Jet Lag

So it's 5:45 AM here and I've been up since 3 AM and rather than continue tossing and turning in my bed, I decided to just get up.

So I grabbed a sweatshirt and all my essential items (computer, kindle, journal, etc) and plodded down the stairs to the kitchen where I made myself a cup of coffee and poured myself a bowl of cheerios. And I sit here cherishing the stillness of the morning.

And I'm loving that stillness, the early morning dates with the husband, the middle of the night play sessions, the afternoon naps, and the extra snuggles with my tired boys. It's felt so good to just sit and be...together. That's our agenda. And it's beautiful.

But let it be known that I am NOT a morning person, I am definitely a night owl. Always have been and most likely always will be. But I feel like I become a morning person every single time I come here, every single time there's a time difference. At home I normally wake up rather reluctantly to the cries of my children, and here, quite often I wake up to my own accord, probably FAR too early and then when the cries of my children come, I'm excited to hear them and to see the little people that those cries belong to.

Anyhow, as I've said before, jet lag is a beast that takes far too long to tame and then by the time you tame it, you're getting back on a plane to go home! It's actually really helped to read through my past jet lag posts (here and here) as it's really normalized all that we're currently going through.

I definitely think jet lag is easier on your kids the older they get, and it's definitely easier when they aren't napping anymore, which is the case for Jack. So if he naps during the day here it feels like a bonus, but then it probably means he won't sleep as well or as long at night. It's a learning curve people. And it feels like one big experiment, oh they napped for 3 hours today, maybe that explains why they are up at midnight ready to play and party!!

We're entering into our 4th day here today as we arrived early Tuesday morning, and we survived our 3rd night. The first night the boys were utterly exhausted and Ryan slept for 16 hours nonstop! I kept checking on him to make sure he was breathing as he was so still the whole night, and I don't even know if he made a single noise all night. Jack I'm sure was a different story as he normally wakes up at least once a night when we're at home, so I didn't expect anything less from him. But I do think they both slept really good that first night, so I think Peter and I were really hopeful and thinking wow is this how they overcome jet lag, with one long sleep session?

Haha! I can laugh now as our last 2 nights have looked very different than that first night! One night Ryan woke up crying around 11 PM and then Jack woke up and Peter took Jack to our bed, while Ryan and I crawled into Jack's bed. Ryan proceeded to talk to me, while stroking my face and tossing and turning endlessly. Around 12 AM, I finally gave into the fact that he was not going to bed, which meant I wasn't going to bed either, so I turned on the bedroom light and grabbed Jack from the other room, and the boys played for an hour or so before we attempted even putting them back to bed.

And it worked! They fell back to sleep with such ease.

And last night Ryan woke up at 10 PM and Jack soon after due to Ryan's crying again. And Peter grabbed Ryan out of his bed and let him play for an hour or so while I tried to get Jack to bed, which finally resulted in me letting him watch a show on the ipad, and then everyone was fast asleep by 11:30 PM.

We're learning to give in to their middle of the night shenanigans and to let them get their wiggles out as it means everyone sleeps better in the long run. And then I don't get as frustrated or annoyed because I haven't spent hours trying to get them back to bed. Let's just say we're learning how to navigate it all from the mistakes we've made.

And naps help. There have been several times already where I've offered to put Jack to bed at night or to lay with him during the day if I think he could nap as it means I get a quick nap in myself, which is amazing, says the one who never naps ...ever.

Jet lag is a beast, but kids are so resilient and adaptable. If I'm honest, I think the jet lag thing might be harder on the parents than the kids as we are the ones with the sleep agendas. We go to bed at a certain time and hope that we'll get a certain amount of sleep at night. And then our kids wake up in the middle of the night and that agenda is tossed out the door, and we learn rather quickly that we no longer have control over the amount of hours we sleep. Let's just say I can't imagine our kids have the same sleep agenda, haha! If only they did, then sleep deprived parents wouldn't exist right? And how boring would that be! However, I think we learn all this before we even get on a plane and travel internationally with our kids.

Needless to say, the sleep deprivation is so worth it. Don't let that stop you from traveling across time zones with your kids. It's all so worth it. This I know. And these moments with Peter's family and our kids are moments we will treasure always. And the jet lag and sleep deprivation will eventually come to an end (right?), but the memories will remain. And for that, I am forever grateful.

And I leave you with a glimpse into our middle of the night shenanigans! Thanking God for coffee and restful days and the stamina to endure nights like this.