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Helping your child get a good sleep in general is hard, nonetheless, getting a good sleep when in an unfamiliar environment. I mean, isn’t it hard for you to sleep in a new place at times?
I’ve found that the best thing I can do to help our child sleep well in a hotel is to work on a sleep routine and provide sleep cues that are easy to replicate- whether that’s home or away.
Building a Routine
Both infants and toddlers basically have the same core routine at night. Eat, bath, read, sleep. Providing a routine gives kids time to settle down and won’t be shocked when their head hits the crib. As best you can, replicate the routine while traveling.
Providing Sleep Cues
It helps to think of building solid sleep cues through the five senses.
Sound
I think of sound broken up into two parts, consistent sound and your sleep cue sound.
Your consistent sound is what’s played all night long, such as white noise. White noise is one that can easily be replicated by a fan or air filter at home or when traveling, a portable sound machine, phone app, or a staticy am radio station. Lullabies worked for us on and off (Rock-a-bye baby is awesome) when Claire went through sleep regressions, but it’s much easier in the long run if you stick to white noise since it’s easier to replicate on the road.
Your sleep cue sound is what you sing/say right before bed. Ours is a lullaby type song that I made up which I sing to Claire once the room is staged for bed and she is in her crib. We follow it up with a saying, “I love you. Just rest.” right before we walk out of the room.
Sight
When Claire was an infant, we set up a couple art cards on each side of her crib. It helped her to fall asleep (she would look at them for a couple seconds and then doze off), and it helped mimic the same crib environment when we were away. I really believe in this for when they are babies, under 6 months old. Maybe it tricked her into thinking we were still home or maybe she just liked the comfort of the same visual before bed, but either way, it worked for us.
Reading the same book right before bed helps signal “ok, it’s time for night night”. Claire’s final book before bed has changed over time (her preference), but we try to bring the flavor of the month book with us when sleeping away from home.
The lighting in the room is something to think about replicating. Your options are basically pitch black, or filtered light. Naps are rarely pitch black when you are in hotels or on the go, so I don’t advocate for a pitch black room at naptime. I don’t advocate it for nighttime either. Depending on the amount of nights away from home you anticipate having, I would really try to train without pitch black sleeping. Pitch black is just so hard to consistently replicate when you are traveling. Plus, it might be too scary for kids. If pitch black works for your child, I’d use a nightlight that is basically covered up and show your child that it exists every night before bed. That way you can easily travel with it so that cue can be carried over with you when you travel, if you choose.
Touch
A swaddle is great! We swaddled Claire once she hit her first sleep regression (6 weeks maybe?) and stuck with it until she could roll over and get out of it (about 4 months). Some people use sleep sacks in place of the swaddle or as a transition after they start rolling and you shouldn’t swaddle anymore (the sleep sack didn’t work for us, it was too loose around her legs and just made her kind of angry).
We have certain stuffed animals who “live in the crib” and aren’t played with outside of it. The small, easily washed ones join us when we sleep away from home.
Same with Claire’s blanket. She has about 4 or 5 blankets that are similar in color, texture, and size. We keep one in the car, one in the stroller, and one in the crib. She feels the blanket, and that’s her signal to get in the zone and sleep. When she is asking me for blankie or one of her animals, I also know she has had enough and it’s time for bed.
Smell
Some people use essential oils and swear by them. I find that it’s not easy to replicate while away and traveling so we don’t use them. This is another option though.
Taste
A pacifier is our favorite sleep cue. We don’t give Claire a pacifier at all during the day, and didn’t even as an infant to ease her fussing. It is exclusively used as a sleep cue. This has proved to be the most helpful and powerful cue of all. Once that pacifier goes in, her demeanor completely changes as if by magic. As she has gotten older, even before she could talk, Claire grabs it herself, as a cue to me that she wants to go to bed. Note: This one was tricky to train at times when Claire was a baby, but it’s totally worth it.
Bonus Tips on Helping Your Child Fall Asleep at Home With a Babysitter:
What’s great about using specific sleep cues, is it also helps a babysitter put your kids to sleep while you are away! Make sure you write down any routine specific notes and which sleep cues you use and what sequence to introduce them in to help your sitter and child out!
Do you use a video-monitoring system in your child’s room? We use our Nest cams in two powerful ways to help Claire sleep if we are home or away:Claire is crying when I leave the room after being put down for a nap or wakes in the middle of the night. I speak to Claire on the intercom and use our “final phrase” to help her settle back down and 9 times out of 10 she pauses for a second and lies back down to sleep. I love having the Nest cams for sleep training.If a sitter is having trouble putting Claire down while we are away. This one we are really careful about because we don’t want to rile Claire up, so it’s used as a last resort. I ask the sitter to shoot me a text/call and I’ll watch Claire on the camera to see if it’s necessary for me to speak the “final phrase”. If they are at a point of no return, then using the phrase could help. If it doesn’t, the sitter can always go back in and try from the beginning. I would speak over the intercom at home before trying the first time when you are away.
In the End…
Every child is different and there isn’t an exact science to helping your child fall (and then stay) asleep. Build a routine and find the sleep cues that work best for you and your baby or toddler. The more you are able to replicate those when staying in a hotels, the easier it will be!
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