With Christmas just around the corner, many of us will be traveling, enjoying Christmas parties, family gatherings and all kinds of fun events. The downside is that these fun events have the potential to disrupt your child’s sleep schedule.
Is it possible to enjoy the holidays without wreaking havoc on your little one’s sleep?
The answer is yes! With a little planning and prep work, you can have a great Christmas season while keeping your child’s great sleep skills intact.
Here are 6 tips for your child’s sleep over the holidays:
1. Plan travel time around your child’s sleep schedule
Whenever possible, choose travel times that are least disruptive to your little one’s sleep schedule. Obviously, this will vary depending on the age of your child and the distance you’re traveling.
If you’ve got a long drive ahead of you, a clever trick is to schedule your driving time over your little one’s naptime. Car naps aren’t ideal, but they’re better than no naps at all. On the other hand, if you’re not traveling very far, you may want to leave shortly after your child wakes up from their nap and travel during their awake time, ensuring that they get a nice full nap in before you go.
2. Stay on routine
As tempting as it may be to let your child skip a nap or let bedtime go a little later so that you can fit extra activities during the holidays, I highly recommend you resist the temptation and stick to their sleep schedule as closely as possible. Changes in routine are the quickest way to end up with an overtired child, and overtiredness can cause a re-emergence of those negative sleep habits you’ve worked so hard to prevent. Plus, if your baby’s tired and cranky, you’re not going to have much fun anyways. Sticking to the schedule and keeping your little one well-rested will assure that the time you do get to spend with friends and family is fun, happy and relaxed.
3. Re-create their home sleeping environment
Bring along everything your little one uses to sleep at home. Pack their sleep sack, blanket, lovey, pajamas, white noise, etc. If your baby sleeps in a crib at home, bring along a pack-and-play. The idea is to re-create their sleeping environment from home. And anything that smells familiar and reminds them of their home sleeping environment will help them get to sleep in their new surroundings.
4. Find a way to darken it up
Do everything you can to make the sleeping space as dark as possible. Hang some dark sheets or a dark blanket, cover the windows with tinfoil or garbage bags. I find it’s best to plan ahead – either bring what you need or find out what supplies are available at your destination.
5. Maintain separate sleeping spaces
If at all possible, try to maintain separate sleeping spaces. In the event you have to share a room with your baby, try to create some kind of partition in the room so that they can’t see you from their crib.
If they wake up in the night and see their favourite person sleeping across the room, they may be too excited to fall back asleep. So, try to find a way to separate their sleeping space from yours.
6. Don’t deviate from awesome sleep habits!
Continue to be consistent in your expectations around your baby’s sleep. Try to resist the temptation to use an old sleep prop (like nursing or rocking to sleep) or trying a new one for that matter (like bringing your baby into bed with you). Any sleep habits formed while on holidays are bound to persist once you’re home and they can be hard habits to break! So, if you don’t want your baby sharing your bed with you at home, then it’s best to not even start that habit while on holidays.
If you do get a little off routine and it causes your child some difficulty falling asleep, a short nap, or a wake-up in the night, use the same strategies you’d use if you were at home. You might be surprised how quickly your little one can fall asleep and get right back into routine if you give them the opportunity.
One more important point: Remember that you are the boss of your child. Don’t let any relative make you feel guilty for trying to maintain healthy sleep for your little one. You know your child best – where you can give a little bit and where you cannot. Have confidence in that and say “no” when your child needs you to say no for them.
With consistency and proper planning, you can enjoy your Christmas holiday with a well-rested child, which will make for an easier transition once you’re back home as well.
Have a wonderful Christmas season everyone!
If your child’s sleep gets off-track and you need help getting them back to a place of sleeping well, schedule a FREE Sleep Evaluation Call to learn how I can help.