Flying long haul with kids is never easy, but surviving the flight itself is not the only difficulty.
When we flew with Pixie to Japan we didn’t have any issues. We arrived late afternoon, all of us were very tired and when we got to our hotel late night we fall asleep and woke up the next day ready to explore. No jetlag what so ever. So I wasn’t worried at all.
The kids were great during the flight, the first leg lasted just 7 hours, they were awake, playing and having fun on the plane. We arrived at Doha late night and Pixie fall asleep in the carrier, on my husband 😊. I guess she needed some cuddle time. She didn’t even wake up when we boarded the plane. We just woke her up for breakfast before landing. Manny was easy as well, he slept a few hours, and cuddled a lot!
We got into Saigon early afternoon. We got ready fast and headed into the city to explore. We were very tired in the evening when we got back to the hotel. I thought it would be an easy night. I was wrong, unfortunately!
Manny didn’t want to sleep at all. He was wide awake, playing, laughing. This meant Pixie wanted to play as well. It’s quite difficult to put two kids down to sleep when one of them is laughing really loud!
Eventually, Pixie fell asleep and after a while, Manny did too. I was relieved and hoped for a long sleep. No, no, why would Mummy get a good night sleep? Manny woke up at 2 am, sat up, looked at me and laughed. I knew that it will be a long time to get him back to sleep. I think I just slept like 4 hours that night. I hoped that having a busy day will result in a tired baby.
But why would Manny be tired? He had the chance to sleep in the carrier all day.
So the same thing happened the following night. It took so long for them to settle and Manny woke up very early.
It was a bit easier though. And got better every day.
My husband read it somewhere that it takes one day per time zone to adjust. And I think it’s right.
We had 6 hours difference and after a week the kids were ok.
My husband didn’t feel any jetlag, it was ok for Pixie, but it was very difficult for Manny. I cannot really give any advice on how to avoid it. It just gets better day by day and tries to get some rest whenever it’s possible.