Going to California with toddler - will it be as awful as I'm picturing?

[Anonymous]

I'm less worried about the flight than I am worried about the time change. Do we stay on her schedule (4am - 4pm West Coast time?) - and my even bigger concern...will I ever get her back on schedule when we return? We have good friends we'd LOVE to visit...but I'm terrified!

Thanks. (DD is 15 months now, and will be 18-24 when we take the trip, not sure when yet.)

[Anonymous]

We've done it several times. The kids do better with the time change than we do. We try to keep them closer to their schedule but we always end up shifting an hour or two. We prefer early morning flights. If the kids have to wake very, very early they sleep more on the plane but they are still tired and will fall asleep early on the West Coast zone around their normal bed time. It is harder coming back for some reason and they do have hardtime falling asleep at bedtime for about a week.

[Anonymous]

I've never had much trouble with the time change. It worked really good for us because my dd tended to stay up late here on the east coast, so on the west coast, her schedule was more normal. We took a direct flight from dc to ca at 9 am, and it was just fine. The flight back i think left at noon or so which didn't work out as great, but we all survived. We even did the trip when we had our 2nd dd, so we had one who was 2.5, and another who was 6 months old, and it was fine.

[Anonymous]

After traveling with and without time zone changes, I've come to the conclusion that travel will disrupt sleep, no matter how well you plan it, so we just accept it as part of the package and have as much fun as possible.

[Anonymous]

I flew alone to San Diego when DS was 15 months old. He was a DREAM on the flight (lots of DVDs, snacks, toys) and great the whole week, but YES, he refused to adapt to West Coast time and was up at 3:30 am every day and dead to the world by 5pm...made it very hard to go out to dinner, etc. On the plus side, when we returned to DC, he immediately reverted back to his regular routine/bedtime.

[Anonymous]

I've taken my 2.5 year old to California four or 5 times, since 2 months, and again in a few weeks -- just do it! It seems much scarier than it is. The time change always works out for us -- it's easier going there than it is coming back to the East Coast (DD is stays up as we travel because it's exciting, and then is so tired by the time we get there that she falls asleep right away in the evening; once we're home she wants to stay up late and sleep in late for a few days), but it all works out in the end. You can do it! Go!

[Anonymous]

Haven't done CA but done Europe a few time: we don't adjust her schedule but it often end up drifting of an hour or two.

Of course Europe time is great: go out with DD and sleep late ..... so for CA I would try to adjust of an hour if I was going for 4-5 days and maybe more if I was going for longer...

[Anonymous]

we just returned from SF with my 19 month old daughter. Her bedtime is 7pm EST. THe time change was kind of hard for her even though she has done Europe and Asia a few months ago. She doesn't get cranky but it is just realllly sad to see her when she gets over tired. I would say get her on to CA time ASAP unless you are okay with her sleeping at 4 pm PST.

Getting her back on schedule will be easier than you think once you get back. I have found that flying East is always much much easier than flying West.

[Anonymous]

We just returned from a visit to Nevada with our 17-month-old. She is generally a good sleeper, and I was worried about messing this up, but she handled it fine. The first night there she was totally exhausted by 6, so we went ahead and put her to bed. She was up bright and early the next morning, but from then on was pretty much adjusted. Coming home, we got home about 10 at night, and she had slept off and on throughout the trip. We let her play a bit to wind down and then put her to bed for the night around 11, thought she would sleep late in the morning, but she was up at her usual time and had no difficulty at all falling back into her usual schedule.