10 nights in crete with 6mo....wwyd re: bedtime routine

[BotBotticelli]

Hello, we are taking 6mo DS1 on holiday to Crete for 10 nights in a couple of weeks.

We are staying in a large family friendly all-inclusive hotel, and we have a family room (ie seperate living room and bedroom) with a Mothercare cot provided.

Since around 3mo DS has had a very solid 'bath, bottle, book, bed' routine which we do every night around 7pm, and he sleeps v well. What on earth shall I do about this on holiday?? The hotel restaurants don't open until 6.30pm/7pm so I am really not sure how to make this work? My friend suggested keeping DS on British Summer Time whilst we're there, ie, going to the restaurant at 7 when it opens, giving DS some dinner with us, and then putting him to bed around 9pm greek time (which is 7pm UK time). And then retiring to our balcony with a bottle of wine and book. Bliss :)

With the added bonus that he might then sleep through till 8am Greek time :) Do you think this will work??

The other option seems to be putting him 'to bed' in his buggy, covering him up like a budgie and then wheeling him to sleep in the restaurant whilst we have dinner. And then somehow transferring him to the cot later. The thought of this gives me the heebeejeebies...am pretty sure he would not wanna sleep in his buggy at bedtime it's bad enough trying to get him to nap in the buggy during the day

Any experiences/thoughts welcome!

ps - if this holiday totally fecks up his nighttime routine, will we be able to get it back when we get home???

Don't worry, I think he will adapt well if you just go with Greek time. We went to Crete when DS was 21 months, and he just ate dinner at 8pm as if it was the same as 6pm at home. If DS wants to stay awake while you eat, you could put him in a highchair and let him play/watch you eat. You could do the bottle, book, bed when you get back to your room.

We found that our DS just went back to normal on our return home.

Just let the baby fit around you and your holiday. We have never been routinees with ours and it worked really well. Take him out in his buggy in the evenings to the restaurants or wherever. He will sleep if tired and then just pop him in the cot when you get back. Take his toys etc and he can sit with you if he is awake, no problem.

it will be fine! I was like this with DS1 and really worried about his routine etc by the time DS2 arrived he had to fit round us and he is fine and has always slept well. In fact we are now so flexible that I honestly can't remember how we dealt with DS1 when we went away when he was 9 months. I suspect though that we would have put him to bed at the usual time and then crept about like mice to stop him waking . Much better with DS2 and much less stress

Are you staying at the sensatori?we've just come back it was fab!
We did as you originally proposed except we didn't put DD to bed we rocked her to sleep in a pushchair and then transferred her to the cot when we went back to the room about 11pm. Worked brilliantly for us!

Thanks guys - wil try to chill about it!!

Yes clearly we are going to the sensatori - so glad t hear you had a good time! Any tips/insider hints to make the best f our hols?

Also, can you buy branded nappies/wipes from the supermarkets nearby?

You can get pampers in the supermarket in the hotel and the shops just outside, they are quite expensive though €11 euros for 20 size 5+ but they saved us from going over weight in our luggage so worth it for us. It's quite difficult to book into some of the restaurants, the screen thing shows them as fully booked but if you go to reception and moan they will book you in. Our fave restaurants were the tex mex and the Thai but the main restaurant is lovely too.

Floor by kids pool is quite slippery but your little one isn't walking so probably not an issue.

We had a swim up room (6007) which was amazing but some of the swim up rooms (9000 block) don't get any sunshine and the pool isn't as nice so request not to be there.
Room service is expensive (€18 for a pizza) but if you go to reception they will order you a pizza to be delivered to the room for €10 from an outside pizza place.

Erm can't really think of anything else, they are very helpful in the hotel and love children so don't stress and they are happy to help if you need it

Thank you! Good tip re: the pizza! I have heard on tripadvisor about the restaurant booking problems so will go to reception like you say...les than 2 weeks to go now! Am going to sainsburys this morning to do a mammoth holiday shop :)

We've just got back from an identical holiday with our 6 (now 7) month old DS...he usually works on a 7am - 7pm 'day' so with the 2 hour time different we just stuck to it so it became 9am - 9pm in reality he was still waking up at 7-8ish, but with all the fresh air etc he had nice long naps so was fine to stay up until after we had dinner (though he got a little bored of watching us eat, so lots of toys/entertainment needed at mealtimes!) and ended up going to bed at 8.30ish. It was all a LOT less stressful than I anticipated, so you'll be fine!

Relax. The routine will not be a problem. It will just happen as you adapt to your new environment. Your over thinking it. Just worry about getting there!