Traveling to London - tips?

[Anonymous]

I have been traveling to London every year for the last 40 to see family and now my son is going to keep on the tradition.

He will be 8 months old when we leave and we depart at 10 pm. I will be traveling alone and on miles (so I think I don't get a travel cot - fun for whoever is next to me).

Tips?

He will be nursing still.

So far I will put him into his jammies at the airport after we clear security; I will bring the ergo in case I need to walk with him (not normal for him at night, but it also might be helpful for the airport).

And any tips on baby jet lag will be appreciated.

I normally just sleep on the plane, shower when I arrive and I'm good to go. But a whole new world this time round.

[Anonymous]

Only tip is to ask for the travel cot ASAP. I traveled on miles last year when DD was 8 months. They upgraded us to give us the cot, but I asked months in advance. We took the day flight and had no problems adjusting.

[Anonymous]

I've taken my kids (now 7, 5 and 2) back and forth to Scotland nearly every year. We always go in the summer (where it is daylight until nearly midnight so they don't have sleep cues anyway) so we don't change the kids' sleep schedule. We keep them on EST for the whole trip. It is a bit of a hassle but worth it in the long run.

Nursing makes it so much easier to feed them when they are small, too.

Another helpful hint when they are older is to never allow TV at home but always allow them unlimited movies and games on the flight. All of my kids have always been so good on long flights because of that! They look forward to the plane ride! (They get to have big cookies and juice, too).

Make sure to look in the "wrong" direction when you cross streets in the UK. People always forget that and there are near constant accidents with pedestrians.

Have fun!

[Anonymous]

I don't affirmatively try to keep my kids on DC time, but I do try shift their days so they are up later at night and sleep later in the morning than they would at home.