Sleeping away from home can be tricky. I mean, isn’t it hard for you to sleep in a new place at times?
I’ve found the key to sleeping away from home is:
- Building a routine at home that you can replicate while away
- Providing sleep cues that can be associated with nap or bedtime
(If you’re looking for information on hotel life in general, check out our page specifically on Hotel Life here.)
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.
- Book: 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.
A couple of tips and tricks when sleeping in a new place:
- Pre-trip:
- Call your hotel in advance to make sure they assign a crib to your room. When it arrives, make sure the base is velcro and strapped down securely and is in good condition/clean. You can use anti-bac wipes to wipe it down in advance and request an extra crib sheet in case of any accidents.
- Staying in an AirBnB? Google and see if there is a local company that rents out cribs.
- Ask for a room upgrade so you can get a private or carved out space to put the crib so you don’t have to go to bed at the same time as your child. It’s also why it’s really helpful to stick to one hotel’s loyalty program to build status to get upgrades. We usually stick with the Marriott family of hotels for this reason.
- When you arrive:
- Is your child in diapers? Ask the front desk for a diaper genie! Most family-centered hotels (like a Disney property) will have them and same with many four and five star hotels. (Yet another reason why I’m not into Airbnb’s, I find hotels to just make my life as a mom who travels with her child so much easier.)
- Give your child (crawler-walker stage) a chance to explore around and see their new crib situation before you venture out for the day and definitely before you just decide to plop them down and expect them to sleep.
- Have patience and be easy on yourself and your child. Depending on Claire’s stage, I sometimes have to have her fall asleep in bed next to me for the first few nights and then move her into the crib once she falls asleep.
- Focus on getting good naps in the first couple of days. In our experience, it doesn’t take Claire long to start napping in the crib no problem, but takes a day or two after we have nap success for her to have crib success and not need my help falling asleep anymore. Once we get to napping in the crib success, I know sleeping in the crib for the night success won’t be far behind.
Bonus Tips on helping your child sleep while you are away:
- 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.
Helping your little one fall asleep away from home can be the trickiest part about traveling, but setting up a consistent home routine and using sleep cues will help everyone rest easy!
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