Sleeping away from home

laurn321 · December 2012

Out of curiosity, does anyone else out there have a baby that has a heck of a time sleeping away from home? If so, any tips for making it better?

Since about 4 months, Leo just doesn't nap well on the go... stroller naps are a rare occurrence that will sometimes happen if I get the timing perfect (if not, he just cries and cries). The Ergo is more reliable, but we have to put a blackout shade over it so that he can't see anything (it also takes 15 minutes of bouncing up a down and patting his back in a quiet area to make it happen). And a pack n play at someone else's house? Forget it... unless the room is pitch black and there are lots of tears before he falls asleep.

And after all of that circus to make the nap happen, he *only* sleeps for 30 minutes... no more, no less. He's so predictable that if I'm the one doing the nap I can reliably predict to the minute when he'll wake up.

It wasn't always like this... I was that mom who was dead set on having her kid sleep anywhere and it worked before 4 months. Then it was like a light switch went off (I still remember the day it happened). He's also a bear if he doesn't sleep, so it makes me feel like I can't go anywhere.

Any tips? I should mention that he sleeps like a champ at home... no issues at all. I feel like I've traded sleeping well at home for sleeping well on the go.

Jen0204 · December 2012

The girls nap SO much better at home. They've finally gotten good at daycare but if we're at my mom's or my IL's they nap for about half of the time they would at home. They'll sleep in the car as long as the car is moving. They will not sleep in strollers or anywhere else. H and I were just talking about how we are able to go out less now they're older because we hate interrupting their sleep. When they were little we had no problem dropping them off at my ILs for a couple of hours at night to go see a movie but we don't do that now because it's not worth waking them up and moving them to take them home.

We both work so it's not as huge of a deal to us because we're not both stuck in the house all day. On the weekends we try to arrange things around naps. If we have to go somewhere in the afternoon I do everything I can to make sure they get a really long morning nap. I'm definitely looking forward to the day that they go down to one nap a day!

suitern · December 2012

L doesn't nap well or sleep well away from his crib. If I have to go out we plan things around nap time. If it is more of an all day thing I plan to drive around his nap so he can at least get some sort of nap....30 minutes is better than nothing. The rare days that we have to be gone all day, I nurse him to sleep when he is utterly exhausted. This happened when we flew a couple of weeks ago and I expect it to happen again when we fly home on Friday. He has actually become much better at sleeping random places because of traveling for the past few weeks. He has learned to sleep in a different crib at my parents and a pack n play. I think it is just a trial and error type of thing. I break all the rules when he is sleeping somewhere else because I am not going to let him CIO to sleep in some new place. I nurse, rock, bounce, cuddle, etc....anything to get him to sleep.

JenK1108 · December 2012

I try to recreate the same routines at other people's houses that we use at home (reading stories before putting down with blanket and paci). He goes to sleep on his own, so we fall that same pattern elsewhere, but he does tend to cry more and take longer to get to sleep at my Mom's in the PNP than at home in his crib, where there is virtually no crying.

like PP, we work errands and things around nap times now. Ethan will not sleep in the stroller either - it's just easier to have him home for naps.

Jeanine88 · December 2012

When you say on the go, do you mean like if you're running errands/ during a regular week, or special occasions? During our regular week/schedule, I make sure I am home during nap time to ensure he naps. I just recently worked my work schedule around his nap times. However, we travel a lot because both of our families live far, but Austin has become adaptable. He always does better at home, but will nap when we're at our parents. We are usually at my parents' house at least once a month- when we go and come home, we leave at night at his bed time so he will sleep in the car, and then we transfer him to the crib when we there, so we don't mess up his daytime schedule.

We have a crib at both of our parents' houses and put a few stuffed animals in each, like we have at home. We also use a noise machine, and take it with us everywhere we go- I think it helps him know it's time to nap. He naps in the PNP at the sitters and we also have a few stuffed animals in there as well as a noise machine.

At this point, I don't count anything as a nap if it's not in the crib/PNP. He doesn't really sleep in the stroller, and I haven't even tried the Ergo since he tries to arch his back out of it.

Good luck! I feel like Austin's sleep schedule dictates everything we do!

MollySm · December 2012

Lucia sleeps well at other people's houses. But she does take all naps in a PNP 3 or 4 days a week while we are at work, so she is used to some change. We do the same routine with 2 books, paci and lambie, then in crib. When she is somewhere new it does take longer to fall asleep. Like usually at least 30 min. She also sleeps well in stroller, with paci and lambie, as long as we keep moving and pull down the shade as far as it will go. We do it quite often. Maybe not enough practice?

NatesLady1309 · December 2012

You sound very much like us. If we're not at home, it's going to be a lot harder. Involving lots of tears. I HATE it. It limits us so much. She has been getting better about going down for nighttime sleep at someone else's house lately but naps... not happening. We put her down for a nap at a friend's house on Christmas day due to DH's insistence. It went beyond horribly and of course I was the one who had to deal with it, for an HOUR, while DH was playing cards downstairs. I actually cried. On Christmas, due to this.

footnotegirl · January 2013

Rowan is a nap on the fly kinda kid, so she actually gets more naps when we're out and about than she does at home. She naps in her car seat or in our arms, or in the pack 'n play at daycare. She does not nap in her crib at home.

When we travel, we have had mixed success with sleeping. On the cruise we went on, she slept just fine in her pack n play, just like she sleeps at home. In hotels, she generally has troubles with the cribs, so more often than not in hotels we have to take her in to the bed to sleep (something we never do at home).

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