Hotel stay with a 7mth old

[Catharine]

Hi,

We'll be staying in a hotel while we're away for 2-3 weeks.

The problem is that my daughter goes to bed at 6.30pm every night, so that will really limit our nights out since we have never leaft her with a babysitter before, I don't think we'll be doing it while on holiday.

What do other parents do in a situation like this? Where would you place the cot bed within the room & how do we do stuff in the room and keep the light and noise down at the same time?

Can you stay in a hotel where there is a baby sitting service?

If you stay in a hotel with good bar / restaurant facilities, ask at checkin to be placed on the ground floor, and take a good baby monitor that works a reasonable distance away, so you can do the "sitting" yourself...

At least you can go and chill out outside the room and have some alone time.

Place the cot in the room somewhere you can't trip over it when you come in! Most hotels (in my experience) have the bathroom nearest the door so you can get in there, switch the light on and do whatever.... Check, as others have said, for listening service (usually involves leaving the phone off the hook...)

How old is your dd?

Ah - 7 months! JUst read the title properly.

Can't you just let her go to sleep in her buggy and take her into the lounge with you whilst you sit and have a few drinks - then put her in teh cot when you go to bed.

when we took dd1 on holiday when she was 8 months old - we just took her out and let her fall asleep in the buggy.. then put her to bed when we got in.

we put the cot on the side nearest a wall rather than in the open area where people would have to squeeze around it. We did not really worry about keeping the noise etc down, used the lights over the bed rather than room lights and she was pretty tired and went off to sleep most nights.. ( except when jet lagged - thank goodness for black out curtains!!)

Goodness me you can't stay in every night after 6.30!!

Holidays are for breaking routine. Let your dd join in the fun! (and then crash out in the buggy).

We took dd away aged 9mths, she had evening meal with us every night about 8 - 9pm, then she'd listen to a bit of music and have a boogie round the bar, before being walked around the pool once in her buggy and fall asleep.
And she'd stay that way until midnight most nights when we would go to bed.
You'll be amazed what children can sleep through when they are tired.
And hopefully the benefit of this is you get a lie in too!!

If it's a big hotel and baby monitor unlikely to work you can buy a device that you rig up to your mobile phone - giving yuo a really long range. They're quite expensive but I wish we'd had one when dds were younger.

I had one of my funniest, most romantic evenings in a hotel with 20-month old dd. We were in Australia, last night, decided to splash out on a beautiful room overlooking the harbour. DD would NOT go to sleep - she was in a very goog mood - just kept popping her head up and being silly and making us laugh. We turned of all the lights, lay on the bed, but no, up she popped up "BOOOO". Eventually we retired to the bathroom, with mini-bar supplies. DH sat in the bath and me on the loo and we ordered a slap up room service meal. Eventually dd did doze off - we covered her cot in the heavy bedspread, opened the curtains, when room service came they set up a table by the window - it was the most amazing meal, with the most amazing view.

I'm a first time mum doing my first trip with my daughter so this is quite stressful for me.

The hotel is quite large so a baby mointor won't work and they don't have a listening service. We're not comfortable leaving her with a baby sitter, how can we trust a stranger with our baby.

You're right though, we can't stay in every night after 6.30, that's a bit extreme. We will try to have her sleep in her stroller and see what happens, she may just surprise us.

busybusychristmashatter- lol, I can imagine my husband and I spending a few dinners in the bathroom. lol