Summer Baby Sleep Tips
Posted by Nicole on June 16th, 2009I 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?
Tags: baby travel, toddler travel, travel sleep tips
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June 16th, 2009
My question is about camping. I’d like to take her (she’s 11 months), but just don’t think she’ll sleep well, at least not at night.
At home, she sleeps in her crib in her own room, with minimal noise (sound machine), all night. How could I get her to sleep all night when we’re outside camping?
She’d be in her Pack ‘N Play in the tent away from us, but I still think it would be too loud. And she goes to bed at 7:30 at the latest, so I feel like it would be way too bright out still.
And then once we come to bed in the tent, won’t we wake her up, considering she’s not used to sleeping in the same room as anyone? (Although I CAN be really quiet, and I would likely make Daddy sleep under the stars so his snoring doesn’t wake her.)
Anyway, any thoughts on that?
June 16th, 2009
I too am dreading camping this summer. My husband seems to think a tent is okay, but I- along with many other mothers I am sure-disagree!
I am planning to take the pack and play in my trailer. I may figure out a way to bring our humidifier which serves as our noise blocker. We did sleep at my grandma’s last week and he did just fine in a different environment.
My only concern is if I should put him down asleep- he puts himself to sleep just fine at home but I am wondering what will happen if I try that in a new environment…Also, if I do put him down asleep, will that mess up his routine at home?
Ashley Nielsen´s last blog ..Lil’ Buckaroo
June 16th, 2009
We aren’t going anywhere this summer! We have grandparents coming to visit us, though. We have taken 2 trips with our daughter. Both times we used the hotel crib / pack n play. both were long trips to the east coast and we already had so much stuff to carry, there was no way I was bring the pack n play too!! it worked out well for us. i just brought a crib sheet from home.
on to the sleeping…maybe it is the fact that the sun is up later, but she is fighting sleep every night!! she used to be so easy to put to sleep! i will try the later bedtime and see if it helps! any other tips?
Devon´s last blog ..Why I can never use cloth diapers
June 16th, 2009
I, as the others, am going camping this summer. I’m not worried about my 4 month old, we co-sleep and she is pretty much sleeping through the night, however, my 19 month old who is now in a normal bed because she was crawling out of her crib at 17 months will not be so easy. In order for her to go to bed, we put her in her bed read a book then close the door, she stays up sometimes and plays in her room but eventually will go to sleep. She has been sleeping in her own room since 13 months old – we used to co-sleep until then. She does everything in her will power to stay awake when we are at friends/relatives and will only fall asleep in the car on the way home. How do I get her to sleep when we travel now? Before she would sleep in the pack n play but now she can crawl out so that’s not an option. I can’t lock her in the tent or another room, and when we try to co-sleep now, she thinks it’s play time. Anyone have any suggestions?
June 18th, 2009
I have to say that we used a Pack and Play for our travel over Thanksgiving when my daughter was 4 mos. old, and it worked just fine. However, our summer vacation was last week, and, now that she’s 10 months old, I just don’t think its big enough anymore. She did good for a couple of nights but then had significant trouble the rest of the week (I should qualify that b/c she also got quite sick while at the beach, so I’m sure her sleep troubles were for various reasons). Regardless, it seemed like every night she would get kind of “stuck” up in the corner of the Pack and Play and just didn’t seem comfortable. Once we got her home and into her full size crib again, she got back to normal pretty quickly (of course, she was also starting to get healthy again). She is a pretty big girl for her age too. Long story short, I doubt we’ll be using the Pack and Play anymore with her; we’ll probably be springing for the rental cribs.
June 21st, 2009
@Lainie It would depend on how sensitive she is to noise, but I was actually very surprised about how go-with-the-flow my non-go-with-the-flow son was on vacation. She might surprise you! You might need to bump bedtime a bit later to accommodate the brightness issue, though. I would go and have fun! I’m sure a LOT of babies go camping.
@Ashley I’d absolutely try to put him down awake, if possible. If you have to help him more than usual being in a “foreign” environment, it should be ok when you get home. The trick is to do as little “extra” as possible on vacation for easier transition back home. But, no worries, even if you end up doing everything opposite, it usually only takes a few days back home to get back to normal. The difficult part is when people (including me) take longer to get back to normal because we try to give them time to transition back home. That usually just lengthens the process and you end up with a tired baby. So, although it’s hard, try to get back to normal as soon as you get back home and that means encouraging him to go to sleep on his own.
@Cory That is a tough one! I would stick to routine as much as possible, but you might need to bump bedtime a bit later to factor in “extra energy because we are somewhere new excitement”. As always, set firm limits. If you are co-sleeping, can you put her in the bed where you will sleep but not go to sleep yourself? Maybe give her some toys to play with just like at home.
@Lisa Thanks for sharing! I’m wondering if the PNP will be big enough for my 16 month old so I’m glad you mentioned that. I’m sure it will go better than I think, so I am trying not to worry about it…too much.
Nicole´s last blog ..Baby Temperament and Sleep Series: Wrapping It Up
July 8th, 2010
I am worried about my 5 month old daughter missing out on restorative naps because we will be in airports/airplanes almost all day! She normally takes several naps in her crib during the day, and I am concerned she will not sleep as well in my arms with all the commotion. We just got this sleep training thing down recently! I don’t want an overtired baby in an airplane! Thanks! Your site has helped me tremendously!
July 16th, 2010
Hi Alison,
It can be tough when traveling to stay on a good schedule, but mostly just do the best you can and then you can work on getting her back on schedule with her sleeping when you get home. Hope all went well for your trip.