Hotels and sleeping with toddlers

[Anonymous]

We are thinking of booking our first vacation with our DD who is about to turn 2. She still sleeps in a crib and has been sleeping in her own room since she was 5 months old. She is generally a very good sleeper and sleeps from about 7:30pm to between 6:30-7 am each day. If we go on vacation and just have one room, I'm wondering how to handle her sleeping. From past experiences, I know she won't sleep if we are awake sitting in the room with her. She does much better going to sleep on her own with no distraction from us. So, do we push her bedtime later so we all go to bed at the same time?? Do we get a sitter who waits with the monitor in the hallway while she falls asleep? Or do we really have to pay for a suite with a separate room or a connecting room to ensure no sleeping disasters?? How have others handled this?

[Anonymous]

get two rooms that join or stay at a palce that has a seperate room or you stay up playing cards in the bathroom while she goes to sleep

[Anonymous]

We've had a few surprisingly pleasant hotel stays recently with our 2 year old. With hotels.com, I find I can usually book a suite at a cheap rate that includes a semi-separated living room like area with a pull out couch. We put DD to bed in the pull out with all the lights out and then keep quiet ourselves - use headphones if we want to watch something, talk quietly after she's asleep. There's not a full wall separating us, but it works out fine. We push bedtime back a bit, by a half hour or an hour, and then she's eager to sleep and she seems to actually enjoy having a big bed to herself.

It's not the disaster we imagined it could be - she wasn't up and out of bed at odd hours. We weren't waking her by staying up later. She stayed in her own bed. I think she found it comforting that we were in the same room so she was able to fall asleep under unfamiliar circumstances.

[Anonymous]

we get rooms with balconies (assuming appropriate weather.) Then we sit on the balcony with the monitor generally sipping a glass of wine while the LO's sleep. A balcony is often cheaper than a full suite.

[Anonymous]

sometimes you dont have to do a full suite - there might be a nook or closet to put a crib. its hard to know unless you have stayed there before but sometimes you can tell through photos or reviews.
i have sat in the bathroom until she was fully asleep before. if you can find a spot for the crib away from your bed you can still put on a small light otherwise we keep the lights off.
i have considered putting her crib in the bathroom but we have never needed to. although an option.
we have been lucky and its generally always worked out whatever our set up ends up being.

[Anonymous]

We have 3 kids under 4. We do connecting rooms or an Embassy Suites type hotels with separate living and sleeping areas.

When we had 1 child, we did a lot of international traveling. We stayed at a hotel in Paris one time and only had one room. We moved the pack-n-play into the bathroom so DD could sleep. That would never work with 3 now, but it worked well then!

[Anonymous]

Get a suite. It will make everything much more pleasant.

[Anonymous]

my husband and I have sat in the bathroom before while baby going to sleep ( a nice big bathroom)

And one time we put the crib behind the big curtain so my son felt like he was in a different room. And it was dark for him, but we were on computers.

for my second child who is almost 2, I just put him in a big bed with pillows around and he falls asleep like that.

[Anonymous]

We push bedtimes back.

[Anonymous]

Embassy Suites. That's our go-to. Plus the happy hour and breakfast are awesome.

[Anonymous]

Best choice is to get a suite.

Not aleays possible, so we usually push bedtime a bit late, and sit in the dark reading kindles and try not to fall asleep. Once he is asleep, we turn the light on low, turn the tv on, talk quietly. But sometimes we just fall asleep early. Not glamorous, but This too shall pass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Embassy Suites. That's our go-to. Plus the happy hour and breakfast are awesome.

+1. Get one with two queens. Put the child in one, and you can sleep later in the other.

[Anonymous]

Another +1 for a suite if you can swing it.

[Anonymous]

We do a suite or for longer stays we get an apartment through air bnb. They're often cheaper than a hotel room.

[Anonymous]

Marriott properties. Townplace Suites, Residence Inns and some Springhill Suites have one bedroom suites available at reasonable prices. Get the pack and play in the bedroom, put the child to bed and close the door. When it's time for you to go to bed, you go in quietly and go to bed without waking your child.