The truth about toddler jet lag

Returning from holiday is never easy. At least not if you’re on a tight schedule. I had ambitiously planned for our family to go to a theatre and later a play date the day after returning from holiday in Miami. Not a great idea.

Coming back was not the same as going away. When travelling to Miami, 18-month old Baby Girl quickly adapted to the new time zone. She slept around 12 hours every night without waking up in the middle of the night on any night we were away.

We had dinner a bit early on the first two days of our holiday, but we didn’t feel jet lag was an issue for her when we were away. In fact, I was the one who was waking up early and spent two hours on my laptop lying on the bathroom floor from 5 in the morning to avoid waking her up.

But when we came back to the UK it was a different story. Having lots of plans on the first day back was not as easy as I’d expected.

It took Baby Girl more than a week to get back to her normal self–although she had to get up early to go to nursery two days after returning from holiday.

Still, the great thing about her jet lag was that we all got some extra sleep. On the first night back in the UK, Baby Girl slept for more than 14 hours and on the days she weren’t going to nursery in the first week back, we also had a little lie in. Bliss!

Tags: Florida, Jet lag, Miami, Toddler, Travel with toddler, Travelling