Friday, June 11, 2010

Have Kids, Will Not Travel.

This is a total MOM post. I would probably stop reading here if you mom topics bore you. Really.

So, all of you who are left reading. . . can I just tell you that I am so frustrated! We live many hundreds of miles away from any family. Which means our lifestyle dictates that we travel. A lot. The good Lord above sought it right to bless us with a child who is extremely sensitive. I think he gets it from his dad, which will be great in about 10 years. But right now, it's killing us. Let me explain his personality a little bit more- for example, when we were looking at houses to rent, we walked into the house we ended up getting and set him on the living room floor as we walked around. He melted. I think he was scared, it was a new environment, etc. He is just sensitive to new things.

I am so frustrated with the fact that we can't travel well with him. So frustrated! I know it's part of parenting- I understand if perhaps the first night or two will be rough as he adjusts to his new environment. But seriously?? The dude screamed at us for four nights while we were at the Zuberts and one night we just moved our mattress into the loft in the middle of the night so we could try to get some sleep. We think he had realized we were in the same room as him and was SCREAMING at us. It sounded like he was in pain sort of a scream, know what I mean? Like, screaming. And whenever we get home from our travels, it takes a good week/week and a half to re-train him and get him adjusted to home life. The first week we're home he always wakes up super early in the morning and is tired from traveling and is a bear.

It's not like he's not used to traveling. Heck, he's flown and traveled more in his first 1.25 years of life than a lot of people have! He's been to Texas, Buffalo, Minnesota, Grass Lake, Bridgman, and back again! I would think he would be sort of used to traveling. And we are almost considering canceling our summer vacation plans just because he's such a poor sleeper when we travel.

Anyone out there relate? What works for your bebes when you travel?

Chaeli

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Maybe we need to build some kind of simulation aircraft in our loft that he can fall asleep on. We're really grateful you came -- even with illness, sleepless, and lots of video work, it was a good weekend!

Kym said...

yep traveling w/ kids isn't fun :( We have put Kaitlin (our not so good traveler, no surprise there!)in a closet or even bathroom (have everyone use the other bathroom)just so she's not in the same room w/ us. In the same room they KNOW your right there so why would they give up trying to get to u?! We would spend time in the "room" w/ her before bed.
Uhm also the white noise thing and keeping her up late so she's really tired (works sometimes backfires others :( And there's always sleeping w/ you. Last time we stayed at the Oneill's M slept on my chest most the night. What ever u do PLEASE come home this summer. I'm sure the Grandparents would each take a night so you could sleep!

Chaeli said...

Mark- we really are so glad we were able to come- I wouldn't have missed it despite everything!

Kym- You are totally right about spending time with them before bed and putting them in a separate room. I spent a lot of alone time with B in the room before bedtime and I used a fan but still no cigar. I'm so glad you understand!! :) I could handle it if it was just a night here or there but we were/are spending two weeks at home this summer- that's a long time to go without sleep!

Katie said...

Chae,
I obviously have no advice because I don't have a baby yet, but add my voice to Kym's in saying PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't cancel your summer trip to MI- I'm dying to see you! And hey, if you guys want, you can spend a night with us at our house- because we'll already have a baby that's up all night screaming! :)

C said...

Traveling and having kids sleep in new places can be a total disaster. My friends here and I all end up traveling quite a bit -- a lot of us are very far away from family, as you guys are, so it's just going to have to happen. We've all found that you just kind of go with the flow when you're away -- whatever works to get them to sleep...whether that's having them sleep with you, sleep in the same room with you, make sure to NOT sleep in the same room with you:), whatever it takes.
They'll adjust back to normal pretty quickly when they get back home...though it can sure seem like it's taking forever to get back to normal!

The last time we were all in WI as a family, we made sure to have B in a different room from us...and wonder of wonders, she slept amazingly well (she actually seems to sleep better in a pack-n-play than in her bed at home...odd).

When I went to WI with just her in March, she slept in the same room as me, because she was SUPER sick. She ended up not being able to sleep at all the first 3 nights there...awful torture for both of us. She kept waking up coughing/vomiting -- miserable.

A month after that I decided to go through with a trip to TX with just her...during the WI disaster I had decided that TX trip was never going to happen:)

It was great -- she slept in the same room with me, and it was just fine.

So who knows??? I never know what exactly to expect other than to expect the unexpected:)

Her sleep always gets messed up, either through the plane ride, missing naps, bedtime being off, changing time zones (though we always keep her on our time zone, no matter what so maybe not that:), etc.

And it's always still messed up when we get home and eventually gets back to normal after lots of e-mails to friends with "What do we do???"

I imagine that if you're going on such a long trip this summer, his sleep will even out in a few days, and you'll have a lovely time -- a long weekend trip is when we've had the hardest times too. It's just not long enough for them to adjust to a new place before you're back home again, and everything's all thrown off all over the place.

Meaghan said...

no advice on B, BUT I will pray he miraculously calms down and you still come! too bad we can't give him baby nyquil (half joke). sleeping arrangements at home are never great, sorry!

Erin Morgan said...

chaeli - When we travel with the kids, (when they sleep in pack and plays) we always take along an extra sheet and clothes pins. Then we clothespin the sheet to the side of the pack and play so they can't see you. It has worked pretty well for us so far and helps the kids get some good sleep. We are finding that our kids are pretty good travelers but they do need their sleep. And Penny, especially isn't as good of a traveler as Finn. We;ve also put finn in an closet in the P&P to sleep when he was about 15 mths and that worked beautifully. But all the kids have a hard time adjusting after getting home. FInn usually does well but after our trip to MD a month ago, Penny is still trying to adjust, so we're adjusting again for the recent move!! Poor Girl!

Good luck with B. Just remember, this is just a phase. He will grow out of it the older that he gets. Don't put your life on hold for him, as he joined your family with you and Jon. Set the tone for him and he will catch one. He's a smart boy and knows exactly what he's doing!! :) Be smarter than him!! :)

Trisha said...

I'm so sorry, Chaeli! Olivia gives us fits here at home, so I'm a little nervous about traveling with her too.

The biggest thing for us, is trying to keep the bedtime routine normal. That means, bath, reading, rocking and to bed at the same time, even when we are in MI. Last time, (April) Owen didn't do the greatest. It took about an hour for him to go to sleep, and I had to rock him more.

My other advice is to bring all the blankets, or other things B sleeps with so that the pack n play has familiarity with it. Put extra blankets underneath as well.

If all else fails, he could snuggle with you :) Liv has been doing that a lot lately.

Hopefully he'll do better with a longer trip!

Chaeli said...

Trish-
Poor Liv! Thanks for your thoughts- we did bring his blankets and lovey and kept his bedtime routine the exact same. Still no dice. UGH. Do you know when you're going to MI?