Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

A week ago my family and I went to the beautiful St. Maarten for our much-needed summer vacation and I thought I’d share our experience, particularly how sleep played a part since this is a website about sleep (and okay because I’m obsessed with it). Thankfully, I had some frequent flier miles to pay for one of the tickets and we opted to have my younger son (now 18 months) sit on our laps, since it’s the last chance before we are required to pay for him. Here’s our summer vacation story.

Trouble began when my “good” sleeper decided to stay up from 10p to 2am the night before our trip! Ugh! He has never done that, but of course that night he did. I attribute it to feeding off the excitement about the trip because I don’t think he fully understood we were going anywhere. The problem was our flight was at 7am! Our plan was to get up at 4 to get to the airport 2 hours early! Oh boy. Vacation was not off to a great sleep start AT ALL. My almost 4 year old (who inspired this site) was in our room at 3:45 a.m. (he was really excited about the trip), so we went ahead and started getting ready.

The travel portion of our trip was actually pretty good. I prepared a carry-on with snacks, new books and new toys along with a portable DVD player, and the boys’ loveys (see more travel tips here). Both boys miraculously napped on the way, too. This is a miracle because my eldest son is still a “sleep fighter”, but he willingly decided to take a nap on the plane. Woah. I can’t say the same for the way back and he was up from 6:30 until 11pm! But, he was good the whole way home, it was only the next day that he had some behavior problems, but a nap helped that immensely (even though he hasn’t napped since about 2 1/2).

Once in St. Maarten, after a rental car snafu, we had a great time swimming in the pool, going to the beach, the zoo, and snorkeling. Unfortunately, at the zoo, my son was bucked by a goat in the petting zoo and the reason for the title of this post is because while we were on a boat, my older son fell off the seat (okay I fell off too LOL) and his face ran into the side of the boat and he got his first black eye. Those were the worst parts of our trip, but on a positive note he learned to doggie paddle and LOVED the beach!

Sleep-wise, we started at a disadvantage with the night before even with two naps on the trip there. I prayed I would be wrong, but if you’ve read any of this site, you know over-tired babies tend to wake extra early in the morning and start short-napping. My boys are no exception. The baby napped only 30 minutes (normally a 2 hour nap) the first day and every day on the trip started waking earlier and earlier every day. At the end of the trip we were at a 5:50 a.m. wake-up. He did have some good naps while we were there, but we were off routine and schedule so much, he just didn’t sleep well and oh, we started to co-sleep because he and his brother were in the same room and he wasn’t sleeping all that well in the Rent-a-Crib (though it was a nice one and I brought his crib sheet from home) and I didn’t need two boys up!

After our trip, it took about a week to get fully back to normal, but here we are back at 2+ hour naps, a reasonable bedtime and 11-12 hours at night for the baby and a normal 10 hours for the almost 4 year old. I do think our trip has seemed to tip the baby into a 6 hour wake-time before bedtime, which is challenging considering a few days he’s been going to sleep after his big brother. The trip has also seemed to increase separation anxiety for the 18 month old and I hope that gets better, soon!

All in all, the vacation was really great. Obviously, I didn’t get to catch up on sleep as much as I wanted, but I did get to relax, at least. I even read 28% of a book, for pleasure. I know I read that much because right before the trip I used an Amazon.com Gift Card my Dad gave me at Christmas (yes it took me that long to use it) to buy a new Kindle, which is essentially an electronic book reader. It is very cool and easy to travel with. I guess I’ll finish the remaining 72% of my book on my next vacation, since I rarely have time these days to read for pleasure (aside from sleep books).

I hope most everyone’s babies and toddlers were sleeping well while I was gone. I have fully caught up on sleep helpdesk tickets, now. Took a few days, but not bad enough that I won’t go on vacation again.

Tell me about your summer vacation!

I am feverishly finishing up the temperament quiz and wrap-up post for my Baby Temperament and Sleep Series, but didn’t want to leave you without anything to read over your morning coffee (or spot of tea) on a Tuesday.

After I posted my summer of sleep information a couple of weeks ago, I received several e-mail messages about this summer’s travels by a few readers. The destinations sounded sooo nice! One reader was off to beautiful Greece (not sure this is where they are staying, but I liked the picture) while another was traveling to Jordan. My family and I will be going to St. Maarten (woohoo! for frequent flier miles). We’ve never been and we are looking forward to it quite anxiously. I have not had more than 2 days off in a row since my baby was born 16 months ago, including Christmas! Unfortunately, I made a critical error telling my preschooler about it too soon as 6 more weeks to him is like 2 more years. Let me give you a taste:

“When are we going on vacation?”
“Can we go on vacation today?”
“It’s making me grumpy we can’t go on vacation!”
“Can we get a face mask for me to swim with on vacation?”

Repeat every day. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but it’s enough that I know I told him WAAAY too soon! LOL Bear with me, I *am* getting to the sleep part of this post as 99% of my articles on this site are about sleep. Thankfully, I do write about things other than sleep on Babble Soft’s blog. Last week I even wrote about Baby Album Books! I think I’ll work on the boys’ baby album books this summer, in fact.

In regards to sleep and for our family trip, I’m trying to figure out if we should rent a crib at the hotel, (which is tempting considering how much gear we need to bring with us for two kids now!), take our Pack ‘n Play (though we are doing a “We’re not having anymore babies garage sale” this Saturday to help pay for our trip and I’d love to sell it), borrow my friend’s Pack N Play or buy something like this Toddler Travel Bed that folds up much smaller. I definitely don’t think my youngest son is ready for a “I can get out whenever I want” bed and my husband thinks that last one looks too much like a dog carrier, so we’ll likely opt for calling the hotel or asking my friend. I’m hoping the proceeds from the garage sale will help pay for the entertainment part of our trip.

Finally, I wanted to share my travel sleep tips with all of you as you embark on your own summer adventures. Of course, I already wrote my travel sleep tips last year, so here are the links to my flashback posts (so I can get back to the Temperament Quiz and Sleep Helpdesk questions):

11 Holiday Sleep Tips
Traveling with Your Baby or Toddler

One other thing about the summer is that it’s normal for bedtimes to get slightly later for some babies just for the summer as it is much brighter later. Once again, light is what stimulates our eyes and tells us when it’s time to sleep or be awake. So, if you have a sleeper that is rid of sleep associations and suddenly starts fighting bedtime, you might need to bump bedtime a bit later, temporarily. It will bounce back when Fall or Winter hit…usually.

Now, please tell me so I can give you some quick tips:

Where are YOU going this summer and what your main travel concerns when it comes to your baby or toddler’s sleep?

With the holidays upon us, many parents wonder and worry about their baby or toddler’s sleep, particularly during visits from family or holiday traveling. Here are several things to keep in mind for this holiday season.

Visitors | Travel

Baby Sleep and Traveling

First and foremost, the holidays and traveling, in general, is a time to have fun and enjoy yourselves! So, try not to worry too much about baby sleep and schedules when you are supposed to be relaxing and having fun. I do have some tips to make things easier, though, especially if you have a baby or toddler who gets very cranky without adequate sleep.

• Before you travel, make sure you have a well-established nap and bedtime routine. This will make it easier, when you are traveling, to have your baby or toddler know what to expect, even though they are not at home.

• You might consider adding a specific baby sleep CD to your routines now, before you travel, so that you can play it at your location, and your baby will associate it with sleep, even when you aren’t at home.

• Consider introducing a baby lovey before your trip for added comfort in a “foreign” place. A simple baby blanket or baby pillow are nice choices. You may be interested in learning when your baby can use a pillow. If you have a newborn, you can try to swaddle your baby for added comfort and check out my other newborn sleep tips.

• Depending on the age of your baby, you may want to sleep on a receiving blanket so it smells like you and give it to your baby when she sleeps. Your scent will help her feel you near, even if you are in another room.

• If you are traveling time zones, try to get onto the normal clock schedule as soon as you can, within reason. If you are traveling too late at night, allow one day of sleeping in and off-schedule naps, but then try to get back on schedule the following day. If you travel early enough, stick to the regular schedule right away for an easier transition across time zones and battling jet lag.

• Stick to schedule as much as you can without sacrificing fun on your trip, but once you get back home, try to get back to your normal rules as quickly as you can for a smoother and faster transition back home. Otherwise, parents often complain that several weeks later they are still feeling the effects of their traveling. If your baby has trouble getting back on schedule after a week or two, you might consider shifting schedules.

• Make sure you have a good place for your baby or toddler to sleep. Here are several good options for travel cribs and co-sleepers: Graco Travel Lite Crib with Bassinet or Infantino Travel Bed. If you have a toddler, you may want to get a portable child bed or if you have a bed at your travel location, you may want to purchase a portable bed rail.

• If you are sleep training, you will likely need to abandon your efforts until you get back home. Consistency is key and with schedules being out of whack and being in a different place, you won’t likely have a lot of success. If you’ve already sleep trained (or will by the time you travel), things might not be perfect during your travels, but once you get back it usually only takes a few days to get back to normal (provided you go back to your “sleep rules”).

Baby Sleep and Holiday Visitors

The most difficult part of holiday visitors is that everyone wants the babies or young children to stay up when they should be sleeping, so they can visit with them. This is especially true of those traveling far distances. I do not have profound advice for tackling this, except that it is YOU that will need to deal with the aftermath.

For those who have children who do not get cranky, this will probably be a non-issue and you can be as flexible as you want to be. But, for those of us who have kids that get very cranky, we might not be able to be that flexible. For me, when my eldest son (the one this website was inspired by) got off schedule even once or just a little bit, it took us a week or more to get back on track. I am not exaggerating! So, we had to really decide which events were worthy of getting him off track. Here are a few simple tips:

• Explain to your visitors that you understand how limited their time is with your child, but that his sleep needs have to be a priority because of his behavior, happiness, and well-being.

• Try to involve visitors like grandma and grandpa in the nap or bedtime routines. If your kids are like my son, this might not be as easy as it sounds. My older son just loooves mommy to read his books or tell him stories and often does not appreciate the concept that I’m always here, but grandma isn’t. My other son, who is just 9 months old, has stranger anxiety. But, I do the best I can, even if I have to be in the room while grandma reads to one of them.

• Try to plan ahead by having visitors come over after at least the first nap because typically that’s the most important. That way, if the rest of the day doesn’t go exactly as planned, she might not be as overtired, at least.

Whether you are traveling for the holidays or staying home and expecting visitors, I hope this article can help you get through them with as little tears as possible (yours and your kids).

Do you have any tips to share? Any questions I can answer?

My husband is finished with school this week, which means summer is upon us. This usually means family vacations. How fun! But, what to do about your baby / child’s sleep? We have been on numerous trips with our eldest son and it gets easier every time. I thought today I’d give some tips for traveling this summer with baby:

• Depending on age, prepare a “fun” pack for the car or plane trip. Have snacks (special occasion snacks became a hit like fruit snacks when he got older), books, new toys, crayons, TaDoodles First Markers, some sort of travel drawing toy like the Aquadoodle Travel N Doodle, and a book of photos to remind him/her of home. If you are not opposed to them watching TV, a portable DVD player is a lifesaver, at times, especially for very long trips or layovers. I recommend this player, the Sony DVP-FX820 8″ Portable DVD Player. I really like the Brainy Baby DVD seriesand love the Leapfrog Learning DVDs.
• Of all the things in your “fun pack”, take one thing out at a time and drag it out as long as possible. (Like I had to tell you that!)
• Try to plan your snacks around take-off and landing, if possible. At least offer milk or water to help with the ears popping. My son never had any problems, but you just never know.
• Plan your travel time accordingly with nap or bedtime. If your baby / toddler sleeps in the car, plan to be on the plane or in the car during the naptime. But, if your child is like mine and won’t sleep in the car, prepare to leave right after his first nap of the day. That first nap is usually the most restorative and the most needed in terms of overtiredness for the rest of the day.
• Unless you are co-sleeping, you can bring a Graco Pack ‘n Play or travel crib. Even if you have somewhere for baby to sleep at your destination, bring along any sheets, familiar stuffed animals, or loveys to make a “foreign” place as much like home as possible, for sleeping.
• Call ahead to make sure your flight is on-time, if you are flying.
• Decide whether to bring your car seat. If you are leaving the country, you might check to make sure the car seat will even work. When my son was about 9 months old, we went to Mexico and wouldn’t you know the back seatbelts didn’t “lock” like they do here in the U.S. I later found out you are supposed to bring something to “lock” the seatbelt with the carseat. Plan ahead for that, unlike me.
• Board early or not on an airplane? If you have a carseat, you probably want to board early to get it installed. But, at the same time, that is just longer you need to entertain your baby on board while everyone else gets seated and the plane takes off. Keep it in mind, depending on the age of your baby / toddler and energy level.
• Sleep train or not during vacation? It depends on where you are going and for how long. If you are going to grandma’s for a month, it is unlikely you want to undo all your hard work and risk overtiredness for a whole month. If you are going camping in the woods for 4 days, it is unlikely you won’t do anything you have to in order to make sure your baby does not wake the neighboring campers. Overall, I’d say you try to stick to routine as much as humanly possible, but also have fun!! The good news is a previously sleep trained baby will bounce back after vacation fairly quickly.
• Here is a packing checklist for babies and for toddlers.

My #1 tip is to relax and have fun! Most of the time your child will surprise you just like mine did. And, even if you have a rough trip, you will never see those people again, so don’t worry too much about it and just focus on you and your family. You deserve a nice vacation, so try not to stress out too much about it.

Do you have any travel tips you’d like to share?