Q: “How do I manage sleep arrangements in one big bedroom for my family? We're spending three weeks over the Christmas holidays at my husband's family, which means four people to one rather large room. Our 1yo will sleep in a porta-cot and my 3yo will sleep on a fold out bed, and hubby and I on the queen bed. I'm concerned my children's good sleep patterns will be lost as the children have only known sleeping in their own rooms. Should I stagger the 1yo and the 3yo bedtime?”
A: Family holidays take quite a bit of planning with children. Often you are in the position of having to share a room all together, whether at a hotel with relatives. Hotel rooms don’t really cater to small children, you can only really have two separate rooms when your children are much older, while they are still little you are confined to one room.
As one can anticipate, your children’s good sleep patterns will suffer when away, however do the best that you can. You certainly can’t stay home and never go on holidays to avoid the disruption (as tempting as that can be). How to manage? Yes, definitely stagger the bedtimes by at least 30 mins if not longer. If this just doesn’t work, then try putting the older child in another room to go to bed and then moving once they’re asleep. This isn’t ideal; however, it is better than bedtime taking two hours while one keeps the other awake and vice versa.
Try to position the porta-a-cot (if possible) so that your baby can’t see you if they normally sleep by themself. Also keep the sleep cues the same (or as similar as possible) when away. Take the basics: sleep comforter, cotton blanket, music/radio, and (my favourite) take their sheets if possible. You know yourself how different sheets feel in a hotel room and how uncomfortable they can be. Take your own and keep the feeling the same.
If you read stories but taking the books is just too much, then consider recording you (or your partner) reading some. That way you just take an audio version with you. I would also get a back out blind, as you never know what the window curtaining is like.
Nicole Pierotti
Originally Published: August 13, 2017
Last Edited: December 13, 2021
Comments