Saturday, August 25, 2007

Somewhere Neither Here Nor There

We are stuck in the time space continuum of jet lag and it is not a fun place to be. Everything is blurry, moving in slow motion like the moment the you realize the impact is coming and there is nothing that you can do to stop it or when you know you are gonna throw up but there isn't enough time to make it to the bathroom.

I guess this is punishment for those days when the kids would get up around six in the morning and we would complain. Now they don't want to go to bed until six in the morning. Seriously, somethings gotta give or I may never get to unpack/ form a complete sentence/ function as a capable member of society. Suggestions, please!!

3 comments:

Gina said...

Welcome back girlie! I've sure missed you! Sorry about the jet lag though, he he! : )

Sarah@mommyinjapan said...

Welcome back! Getting young kids over jetlag is tough because they don't get what's going on.

I think the trick for me is meals and naps. If your kids are going to bed at 6am, I would wake them up at noon and give them "lunch" and then go out to keep them awake (grocery shopping), then a snack at 4pm followed by a nap then a meal at 6 and midnight and then put them to bed at 2am. Then the next day I would move the whole schedule up by 2 hours. Wake up at 10am, nap at 2pm, etc. I find that the waking up in the morning and eating really helps their bodies get more in sync with the time schedule.

We went home last year for Christmas and when we came back in January, Emi had to go back to school within 3 days so getting them over jet lag was my main focus and I usually chose one chore for each day (unpack one suitcase, do one load of laundry, buy groceries, etc). I needed sleep, too, so I couldn't take much pressure. I think Natsuki was the most difficult because she was only 6 months old and she had no idea what was going on.

Whatever you decide to do, they will eventually get over it!

Amy said...

I agree. Meals and naps are key. When we came home from China, Anna knew nothing but Chinese time! Our first few nights she went down between 12-2A and we woke her up around 8 in the AM. Gave her breakfast and put up with her cranky self until we did an early lunch and then nap. We limited nap time to no more than 3 hours. Dinner and then bed.
It didn't take too long . . .

Good luck!