Hellobee Boards

We have a boy... I'm sure this might be the same for girls... but we wear him out during the day... run him around... going here to there, so he's super tired in bedtime. Usually this works well for us on vacation since both DH and I are around to tire him out.

Over tiredness is the worst. Sorry I don't have the sleeping secret, but I can commiserate. We recently went on vacation with my 1.5 yr old DD and she was wailing so loud at night I was worried hotel security was going to knock on our door.
Do you have a car available? I use it as an absolute last resort, but a car ride usually puts her to sleep. I've also tried rocking her to sleep, blasting white noise and saying shhhh and running my fingers over her face. It sounds weird, but I saw a YouTube video where the guy did that and his baby went right to sleep.

Can you do a quiet wind down that's special, like bath and PJs and warm milk and an animal cracker (then teeth brushing) and cuddling in bed with some Daniel Tiger or a movie in a dark room and let her doze off? She can sleep on your bed or you can attempt to transfer to the PNP of she will abide it. Maybe if she associates bedtime on vacation with something special and cozy instead of sleeping in a strange place it will make her relax.

@daniellemybelle: we went on a trip when DS1 had just turned 2. It was a nightmare. We literally had to drive him around at night to get him to sleep. He wouldn't go to bed. We never figured out why (I suspect it was because he wasn't at all used to sleeping in a hotel with us) and it was the only time we had to do that! (Well, one other time, we went camping and had to, around the same age).

I was going to see co-sleep while travelling because that's what we do, but I see that's not working for you......
Did you try an earlier bedtime and a warm bath with lavender scented products to help the pre-bed calm down?

We have the same problem with my 18 month olds. Well, actually it's a slightly different problem but it's related. They get so tired from not napping that they passour nursing (why I will breastfeed them forever, apparently, because who knows what I'd do if they they didn't nurse). Then we sometimes get them to go down in their PnPs for an hour or two. But once they wake up they won't ever go down again. I just resort to propping myself in bed (which is an air mattress when I'm at my sister's which is crazy) with a baby attached to each boob and try to sleep while they kick each other and bite me instead of nursing. It's very glamorous. Basically every time we sleep away from home (which has been like every other weekend this fall) we know we will get zero sleep and the kids will be in the worst moods ever the whole time. I don't know why we keep trying it except that we generally like our families and want to see them.

I could have written the same thing about my 3 year old and bedtime in general. We have no quiet time after they go down because he refuses to without 2 hours of bs. We can't watch tv or eat dinner anymore.

@daniellemybelle: so glad you found something that worked!! When you are traveling anything goes.

@twodoghouse: you must REALLY like your families. I just would never go anywhere. Like until they were in middle school. But that is a part of the reason we nursed so long- having that crutch on a late flight when she was almost 2 was a life saver.

Is your LO getting too long for the pack and play? We had an awful time travelling at 19 months last time, because she's roll over and smack into the side or get her head bunched in a corner. Our next trip is when she's 28 months and we'll be bringing a peapod or a shrunks travel bed.