Bedtime in a hotel room

We are driving to see my family next month and will need to stay one night in a hotel with the babies. We have a pretty solid bedtime routine at home and we put the babies in their cribs awake. They will often babble a bit before falling asleep. However, I am sure that the babbling will turn to shrieks at the hotel.

How do you handle bedtime in a hotel? Our babies also go to bed between 6:30-7pm, so should I look for a room with a suite?? I don't want to spend that much money for one night, but if it will make it easier...

What do you do??

 

I would put them down at the same time and try to keep as much of your bedtime routine as possible. I wouldn't worry about the noise, I think the hotel rooms have a pretty good sound barrier. Have a fun trip!

 

I agree with Kyrstyn. Keep the routine the same. Whenever we've been in a hotel, the girls are usually super tired from the excitement of being away from home. We still do bath, stories, milk, teeth and then bed. If you get a room with 2 beds, put the PNPs on the far side of the room and maybe put some things on the bed closest to them so they are blocked from seeing you. I usually turn out the lights except for the bathroom light and DH and I watch a movie after they fall asleep, or work on our laptops. I've also booked suites and we end up all sleeping in one room anyway, but with a suite you and DH can watch TV or hang out and not have to be in darkness when they go to bed. If its not a lot more, you might want to look into it, but if its really expensive, its not worth it. GL!

 

We went on an overnight trip last month and I was worried about the exact same things you are. We had a room with two queen beds. I put a pack n play on either side of one of the beds. We did our normal bath, pajamas, watched a little tv, milk and then we turned out the lights (only a small light in the bathroom on.) I put the boys down in their beds and they cried (which was my worst fear!) What I did then was brought them both up into bed with me for a few minutes. I just held them in the dark until they were sleepy/drowsy and then put each in their beds. They slept the entire night - actually didn't wake up until around 8:30 a.m. which is vary late for them. I think it was because the room was dark (which they don't have at home in the morning!)

I'm confident you will have as good an experience as we did. Enjoy your vacation!

 

I would set them up in the bathroom if there is enough room. It will be dark and quiet. We are going to disney in a few months but we decided to get 2 rooms because of this issue.

 

We just took a trip and stayed 1 night in a hotel. We had been visiting with family all day, so they were overtired by the time we got to the hotel. We did our normal routine, but they wouldn't go to sleep. Our room was near the breakfast area, so we went out there and they went right to sleep. Of course, I didn't take my eyes off the door the entire time. We did the same thing for their naps the next day. I would try to set the room up so they can't see you or worse case, wait in the hall while they fall asleep.

 

I did this last month, and I'll be frank--it was a nightmare. It was terrible, granted my boys are not top notch sleepers. They couldn't bare to be in the same room with us, and they shrieked for 1.5 hours, and didn't go to bed until 11PM. They also each woke during the night multiple times, which made driving the next day tough. It was really bad. Sorry I don't have much in the way of encouragement; our experience was bad.

I'll be trying to pay for a plane or drive all the way through next time. The boys just couldn't handle people being in the same room with them. They have to go to sleep by themselves in their room.

 

We just went away for the night last weekend in the Catskill Mtns. for a family reunion...We ended up with a room where there was a wall dividing the room into 2 (but the wall was only half-way across the room so it was still pretty much one big room). The door was on "their side" as was the bathroom. We ended up putting them down around 9pm all completely tired out...Their bedtime is usually 7pm at home. My mom sat outside the hotel room reading (it's outdoors) while DH and I went to relax with my cousins until around 1am...We snuck in and slipped into PJ's in the dark and went to bed on our side of the room and not a peep was heard until 7am...It worked out great with the little wall. I am SURE if they 'saw us', all he** would've broken loose...They HAVE to sleep "alone". We tried, in the past, all together and it was really...really really bad. I would recommend finding some way to have them either separate in a suite or make some kind of barrier if your kids are anything like mine! lol

Good Luck!

 

We'll be trying this out the next couple of nights. I'm more nervous about naptime than I am bedtime, but both could be a disaster. We are supposed to have a suite though so I'm hoping that will help.

 

We have always done suites in hotels or rented houses so they can be in a different space than us. That way when they nap or go to bed at night, we can still function.

 

We have taken several trips (30+ nights) where we ended up in one room together with the boys in PNPs. It took them a little longer to go to sleep, but essentially as long as they couldn't see us they still went down pretty easily and slept all night. We left the room for at least an hour (read on the balcony, soaked in the tub, swam in the pool right outside the door and took the monitor) when they first went down. We snuck back in later and as long as we were relatively quiet they were fine. It would have been nice to have a seperate room to put them in so we didn't have to be so quiet, but it worked out fine.

 

We are on vacation right now. The twins are sooo exhausted by the end of the day they are actually happy to get in the PNP's. They will lay quietly or even be asleep before we put them in. I wouldn't worry about it... oddly our routine/schedule is still pretty much the same and the kids are not acting out. Of course they are getting less sleep because nap is interupted.

 

Ditto to this...we always do suites/houses/condos. Although, I am impressed with how many have done just a standard hotel room. We are driving to florida Labor day and we will need to stop once. We were thinking of a standard hotel room just for cost, but are definately apprehensive about it. You guys have definately given some good ideas!

 

I just went through the same thing as other's. We had one night in a hotel but the rest of the trip was hard too. The hotel we had pnp's they gave me 2 to use that night. I put them on the far side of the room. We just had one king size bed. Half way through the night we had to get one of the boys in bed with us. There was no other way for him to sleep.
For the rest of the trip we stayed in an beachhouse.. There we had a twinsize mattress on the floor. I had to lay with them until they were asleep. Bedtime was horrible! Goodluck!

 

Well we are back and we caved. They were late getting to bed both nights so we just held them. I took one in the bedroom and patted his back in the PNP one night and held him the second night. DH sat in the living room with the other both nights. It worked and we are home and didn't have any bedtime troubles (well no more fussing then usual anyway) tonight. Naptime Saturday was actually easier - they were slap worn out from playing in the pool.

 

I am glad you survived! It's always great to be back home.