3 Tips for Traveling With Your Kids While Unpacking Your Anxiety About Sleep.
It’s that time of year again! Most of us will inevitably be traveling with our little ones. Traveling with my kids used to give me so much anxiety. I would lose sleep for days prior to our family vacations. I would think about how my kids’ sleep (or lack thereof) would make the holiday more work than it was worth. I always admired those perfect Instagram families who traveled for a living. I’d ask myself things like, “Have they ever forgotten one of their children in a hotel?” “How do they keep track of socks?” “Where do they wash their clothing? The dry cleaners? And, do they fold them or just throw’em into a bag?” I had a friend once tell me during her first pregnancy that when her baby was born, their family would be taking their newborn on a three month long trip in a camper van. I laughed but said nothing. That trip never happened.
This dread of traveling with my kids was real as the minutes are long (in that last hour before my kids bedtime, seriously it’s like time stops!) and the dread came from considering how their sleep would be impacted in a new sleep environment. I needed to figure out inexpensive ways to create a sleep-promoting environment for them while on-the-go. So, ladies and gents, here’s what I have found to be the most useful tricks when traveling with your little ones:
1. Always travel with a sound machine. They are lightweight and easily fit in a carry-on bag. Whether your child is used to one or not, I can tell you that they will sleep so much better with a sound machine than they will listening to unfamiliar noises in new surroundings. After all, we cannot control the noise volume in someone else’s house or a hotel, so this is your best option. We use the DOHM by Marpac. You don’t need anything fancy like whale calls and birds chirping, just a “one sound shush” or a fan sound does the trick. If you are traveling somewhere where there will be no electricity for you to plug-in, there are many brands that are battery operated. I can only really think of a few instances where you would be sleeping somewhere without electricity, primarily camping. If you are bringing little ones under two camping, you have bigger problems than just sound and good luck with that!
DOHM by Marpac
2. Bring something to darken the room your child will be staying in. This will prevent your little ones from waking up with the sun, which is important to consider when traveling to different time zones. There are some travel blackout blinds out there, such as the Gro Anywhere Blind, but if you are on a tight budget like me, than good-old thick black garbage bags and Duct Tape will do the trick! I care not what the airport security is thinking! When you are putting up your window garbage bags just make sure that you Duct Tape the garbage bag to the window pane rather than the painted frame or the walls. You don’t want to tear a strip off of someone’s paint job!
Gro Anywhere Blackout Curtain
3. Don’t forget a lovie or a blankie from your little one’s bed. This may seem like a no-brainer, but forget this and you can kiss your sweet holiday sleep goodbye! I add this to my list:
A. To remind you not to forget it if they do have one!
And B. because some kids don’t need them to sleep, but for these little ones it will help create an environment and help them acclimatize with all the big changes to their habitat, a familiar smell, a piece of home. This is especially useful if you are traveling to multiple destinations, as it will be their one constant and will help them to understand that now it is time to transition to sleep mode.
Well there you have it, my 3 biggest tips for traveling with your babes. Enjoy your vacation!
As always - if you have any specific questions or would like to chat more, please send me a message, book a free call with me or leave a comment!