Long haul flight with 2 under 3 - help??? Anyone used Brauer Calm?

[PlonkeeMumma]

Hi

On Monday we go to the UK for a visit to see friends and relies but i am starting to really worry about the flight; how it will affect the bubs and how the bubs will affect the flight! Even though Oscar has potential to be a bigger nightmare i'm more worried about Will. He is such a light sleeper that i just can't imagine that he will sleep for any length of time and that i think he will end up getting over tired and going completely off his nut.
We have a 6 hour flight starting mid afternoon so when we land they will normally have been in bed for a few hours. We then have 3 hours in Singapore airport then the 13 hour bad boy to blighty. Even if they stick to their normal sleep habits (which i'm sure they won't) they would only sleep for 6 hours on this flight but having done it before i know that the plane has it's lights off and everyone is expected to sleep for most of the flight! This is not going to happen for anyone sitting near us!
I don't want to use drugs as such(although i may eat my words on the return journey if outbound is truly awful) but i have bought some Brauer natural medicine Calm. Has anyone used this and had any success? If it will just help them stay calm and relaxed that would be great. I'm not trying to force them to sleep longer than normal or anything but i just want them to relax and not get over tired or stressed.
Oscar will have his own seat and once he is asleep is quite good at staying asleep. We have booked a bassinet for Will as he a lightweight and shorty for his age (72cm and 8.5kg) and i have a great sling for carrying around in to settle him.
If anyone has any experiences, advice or tips they could share i would be very happy to hear as i'm really starting to get very scared.
Thanks and sorry for long rambling post.

Julie x

[PlonkeeMumma]

Cheers Caro. I think you can take liquids on boards as long as they are less than 100ml (brauer = 100ml yay). I am taking their straw water bottles and if the security want me to empty them out before boarding fine but i will fill them back up again when on board as they are both only used to drinking with straws (although osc can use a cup but he just messes about and ends up soaking!)
Will is addicted to his dummy and oscar will no doubt be sucking his thumb on take off and landings so hopefully those will work with the ear-popping. I'm hoping they let me take the little boxes of soy milk on too for Will to drink as he has a dairy/lactose intolerance and i doubt they have that on board. Hadn't thought of that before now - probably a bit of a bugger that i weaned him a few weeks ago!

Julie x

[Lucy]

I did the same flight with Charlie when he was 9 months, so I empathise with the scary feelings.

Would Will fit into the basinet thingo on a plane? If you can, ask for the bassinet seat, because then at least you have the option, and even if he won't sit/sleep in a bassinet, there is usually a chair thingo that staps on there instead, so you can least be hands free some of the time! Charlie had a great time sitting in it and playing......

Charlie slept in short bursts, on me,......max 3 hours I think. I just fed/played/sang every time he woke up. We had the bassinet seat area & another Mum and her wee man next to us, so she understood, so I didn't feel too bad if he was a bit noisy during the "lights off" stage.

My advice would be to ring the airline & find exactly what you are allowed to take and what you are not.

I didn't do Brauers, but from memory Charlie had a snotty cold so I may have given him a dose of Dimetab at the start of the trip.......

By the time I got Charlie strapped into his car seat in the hire car, he was asleep before I even reversed out of the car park and slept from H'Row to Bristol, which topped him up. Then (cruel Mummy!) kept him awake for the rest of the day to "re-set" his body clock, which worked like a charm, and he was then in the exact same groove he had been in before, on English time, which was brilliant.

HTH....

[PlonkeeMumma]

Thanks Lucy, i did the journey on my own when Oscar was 9 months too and that wasn't too bad. At least DH will be with me this time but still.... I think i will give the airline a call this arvo re what i can take on. How did you find the drive after all that flying? That's another scare for us picking the car up straight after the flight then driving up to Nottingham. Hope we don't fall asleep - i can't even have a proper coffee as ive been off caffeine so long with being preg then bf that it now makes me feel sick - grr! I will be doing the same in that i might let them have little naps in the day but no big sleeps so as to get their body clock onto British time. It worked with Osc last time.
Julie x

[Lucy]

How did you find the drive after all that flying?

To be honest, I was that excited (it was my first trip back for 10 years) that I was driving on adrenaline!

I was a Sunday morning, so nice and peaceful on the roads.

And I searched for Radio 1 on the hire car & realised I had grown up in my radio choices, then found Radio 2 and a cheesy DJ I recognised and all was well, LOL!

I hope you have a great time............you're brave....we considered doing the trip for this Christmas....Olivia 3, Charlie 2 and Lexie 1........decided against it for sanities sake!

[*Ang*]

Hi Julie

We did longhaul from Perth to Hawaii when Gabriella was 18 months old - she was fine and slept in 1-2 hour bursts. Truthfully I cant remember it beinga harrowing experience but that may be because I have blocked it out from my memory!

We are headed to Europe ourselves in 2 weeks time with 2 children. I have also bought Brauers and keep meaning to try it on Alex before we leave but havent yet - he is a very very very active monster oops child so I am dreading how the people around us are going to cope with his constant movements. I am hoping to get him addicted to tv (hehehe ) before we leave but at the moment he is not interested at all.

When we fly into Milan we are picking up our hire car and doinga 4 hour drive staright away and then an all day drive the next day to Croatia - I suspect that when we first get in the car both children will be having a good sleep.

Good luck with it all, I dont think I have really answered any of your questions tho have I -oops.

[Berry]

We flew to the UK last year with our two children - then aged 3 and 1, and given we thought it would be a horror flight, we were very pleasantly surprised that it went so well. At that age they tend to be lulled to sleep for much of the long-haul flight; the same was the case with other little ones we saw on the flight too. We didn't give them any medication; we contemplated it but the chemist talked us out of it, and it turned out there was no need.

So good luck; although it isn't easy taking little ones on a long haul flight, I reckon it won't be as bad as you imagine either....