The key to surviving a vacation and maintaining great sleep is….stay on schedule! If you can make sure that your child doesn’t get overtired, you will stay ahead of the curve and can help ensure that things will not be thrown off when you return home. Below are a few more tips to stay on track.
- If your child misses a nap – make sure to shift bedtime or the next nap time a bit earlier so they don’t become too overtired
- Set the sleep environment – bring familiar sheets or blankets (depending on the age of your child), something to cover the windows with (travel black out curtains), bring a white noise machine and keep the room at a cool temperature
- Stick with your usual routine – conduct your usual pre-bedtime and nap routines and possibly even add a little time to it in order to give your child enough time to wind-down. Vacations can excite and exhaust children so we want to make sure they have ample time to relax before bed
- Avoid creating new sleep crutches- it can be easy to be lax on vacation and bring the kids into bed with you, feed them if they wake up early (when they have already dropped all night feeds) etc. While it might seem like a quick fix and it’s just “once or twice,” once or twice and especially three times can create a habit, undoing the previously amazing work you have done to get your child’s sleep on track. Stay strong and structured on vacation and everyone will sleep better!