD (a 10 hour flight!) and she had very few issues with the time difference.  It took her a few days to adjust going there and a few days to adjust coming back, but I don't have many tips.  Just try to put LO down for the night when you want them to get used to it even if it means keeping him up a little longer than usual.  Might not work the first night, but after a couple days it should be fine.

Also, if you have a bedtime routine make sure to stick to it.  I think this really helped my DD adjust easily.

As for the flight, you'll be fine!  Though I'm not sure having a seat will help (obviously can't hurt) because my DD just wanted to be held the entire 10 hours I flew alone with her anyway.  I had the bassinet, but she really didn't use it much and would only sleep on me.  She was also teething though so that had something to do with it.

Good luck!  It'll (hopefully) be easier than you are imagining it to be.  I know that was the case for me.