Jet Lag and Small Children

Jet Lag is a REAL thing! It doesn’t just affect sleeping, it affects eating, your mood, and how you generally feel. Combine that with a two-year-old that’s already on an emotional roller coaster, and you get a hurricane of emotions. Let me paint you a picture.

(Night 1)
At this point, I have not been to sleep in 30 hours, and Tyler may have had 2 hours of sleep. We both decided to keep the kids up and pretend as tho it was a regular day without an 8 hour time change. This strategy worked for Nolan (our 4-year-old) not so much for our 2-year-old (he was soo sleepy he was fighting it) He finally went to bed around 7 but then woke up at 12am, Tyler and I decided to just wake Nolan up as well and keep the entire family on the same wacky schedule. We all then went to bed around 3am and slept till 9am Slovenian time. Nolan, Tyler, and I were an EASY transition. Heath has taken an entire week!

(Day 2, Night 2)
We have the boys napping at the same time (1pm Slovenian time) that was a success the entire family just napped. We all took about a 2-hour nap, which may have been a poor choice. Nolan and Tyler were fine, but my wide awake 2-year-old wasn’t! He didn’t go to sleep until 3AM, he woke up a 9am

(Day 3, Night 3)
I’m EXHAUSTED! Heath is a DISASTER, no one can make him Happy. We decided not to lay Heath down for a nap in hopes that he would fall asleep easier. NOPE! that didn’t work! He stayed up again until 3am At this point, I’m sooo frustrated, I don’t know what to do and why my child won’t sleep. I’ve literally tried every trick in the book and nothing is working. I felt like a HUGE PINTEREST FAIL! HA HA

(Day 4, Night 4)
Tyler and I talked about it and we decided to try and not force sleep on him. Maybe on his own time he will just sleep. Night 4 we decided to let him take a little nap (In the stroller on one of our many walks) and then let him fall asleep on his own, but take away all his toys, and the TV and just have him sit in the living room. Believe it or not, this worked! He fell asleep with no tears, and at a great time.

Today is day 8 and Heath is sleeping better (kinda). I wish he would fall asleep in his room, but I understand it’s a scary new place and he’s without his own bed. So at this point, we are dealing with Heath and his tantrums (that JUST started since moving here) and his poor sleeping habits. I just pray that once we move into our house, and have all out stuff he will be a better sleeper.

  • Lindsey
    December 9, 2016

    Hang in there! Jet lag is no fun. Our kids are doing alright, but I’m having the worst time trying to sleep through the night!

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