How to Put a Child to Bed in a Hotel Room
As a parent, you often don’t remember how much easier life was as a child until you try to do something simple, like staying at a hotel. Before being with your baby, you could walk into the room, slap your things down, climb into bed, and watch Reese Witherspoon’s marathon movie on TV for hours while eating Flaming Hot Cheetos (or, you know, doing that, what you love). When you have a child who sleeps on a certain schedule, in certain conditions (sunlight is evil!), Staying at a hotel can be a real challenge. (Note: If you have a kid who can doze like a log on a monster truck show and believes that it is the parents who create the child’s subtle sleeping habits, listen, I’m … too tired to fight.)
Fortunately, many resourceful parents who value sleep – their child and then their own – have McGeever’s ways of making the transition from home to hotel with ease. “Babies in hotel rooms” is a hot topic in online parenting groups, and despair has spurred ingenuity. Here are some of the best hacks I’ve found. Feel free to add yours in the comments!
Choose the right room
When it comes to staying in the same room as your baby, parents shared their number one tip: Don’t do it. If possible, buy Airbnb, a suite, or two adjoining rooms. With two rooms, you can let your child snooze and sleep in quiet darkness while living a normal adult life. This may sound overwhelming, but as many parents report, having a separate space was critical to their sanity.
If you don’t want to pay for a second room, know that room selection is still important and you may have some control. Try requesting a room at the end of the hallway so you only have to share a wall with one other room and you don’t have to hear so many footsteps stomping all night. Also indicate a room with windows that do not directly face the sun. Some parents like to ask if a wheelchair-accessible room is available for them upon arrival at the hotel (more on why this will be helpful later). If you do, take it only if the room will otherwise be empty overnight and tell the front desk that you will move if a person with a disability needs it.
Set up a children’s cave
If your child is used to sleeping in a crib in their room, you will have to get creative and create their own little cave within that space. Many parents bring a Pack ‘n Play travel bag for their little one to sleep (often you don’t know for sure if there will be a cot in the hotel).
Now the big mission is to figure out how to banish all the light. A simple but rather expensive solution is to get the well-reviewed SnoozeShade . This breathable mesh cover extends over the Pack ‘n Play and darkens the inside.
If you have a SnoozeShade, you don’t have to worry too much about unwanted light interfering with your baby’s sleep, but otherwise you can use what is in the room to create your own light barrier. Some parents throw a sheet over an ironing board to create a wall or fortress. Others move furniture by placing chairs or sofas next to the Pack ‘n Play to keep out light from lamps or the sun. Others put Pack ‘n Play halfway into the closet to intensify the darkness. And there are those who use the bathroom as a child’s room. If you’re in a wheelchair accessible bathroom without a bathtub, it’s easy to place the Pack ‘n Play inside. Otherwise, depending on the size of the bathroom, it may not work.
I’ve seen parents take sunlight protection to the next level by bringing their own sturdy paper clips and inserting sheets into floor lamps, headboards, or anything else that can be trimmed. This is an option. Or you can cover the windows themselves. Some bring black trash bags and tape them to the windows. Redi Shades , available on Amazon, are paper curtains that can be peeled off and glued, which can be cut to size and attached to any window frame while being gently removed.
In terms of noise damping, you can bring a sound machine or play white noise from an app on your phone . Or, as one mom said, you can turn on the radio and turn on static playback.
Pretend you’re home
Yes, you are on vacation (something like?), But in order for the child to stay in a normal rhythm, you should try to stick to your normal daily routine as much as possible. Take a toy with you to create something familiar, along with your baby’s blankets. Sing your lullaby, read your bedtime story and do what you usually do.
When your child falls asleep for the night, you can: 1) go to sleep too (a wise choice); 2) have fun in the dark with iPad and headphones; or 3), as some parents found out, hanging out on the balcony or in the lobby of the hotel with a baby monitor, or sitting and having a snack in the bathtub. No kidding. You will feel like you were in high school, sneaking away from your parents. Except that now you are a parent. Happy Vacation!