Sleepless Baby Traveler

Hi C.!

Just be prepared to have a not so relaxed sleeper due to the different time zone, scheudles and people around him. I took my son when he was about 10 months and again at 1 year and also 18 months on a about 3 different trips and the best thing I can tell you is that it will be different for them, they are not at home, not in their bed, around unfamiliar things, so KEEP THE SAME SCHEDULE AND DO THE EXACT SAME THINGS you do at home to get prepared for his bedtime. That is a must! If you are planning on using a pak n play, start out making him take his naps there before you leave, that way he gets familiar with that part of the bedtime. I also recommend going on the website and seeing if the place you are going to has a babu place where you can rent baby stuff. They will rent out baby cribs as well! My sister had one already, so I was ok with that. It was a godsend, so I didn't have to haul TONS OF STUFF with you! We drove the first time and I kid you not, our SUV was so full of stuff, it was unbelievable. I found a place and it was great. They delivered the items (whatever I needed, they usually have packaged deals) and then picked them up when we left. Matthew did fantastic the majority of the time, but we had to do the exact same things, the music (took a DVD player), the bathing, the reading, the rocking and kept the same time and he did good. The naps, we did those as well. People will give you grief about it, but you are the ones that have to suffer through it the next day if they don't get their 12 hours and their naps!

I highly recommed the book "Healthy Sleeping Habits, Happy Child". My son is now 3 years old and does a 12 hour night still! He also naps every other day! I am so glad we stuck with it and that book gave us some great tips!!

Good Luck and above all have fun!!

G. B.

My advice would be practice a lot. Can daycare have her nap in a new place? Can you try letting her sleep in her pack n play in another room a couple of nights? This might help. Like Gladys said, KEEP everything the same while travelling. I agree with her too about being firm about naps and bedtime, even though relatives TOTALLY GIVE YOU GRIEF!!! I'd take the grief over a cranky baby though!! Good luck!
R.

When we we went away for the first time with our preschooler and infant, the infant slept in a pack in play. He absolutly hated it. the second time we went away when he was a year old we rented a crib and we had no problems. The place we googled rented a crib where they delivered it,set it up.. it even came with bumper pads and crib sheet. We just brought his blankie and he had no problems. We just googled a search for crib rentals in the area that we were were at. Hope this helps. Good luck

Start a couple weeks before the trip letting her sleep in a pack n play. You might start now introducing some sort of "lovey" if she doesn't already have one. A small stuffed animal or blanket will do.
Also, you have to relax the rules when travelling. If she's trained to fall asleep on her own and sleep in her own bed, you may have to bend or break that when you're in an unfamiliar environment.
Also, make sure there's nothing in the environment that could have caused a problem -- a cat allergy, cigarette smoke, etc.
When all else fails, use Benadryl.

Keep babies magic tea with you to soothe her when she gets fussy.