Tips for sharing hotel room with baby and toddler!

[mistressploppy]

Off to London for the weekend to go to a wedding. We'll be sharing a hotel room - DH, 6mo DS and 2yo DS. Obviously they'll go to bed earlier than us and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how to survive an evening sitting silently in the dark!

We did this recently with 2yo DS. It depends on the layout of your hotel room and how good a sleeper your DC are! With our room, we were able to squidge DS's travel cot between the bed and the wall. We turned all the lights off until he was asleep and then turned the stand lamp on to light the rest of the room. He was in almost complete darkness and slept through us showering/using the phone/watching TV etc.

Can I assume from your text that you are not leaving in the room and going downstairs to the party? We stayed in a travelodge the other week and the receptionist very kindly let us have the key to the room opposite ours so we could sit in there and watch TV for a couple of hours - she just asked us not to mess anything up or use the loo so that they could let it out later that night - it was great, she just came and knocked at about 10pm and said the guest for that room had arrived so we went to bed then. Ask nicely at reception if that's an option. If not, how about watching a film on a laptop with headphones?

Thanks for the replies. We have an iPad, so headphones is a good call! Dh has offered to stay with the dc while I go to the evening bit of the wedding (it's my sister's wedding ) so it's just him. The wedding is not in the hotel. I will ask about the possibility of using an adjacent empty room, but it's only a little hotel.

I was wondering about erecting so kind of Heath Robinson-style tent to keep them in darkness/undistracted, but have no idea how this would work

I have found that putting the bathroom light on and leaving the door open gives a good amount of indirect light. Also mine have been undisturbed with the tv on not too loud.

I have been wondering the same thing recently! We've not had a holiday since DD who is 2yo was born, apart from a break to see family and stay in their house.

We are desperate for a night or two away, like a city break, but wondered what to do when DD goes to bed (and bedtime is 7 or 7.30). So, sitting in semi darkness once she is asleep is the only way to go? Ah, I did expect that to be the answer...

Maybe we'll have to make sure we get a nice hotel that has a decent bathroom, and while away the evening in a bubble bath...

Why not have a look for a city apartment rather than a standard hotel. We stayed in a few of these when ds was little, much more flexible than a hotel as you have your own living room etc. if you look you can very often get a good deal for a weekend stay as many of these apartments are designed for the midweek businessman and are often empty on the weekend.

A head-torch is good if you want to read without the lights on. Whenever we've done this though, they've been so excited by staying in a hotel that they've not gone to sleep til nearly our bedtime anyway.

I've always given in and we've all gone to sleep together - rather early!