If you’re headed on vacation with your baby, you may be looking forward to your destination but worried that your great sleeper will regress while you’re away. With these travel sleep tips you can keep your little sleeper on a sensible schedule, wherever you’re headed:
- Ask for sleep-friendly accommodations. A separate room in a house or an adjoining hotel room is ideal. If you plan on room sharing, make a separate sleeping space for your child. Improvise by bringing along a portable coat rack and hanging a blanket from it to create a temporary room divider. If you want to invest in a super dark, portable sleeping space, check out the SlumberPod!
- Create a sleep environment similar to what your child has at home. Pacifiers, blankies, toys, loveys, bedtime books, bring them all! Don’t forget your child’s favorite pajamas and sheets, along with the night light and sound machine.
- Although vacations aren’t meant to be rigid and structured, stick to your child’s nap and bedtime schedule as much as possible. Allow for plenty of downtime and plan your excursions between naps. You’ll have a happier child rather than a wired, tired child that challenges you at night.
- Build in a day or two of cushion on the back end of your travel to provide plenty of time to get back on track before you really have to be back on a regular schedule.
Vacation is meant to be a fun! It’s okay to enjoy your destination and activities even if it means bending your rules a bit. If you and your kids have great sleep habits leading into the trip, you’ll bounce back to those same great habits as soon as you get home.