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Trip advice- traveling with baby and flight times
I am going to book my flight to go to Cali in July to visit my family. I will be traveling alone as DH doesn't have enough vacation for this trip and Christmas since he took time off when DD was born.
L's on a semi-schedule but it's still really fluid. We have ranges of when she sleeps but nothing really set. She's pretty good about going down by 8:30 so that's the best "routine" we have.
Here are my options for flight times:
9 am flight arriving 11 am PST (1 pm CST)- this would be L's most wakeful time and her poopy period - she doesn't poop at night anymore so she goes a few times in the am. And mornings tend to be rough - she wakes up anywhere from 7:30 am to 10 am depending on how the night went
6 pm flight arriving 8 pm PST (10 pm CST) - this would be when she needs her quiet time to fall asleep - she usually goes to bed anywhere from 7:30 to 9 pm so this could either be great because she'd be sleeping the whole time or horrible because it messes with her sleeping pattern. But since she doesn't poop at night anymore I won't have to change a dirty diaper in the airplane which I am dreading.
Return:
9 am PST arriving here a little before 3 pm
12 pm PST arriving here right before 6 which means we will get her home just in time to start her bedtime routine IF there are no delays.
If it were you, which flights would you book?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Trip advice- traveling with baby and flight times
I would go with the evening flight out. Tracey almost always fell asleep shortly after take off. Something about the hum of the engines. I would nurse her and she'd be out for quite a while.
As for poopy time, I have been known to feed her a good bit of banana before a flight to avoid it!
I would also do the later flight. If she's adjusts at all to the time difference (I'm not sure how long you'll be gone; for a long weekend trip to CA Tracey never did adjust) you'll have some play available in case of delays. If she's not adjusted, morning could be rough.
i would take the morning flight. it will give you time to adjust to the cali clock a little bit and never mind her, you'll be exhausted flying that late. by the time you gather your bags and travel to your destination, you'll both be tired and cranky. she'll be asleep and woken up again several times in what is her usual long sleep period.
i would take the 12 oclock coming back. it never hurts to have a couple extra hours to get your stuff together.
it's been harder for me to go west with littles ones than to go east due to the time change BUT one thing that has been very helpful for us is trying to keep their bodies on the same schedule as home. for example, they nap at 1 pm here so when we go to MA, they nap at 2. when we went to colorado, we had them nap closer to noon. that way it was less of an adjustment when we got home. babies don't read a clock. all they know is "i eat 2 hours after i wake up, then i sleep an hour after i eat, etc...." i know she doesn;t have too much of a schedule, but just thought i would throw that out there
The morning flights I have had were always great. DS did well on them (was in a good mood) and actually fell asleep near the end (peacefully) since we usually would have to get him up early to catch the flight.
Our evening flights have not been terrible, but not as "easy" as the morning flights. He is usually tired from the full day of activities before getting on the flight, then he is restless b/c he can't seem to get comfortable to sleep, but is so tired. Even when I tried to nurse him to sleep under a cover, he was restless until about 20 minutes before we landed, in which he would finally go to sleep (and I was SORE). Luckily, he wasn't fussy (read: crying loudly), but it was very stressful on me trying to get him to fall asleep b/c I knew he was really tired but I didn't want him to cry!
Ditto Carebear- the morning flights have always been easier for us. She is much happier and less fussy. Last time we went to ELP I took an evening flight and it was not fun. She was tired and fussy but it was too early for her to fall asleep for the night.
And I agree about coming back on the earlier flight. Doesn't hurt to have extra time at home or just in case it is delayed. We always try to come back from ELP on the 10/11 am flight so she can nap on the plane and we have all afternoon at home to get situated again.
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