I live in Rome and went home to California for the holidays when our daughter was 3 months old. She was so tired from the trip that she slept just fine in the new time zone. The problem was that my breasts were on Rome time, 9 hours ahead! So I was terribly engorged for a few days until they got used to the time difference. Hopefully with just three hours you won't have this problem. :)
When we made the same trip when my daughter was 10 months she had a harder time adjusting on the way back home (going east). But again, with three hours difference you should be okay. Like other mommies wrote, I'd suggest going with the flow instead of trying to make her adjust to the new time zone or stay up to be on California time.
I have traveled quite a bit with our little one. Each time I think I will try to keep her on California time and stick to our "normal" schedule, yet I find that she naturally switches to the local time. I think it is the sun. I think babies are much more aware of time by lighting that we think, and she always very quickly adjusted to the local time. Except when we when to Hawaii and she wanted up at CA time (4 am local!) of course!
East coast she switched on her own.
We live in CA and when we spent last Christmas in Wisconsin to visit my husband's family we kept our son (then 15 months) on PST (West Coast time). All of his meals and naptimes/bedtimes were the same as if we had not left (for the most part - travel did have an impact because of flight times). It's what his pediatrician recommended and I thought it worked out well. Good luck.
I travel frequently with my infants and I just follow their lead. If they stick to CA time while on the east coast, I totally let them. It means they sleep in and just go to bed really late like at 11 PM. But it worked for me! When I went to Hawaii with my 3 year old AND five week old, they adjusted to Hawaii time. They will pretty much dictate when they want to wake and sleep. I just followed along. It was the least stressful that way. good luck!
I have traveled to time zones 3 to 6 hours different with both of my kids numerous times starting at 2 months. Just feed when your baby is hungry/ or when it works for your traveling schedule- and she will change to the new time in 2 or so days. I always find that my kids switch to the new time (especially when going east) much faster than I do.
We are back from our family trip with WONDERFUL results. Thank you moms you really know your stuff. Breast feeding on take off and landing, being prepared, and Tylenol did the trick for the flight. The time zone issue, well it gave us a few late nights, but we went with the flow and before we knew it our daughter was acting just like we were at home. We received so many compliments on her disposition and I firmly believe it is from the advice we used to listen to our/her instincts! Thanks again!