Whenever I share tips for traveling with young children, my number one suggestion is almost always to do everything you can to get them to sleep by traveling during nap/night-time, using car seats on the plane and taking everything your child is used to sleeping with at home. Traveling with sleeping children is always easier and goes more smoothly than traveling with screaming, bored or restless children.
We’ve been very successful at making sure our children sleep at least part of the time whenever we travel and often times all four of my flying companions (the three kids plus hubby) will end up passed out on the plane which makes things easy for me. But unfortunately I have a problem: I am completely unable to sleep on the plane now.
I don’t know whether it’s knowing as soon as I fall asleep the baby will wake up and need me or because I’m always uncomfortable but even on late night and early morning flights, I can’t seem to get to that sleepy place and it can be very frustrating.
Our last flight home from visiting hubby’s family left at 6:30 in the morning. We were up at 4:00 to get ready and head to the airport (luckily we stayed at a hotel right by the airport the night before so didn’t need to factor in driving time as well) and I slept horribly the night before, only getting a few hours of sporadic rest. But I still sat on that plane, exhausted, knowing I had a full day ahead of me with the kids and unable to go to sleep.
But then there’s the car, which is a whole other issue: I can’t stay awake (unless I’m writing blog posts). Even on fairly short drives, in the middle of the day, when I’m rested, I find myself dozing off when hubby is driving. I try to stay awake to keep him company and help watch the road but I just can’t do it sometimes!
