Sleeping Arrangements
As Ben and I are traveling to see family this week, I’m a little concerned about sleeping arrangements. We’re staying with my parents, and we’ll be sleeping in my sister’s room — Ben in the pack-and-play, me in the bed.
Of course, because I over-analyze everything, sleeping somewhere other than our own house brings up a whole new crop of worries. The biggest thing I stress about is that Ben still wakes up at night, usually once. I eventually stopped going to get him, and from what I can tell, he usually goes back to sleep fairly quickly. He’ll cry for a minute or two, and then it stops and I assume he’s sleeping again.
But then there’s the reality of being in someone else’s house, in a pack-and-play instead of his crib, and in a strange room. When he wakes up and realizes he’s not in his crib, in his own room, will it scare him and make it harder for him to go back to sleep? I also worry that, if he wakes up and sees me in the same room as him, he won’t go back to sleep. Well, I don’t worry — I know.
And therein lies my biggest dilemma. The way I see it, I have several options, each with their own drawbacks. If I sleep in the same room as him, in a nice comfortable bed, and he wakes up, I’m pretty much going to have to get up with him. And while at home this would pretty much amount to just a bottle and then going back to bed, I don’t know that he’d just conk back out after eating in a strange place. Plus, he cries himself to sleep now. I don’t really love the idea of him crying at 2:00 in the morning and waking everyone up. I also don’t want to wreck our routine — where, if he wakes up at night he puts himself back to sleep — after I spent so long getting to that point. If I get up with him every night for the next week, will that ruin the routine we have now?
Another option I have is to go sleep on a couch in another room, and when he wakes up, just ignore the crying and let him put himself back to sleep. But will that wake everyone else in the house up? I don’t really want to inconvenience anyone.
I guess these are the issues that arise when you travel, and especially when traveling with a baby. I think I’ll probably end up playing things by ear, and hopefully it will all work out without causing as much stress as I imagine it will.
How did you handle traveling with a baby? Any advice?
