Early/late flight time with 16-month-old?

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

So I'm wondering if I'm setting myself up for disaster? Trying to book our tickets for our trip and the only nonstop flights going to Orlando leaves at 7 a.m. and leaving coming back at 9 p.m. Is that too early and too late? Will it mess her up for the whole trip? The flight coming back I guess she'll have to nap in the stroller that day since we won't have access to our room. The reason I DO like the flight times is that we get almost two extra days out of our trip...but I'm wondering if I'm pushing it now that we have this little princess??

 

[bdtracey]

We took our little guy when he was 14mo. Our first flight left at 1 a.m. and the little booger didn't sleep an ounce before leaving! He finally fell asleep on the plane around 2:30 a.m. and had a decent nap on our connecting flight. We had a 2 hour time change as well by the time we got to Orlando. We just focused on getting him back on schedule as soon as we could. The 9 p.m. should be fine, do what you can to get her to snooze during the day and realize that it'll take a day or two for her to get back to normal. At the end of the day I think your flights are quite doable.

 

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

thanks!!

 

[deva]

We do the same thing and honestly the late flight home is rough - especially when you have also missed nap.

 

[tourguide81]

We haven't traveled w/ DD to WDW yet, but she is 19 mos old and has flown 3 times, most recently to Florida at 18mos.

I find the early AM flights are actually great. I leave her in bed until the last second (since you'd be leaving for the airport before 4:30 probably). I scoop her up and toss her in her carseat in the already running car. It's literally the last thing I do. I don't even change her diaper or out of PJs. She rests in the car on the way to the airport or may even fall back asleep. I change her into regular clothes & a fresh diaper once through security. I mean, that's going to be around 6 for a 7a flight, which is still earlier than she'd be up anyway. I find the worst thing that happens w/ an early flight is that she naps a bit earlier. Maybe if you can get into your hotel a little early, it would work. If not, stroller nap!

I do think the 9p flight will be rough. But, you will be prepared for it, so that will help. In that situation I would put DD to sleep in a sling or carrier (ring sling or ergo) while waiting to board and she has slept right through take off. That is probably your best bet.

Good Luck!

 

[Minnie*bell]

My question is can't a baby tell when he or she wants to sleep? Is it best to let them sleep as much as they can through travel time, so they are refreshed? IDK, I'm prego w/ my 1rst, planning a trip for when he's 16 mons. It seems to me a morning flight would be perfect. I just hope my little guy is flexible w/ naps & so on.

 

[bumbershoot]

My question is can't a baby tell when he or she wants to sleep?

Excitement can easily keep little ones up up and more up, until they crash, and many babies and toddlers crash loudly and in a most upsetting way.


OP, I don't have a problem with the morning flight, b/c you can work around that.

But with the night flight, if baby has a freakout, if baby won't sleep, if baby is upset...you're keeping the whole plane-ful of passengers awake as well, when it's a normal time for people to take a snooze on the flight.

We've only done morning, afternoon, and later afternoon flights so far b/c of that. I would HATE to be the one with the baby screaming during nighttime. We've done that in a hotel and it was horrible and embarrassing.

I had an experience on a flight from JFK to Ireland once where a drunk woman going home was playing her guitar and singing and talking about the upcoming reunion with her boyfriend...she kept me, and others, up ALL night. It was very much NOT fun. That experience (and having to learn to drive car from the other side on the other side of the road with the stickshift under my left hand, at 7am, with no sleep, was just the cherry on top!) has really made me think about others when on planes, and is the reason we haven't done late evening flights yet.

something to think about!

 

[Zeebs]

We always book our flights around the later flight, but our flights are usually 12 hours long, so they get changed into their PJs after getting on the plane and they are ready for bed, normally curl up and go to sleep in their seats.

One flight Seth screamed for the 20 mins from the moment we got on the plane we hadn't even taken off, I was getting more and more stressed couldn't do a thing for him tried everything he was over tired but he did then just flaked out and he was gone for almost the entire flight.

Good luck.


Kirsten

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

The only thing that has ever caused me issue on travel was major time zone changes.

I found that at that age--lenghty changes on a short trip--my child kept to their natural schedule, shifted earlier/later to whatever teh time change was.

But I have done a transatlantic trip with my little ones which is 8 hours on a plane. My kids have always done well with sleeping when they need to sleep....as long as they have a place to sleep. The only thing that killed schedule on arrival--again, time zone changes.

Depending on departure/arrivals...I have them in their jammies if leaving early in the am and then just change them into their day clothes later....if a late arrival, they may fly in their jammies as well.

 

[TaliaB]

For the AM flight, I`m sure your baby will fall back asleep in the car. As for the night time, it depends on your daily schedule. My kids gets cranky if I postpone bathtime. Real cranky

We are travelling by plane for the first time with my 9 month old. I also scheduled a 7am flight. Honestly, I think I`m going to be the cranky one on that flight