Are you planning your first holiday with your baby? How exciting! Well, exciting and kind of terrifying! Packing up your baby and everything they’ll need and taking them away from your shared familiar space is a daunting prospect for many parents. How will you remember everything? Will you be able to get Calpol if you need it? How will you sterilise? What if they run out of clean vests? Will their ears be ok on the plane? Do babies get car sick?
There’s a lot to think about, but the question we get asked all the time is how will my baby sleep on holiday? We can’t answer all of your 3am worries, but we can give some tried and tested advice on how to help babies sleep while travelling.
Cats sleep anywhere…and so can babies
Anxiety about your baby’s sleep can really impact your day-to-day happiness and enjoyment of your holiday. The trip should be a relaxing break for the whole family – including you! So first and foremost remember that if your baby sleeps a bit later or a bit less while on holiday that’s OK. You will not ‘ruin their routine’ or undo all your great work so far by letting the timings of their sleep slip a bit for a week or two.
Rather than sit indoors all evening, bring baby to dinner and let them sleep in the pram while you eat. Create a shady spot under a pool umbrella and let them siesta with the best of them. When they’re tired they will sleep and going with the flow of that will allow you all to relax and enjoy your holiday.
But sleep cues can really help
Whilst newborns will typically sleep frequently and easily, older babies can be a bit harder to settle, and may fight sleep as their new exciting surroundings are too distracting. You can help them to relax and settle into sleep by providing some familiar sleep cues that they associate with sleep at home.
The Sleep Tight Baby Bed is a great way to take your baby’s familiar bed with you on your travels. It is light and portable and comes with a protective carry bag. You can put it on a flat surface in your hotel room, at granny’s house, or even by the pool to provide your baby with their own comforting and comfortable bed for naptimes and nighttime.
The Moro reflex will startle young babies awake when they hear a sudden noise. Help your little one to snooze through the ambient holiday sounds by swaddling them, which suppresses the reflex. Swaddle bags will make this easy, and when they no longer need to be swaddled you can undo the arm poppers and let their arms out.
Before your holiday, get your baby used to falling asleep with the soothing sounds of the Dream Cloud Musical Nightlight. They will take the cue from its 10 lullabies to drift into sleep in a new environment.
Keep an eye on the temperature
British Summers are unpredictable at best, but if you’re travelling abroad it can be even harder to work out what the room temperature is and how to appropriately and safely dress your baby for sleep. Our Starlight Baby Room Thermometer is USB rechargeable so you can take it with you to check if the room is too hot or the air con too chilly and dress your baby safely according to our what to wear guide.
Block out the sunlight
Make the room nice and dark to help everyone in the family rest and relax, with the help of the Total Eclipse Portable Blackout Blind. The travel blind sticks to the window with strips of suckers and blocks out ambient light. It’s a tried and tested way to help everyone feel a bit more sleepy, both at home or away. It packs away into it’s own book-sized pouch, so it takes up very little room in your luggage.
