Chloe's been escaping bed time all night, telling us seriously, I'm not tired! Not tired! Not tired! Even when shut inside a room with nothing to do, she made Isaac laugh hysterically by showing him the joys of a belly button. After physically trying to throw her out of the room, she finally conceded.
All things considering, jet lag hasn't been that bad. I don't feel any more tired than usual, probably because my kids have trained me well. I must have been jet lagged every day for the past 4 years.
Here's what helped so far:
1) Sleeping on the plane. Our flight departed at 6:25PM. We brought bed time books, tooth brush, and went to sleep at 10PM -- except fancy daddy, who can't sleep anywhere other than a bed.
2) Agreeing on punishment for daddy for sleeping during the day. Chloe gets to spray water on daddy's face if he falls asleep. That kept him up for 3 extra hours and kept Chloe entertained for 3 hours.
3) Agreeing on a reward for Chloe for waking up after a short nap. Right before she fell asleep at 2PM, I bribed her with a kinder chocolate egg and told her I will be waking her up to eat her chocolate egg. When she wouldn't wake up, I threatened to eat it.
4) Staying outside in the daylight. We went to a park for the whole day today and let Chloe run her laps around. That's supposed to tire her out for an earlier bedtime. But the kid's a machine that still lasted past midnight...
5) Co-sleeping. No need for cribs or large sleep association tools. No need to rush home for Isaac's naps. They sleep when we sleep. They wake up at night to see us sleeping, and fall back asleep, knowing it's not time to get up yet. Threaten to kick them out of the our room and they comply. Of course, it's a double-edged sword. I can't stay up running errands like fixing grandpa's phone account overseas. That probably brought on the belly button show and tell at 12 AM.
Better luck tomorrow.
