Jet lag and an update

I survived seventeen hours on three separate planes alone with a one year old without too much trouble, but it turns out that the journey wasn’t the difficult part. Jet lag has struck again, and it is a lot worse when your co-traveller doesn’t understand what on earth is going on.

We landed back in Brunei late in the evening a week last Friday, and didn’t start off too badly. I had timed the flight to land at the weekend on purpose so that my husband could do the day shift while I managed nights, but on Saturday night my toddler surprised me by sleeping through with only one brief wake-up in what was the best night’s sleep he’s had for weeks. I was so tired that I wasn’t awake much longer than he was and I woke up on Sunday morning congratulating myself that we had somehow beaten jet lag.

I should have known that there is no way you can beat jet lag!

Sunday night he finally went down at midnight and I crawled in to bed. Half an hour later he was refreshed from his nap and was up until after 4am. Monday night he did the same, only slightly earlier, and since then he has alternated late bedtimes with getting up for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night (or sometimes doing both). Last night he finally slept a decent amount and I feel like a human being again, as well as being able to string a sentence together and finish this post that I started at the beginning of the week.

For me, jet lag is the worst aspect of travelling and the one that stops me going home as often as I might do otherwise. Even pre-baby, it took at least three days either side of the holiday to get rid of that feeling that it was the middle of the night and I should be asleep, or those nights when you are wide-awake at 2am and spend hours staring at the ceiling. At least post-baby I don’t have that any more – when I finally get to go to sleep I am too exhausted to wake up.

Anyway, my rant is over and I take comfort in the fact that I have only one jet lag left as while we were away my husband signed his next contract and we are officially moving back to the UK. We don’t have a date yet but it will be sometime before the end of the year. Having said when we moved here that there was no way I wanted to return, my feelings have gone completely full circle (mostly since my son arrived) and, although there are many aspects of my life here that I will miss, I can’t wait to return to Aberdeen, especially after the lovely break I’ve just had over the summer. I know there will be challenges ahead, but there are so many people and things I miss from home that I am delighted to be returning to a ‘normal’ life.

And if anyone has any tips for battling jet lag (in adults or young children) then please share them – I’m not too hopeful that last night’s long sleep will be repeated!