Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching and that typically means food, family and possibly some travel!
Whether you are hosting out of town guests, traveling to stay with family, or are just trying to balance the busyness of the season, we’ve got you covered!
With all the extra visitors and family, you may be worried about it effecting your little one’s sleep. But you can maintain good sleep over this Thanksgiving holiday!
If you are having overnight guests in your home, here are some ideas for a smooth stay:
- Communicate with your guests about expectations. They may not be used to having a baby in the home or how much an overtired baby can affect the whole family.
- Maintain your child’s sleep environment and routines. If possible, keep them sleeping in their own room. If not, keep the nap and bedtime routines as similar as possible.
- Be confident that you know what works best for YOUR child. Everyone has an opinion, but don’t stray from what works best for you and your family.
Similarly, if you are traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, it doesn’t have to derail your child’s sleep!
- Bring a white noise machine. This can help block out any background noise in an unfamiliar environment that could cause unnecessary wake ups.
- If you are sharing a room with your child (and don’t normally do so), try to create some sort of partition so they cannot easily see you. The Slumberpod can be a great solution for this. (You can use code BEEWISESLUMBER to save $$$)
- Try to keep nap and bedtime schedules as close to normal as possible. It can be SO tempting to just skip a nap or keep them up passed their bedtime but an overtired baby is no fun at all.
Whether you are traveling or staying home, my number one tip for everyone when trying to balance sleep and activities is to “manage your busyness.”
What’s that mean?!
If you know your child is going to be up past their bedtime, make sure they have the opportunity to sleep well that day and take a great morning nap the next day. Or maybe you will be out and about and naps are not so great. In that case, make sure you can provide an early bedtime.
Of course we want to be flexible and have fun. But an overtired child can quickly ruin that fun.
Most importantly, give yourself some grace and enjoy your holiday! Go make those memories and Happy Thanksgiving!
As always, if you are struggling with your child’s sleep and looking for 1:1 support, you can schedule a free discovery call with us here