Flying cross country with 5 mo old - BTDT moms

My DH is from CA and we are flying out there next week for a family wedding, 2 days after DD turns 5 mo. I've flown with her to FL already, so I'm not super concerned about the flight, but I was wondering if we should be concerned about jet lag for DD? I'm nervous that she is going to be waking up 415am instead of 715am and going to bed at 5pm instead of 8pm. Is there anything we can do to try to help her get adjusted to the time change? We're only going for 5 days, so I'm wondering if trying to help her adjust is even worth it or if we should just go with the flow. I just want DD to be as happy as possible, since she never gets to see this side of her family (and hasn't even met anyone yet!) Any advice would be appreciated!

Re: Flying cross country with 5 mo old - BTDT moms

We've always had the most luck doing redeye flights and trying to adjust as soon as we could

Flying cross country with 5 mo old - BTDT moms

We have done NY to LA twice with no real jet lag issues. He did wake up early the first few days, but only an hour or so. But I think b/c his days were so busy and out of routine that he was able to go to bed on time (relatively) and adjusted his schedule really quickly.

Re: Flying cross country with 5 mo old - BTDT moms

We went to the west coast in March when DD was 5 mos, unfortunately she did not adjust but it wasn't so bad. Is your LO napping 2 or 3x a day? I would try and stretch her awake time the first 2 days. If she usually naps every 2 hours try to stretch her longer and push bedtime back by an hour or so! We tried this and it made DD a lil cranky and she had a hard time going down for her naps. Ugh. But may have been bc we were in a new place.

DD was doing 3 naps a day but due to our schedule she only got 2 naps a day and was tiring out and crabby at her normal bedtime. I tried sp hard to give her that 3rd nap and stretch her bedtime but she was exhausted. Also she used to get up at 6:00am (EST) then nurse and go right back to sleep till 9-10am. So like I said it wasnt bad - she was up for the day at 7am PST. I had to be in bed earliesth though for her MOTN feeding, otherwise I was a zombie!

Message edited 5/7/2013 12:02:38 AM.

Re: Flying cross country with 5 mo old - BTDT moms

I find that no matter what they usually still get up early for the first few days. I would try to push her bedtime as late as you can once she gets there, hoping she'll make up for it and sleep a little later. What time does she normally go to bed? If it's 8 pm (5 pm PT), maybe you can stretch that till 9 pm et (6 pm PT) and keep going later each night.