My husband, 2 small children (2 and 4 months at the time) , and I moved overseas almost 2 years ago.  It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever dealt with emotionally.  Not only I had I recently had a baby (which does a number on my emotional state) and sold my favorite house I’ve ever lived in, I also had to say good-bye to my friends and family for 4 years while my husband earned his PhD.  I took it on myself to do the bulk of the packing because I knew I wouldn’t see any of our stuff for the duration of those 4 years- I wanted to be the one to decide what to store and what to give away.  In addition, we were still getting up with our baby at night, whether it was a feeding or a paci-replacement effort.  So, after everything was packed, sold, give away, or stored, and after we lived with family for 2 months and then said good-bye, the real fatigue set in….right when we skipped several time zones to Scotland.  It was a 6-hour time difference that I had never before experienced, much less with 2 little ones.

Tips for Jet Lag Reduction

Jet lag is pretty miserable anyway.  Arriving already exhausted only makes it worse.  But, as adults, we can reason through it and promise ourselves naps or coffee or whatever it takes to muster up the energy to keep going.  Unfortunately, children do not have the same ability to realize why they feel so tired or to talk themselves into sleeping even when they don’t feel like it.

So, we found that protecting their sleep was essential.  Here are some of the ways we ensured they (and therefore we) got good sleep:

• Count on 1 day for every hour of change.  So, we had a 6 hour change- therefore, it took about 6 days for everyone to be completely back on track and feeling well.
• Be reasonable in your expectations- you can’t expect to regain 6 hours in 1 night, no matter how tired you are.  (see #1)
• Eat meals on the NEW time schedule.  This will help your (ahem) bowels, as well as your ability to sleep at the new times.
• Shorten naps- don’t allow yourself or your children to nap for long periods during the day (unless they are infants).  This will only prolong the nighttime troubles.
• Decide on a course of action for middle of the night wakings- will you snack a bit, get a drink of water, watch a movie, etc.?  You’ll make better choices ahead of time than in the moment.
• Get black out blinds- almost everyone sleeps better in a dark room.
• Use white noise.  Chances are you’ll be sleeping at odd times, possibly when the world around you is up and about (and therefore making noise).  Thus, mask it with white noise and they even have jet lag sound machines.
• Be patient- you’ll get on track, I promise.

While beautifully quaint, this Scottish building boasts of all the creaks and groans of any antiquity.

Well, I thought I’d report back on the retreat/ “weekend away.”  I knew it would be all right when there were no name tags.  In fact, the weekend away was more than good- it really was great.  We live in Scotland, so any kind of road trip is a sight to behold and the hour and a half trip south of Aberdeen (our city) to Arbroath was a lovely one.  While I remembered every snack available to man and the portable DVD player, I did of course forget the actual DVDs, a mistake my children did not appreciate at all.

Regardless, we made it to the Windmill Christian Centre and immediately enjoyed the view of the coast and the peaceful surroundings I highly recommend this facility by the way).  It is one large building with 3 or 4 stories and perfected suited for such an event.  The retreat director was thoughtful enough to put our family of 4 further away from the activity hub, but we still had 45 Uni students running up and down the stairs right outside our door, as well as across the hall to the bathroom at all hours of the night.  As I mentioned I would, I brought 2 sound machines in case we split the kids somehow.  Our goal was to cover the college kid noises, as well as the soft little coughs and sighs so typical of small children (yet still distracting to adults trying to sleep).  As it turned out, there was an en-suite bathroom (unusual for Scotland), so we put our son in a pack n play in there as he is the youngest (21 months) and the rest of us stayed in the main room.  We set up both white noise generators at opposite ends of the room, and I can testify that they worked!  Even when our daughter woke up in a coughing fit at 4am, that natural white noise (water fall) washed over my son as if he were in paradise- and indeed he was- blissfully unaware of anything other than sweet rest.  We all slept in and had a great time!

I will say how funny it was to explain to a British man what white noise is.  He was sure it was just another “American thing,” but his kid did not sleep until 8, did he?    Similarly, we had another family use our flat while we were away.  They have just arrived from the States and are still jet-lagging with their 2 small children.  The father’s comment was, “Man that noise thing really works!  My son was finally able to get some much-needed rest.”  Need I say more? (except maybe that the retreat god has been assuaged.  What a relief.”

Oh, our flat…while I really do enjoy life in the UK, it is not exactly peaceful.  I have mentioned before that my children are less than quiet.  Lying in bed trying to get over jet-lag, listening to hear if my children were struggling to sleep, I was shocked to hear how many noises assaulted me- car doors slamming, our neighbors having a conversation next door, the  local dogs yapping, the garbage cans being dragged out to the street, etc.  I said I was shocked- that’s because we normally use a white noise machine to drone out the ambient sounds.  However, this time (last  night), we couldn’t risk it since we had to be attentive parents for the sake of our jet-lagged children.

So, this is my ode to white noise.  Thank you for blocking out life so that I can sleep.  We will meet again soon.