Comments on: 5 Ways to Help Your Baby or Toddler Nap While Traveling

By: Emily DeJeu

Emily DeJeu — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 14:13:18 +0000

In reply to Cindy.

@ Cindy – I hear you! One of our consultants recommends trying a portable coat rack – they expand and collapse, making them easy to take along when you travel. And you can usually expand the rack, drape a blanket over it, and then you have a (sort-of) room-divider. Usually works in a pinch, especially when you have to share a room with your child when you travel. Something to consider, anyway 😉

Thanks for commenting, Cindy! 🙂

By: Cindy

Cindy — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 18:21:01 +0000

Someone needs to invent a portable room divider. We We put the pnp in a closet sometimes, but not always available. In order to mimic them having their own room, I need something to block our 1yo from seeing us walking in/out of room.

By: Emily DeJeu

Emily DeJeu — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 15:02:02 +0000

@ Becky – rant away, friend! Moms do it all the time on this site, and we welcome it 🙂 Sorry to hear that sleep has been rough on vacation, but I’m not surprised; our kids always sleep SO much worse when we’re on vacation than they do at home, and they’re past the baby and toddler stages! We always end up with late bedtimes, early rising, and pathetic naps on trips. So I feel all your pain 😉

Thanks for “ranting”, Becky; hope your vacation is fun, even with the nap time drama!

By: Becky

Becky — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:17:20 +0000

I feel like I could have written Laurie’s post except we finally napped trained about two months ago. Anyways he is screaming bloody murder for naps and bedtime on out beach trip. We used the trash bag tip and that has helped a bit. My husband is napping with him right now so I can get a break. He is also going through a nap transition but is so tired in the morning(fights his afternoon nap at home too.) I brought the ergo and have been taking car rides. At home I would let him blow off some steam in his crib at let him put himself to sleep but I don’t want my in laws to think I’m a monster so I’ve been laying in the bed next to his pack n play, this helps him settle in better but his cousins keep waking them up 🙁 anyway I don’t really have a question or tip just wanted to rant a bit. Thanks for the post!

By: Emily DeJeu

Emily DeJeu — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 19:41:24 +0000

@ Laura – awesome – so glad to know these are available to U.S. shoppers now! Do let us know what you think of them! 🙂

@ Laura – Thanks so much for sharing your tips! Very, very helpful!!

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 14:02:30 +0000

Our son is 13 months and so far we’ve done 4 plane trips and a few road trips with him (which often prove harder, because he hates the car! He is a city kid ;). We usually stay in apartments (AirBnb.com, etc) because that is generally a more affordable option for getting 2 bedrooms, and a lot more space, and though we rent pack & plays, we always travel w/our sound machine…no blackout blinds yet, but that would be a smart purchase b/c we always end up taping towels to windows! Our son, whom we sleep-trained around 5 months (he was a TERRIBLE sleeper before that), does great at night almost anywhere we go, though if he doesn’t nap well he wakes up at 5:30am instead of his usual 7.

Naps are always a struggle–I actually just (finally) nap-trained him a week ago, so things are getting better now, but till then I rocked him to sleep for every nap. While traveling, we have found it’s essential to have a reliable backup in case he rejects his crib. For us, it’s the Ergo baby carrier. It means I have to walk around w/him on me for an hour, but we’ve learned to use that to our advantage to get in some extra (quiet) sightseeing or beach-strolling time. Tiring, but good exercise at least–and it helps keep him rested.

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 03:17:43 +0000

I found the Gro Anywhere blinds at Toys ‘R Us:

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=32177206&prodFindSrc=search&cp=

I’ve ordered three; I’ll let you know how they work out.

By: Katharine

Katharine — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 01:23:03 +0000

We are going to be doing a couple cross-country flight vacations this summer, so this article is helpful. But my baby is 11.5 months old and still taking 3 naps, which is great for me but possibly restrictive for vacations. Thanks to all the great info I got from your site, she sleeps 11-12 hours at night and then generally 3 x 1.25 hour naps in the day (or sometimes one is 1 hr 40 min and the last is only 40min) and each nap starts 2 hours after waking up. She is a very active baby and does not seem to be able to stay up longer than 2 hours without getting cranky, especially in the morning. Now she’s started walking and is being ultra cranky even with 3 naps. Is it alright for her to still be taking 3 naps when all these people are talking only 1-2 at this age? Or should we be trying to get her down to 2 and would they necessarily get longer? I’d hate to lose that extra hour if she only took 2 1-hour naps rather than 3;) Thanks for the help!

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 20:09:27 +0000

It appears that the Gro Anywhere blackout blinds are now available in the U.S.:

https://www.amazon.com/The-Gro-Company-Gro-Anywhere-Blind/dp/B00IB7D1YQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401825808&sr=8-1&keywords=Gro+Anywhere

https://www.amazon.com/Anywhere-Blackout-Blind-New-Version/dp/B00BKZLWBU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1401825808&sr=8-2&keywords=Gro+Anywhere

By: Monica

Monica — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 17:40:51 +0000

For babies, it’s also worth asking what the hotel has on hand. At one hotel we stayed at, they had portable swings. It was great when my little one was you her. Right now I’m pushing him in the strler and hoping for a good vacation nap.