Taking 9m old abroad - help and tips!!

[AmberM2022]

So i’m taking my 9m old to spain next month, i’m worried about keeping our bedtime routine (i know i won’t able to) Always been a really bad sleeper up until 2 weeks ago now sleeps about 6.30pm-5.30am which for us is absolutely bloody amazing!! And i just feel annoyed that now i’m going to take him abroad and ruin it. Does anyone have any tips on what to do on a night? i don’t want to be going back to the room for bed at 6.30pm every night as that’s not a holiday. But how do i get him to sleep while out? and nap times? Any tips or advise would be appreciated!

I took my 5 month old with me and thankfully he was breastfeeding so I would get him to sleep that way and put him in the travel cot. He slept through better on holiday than he did at home! The naps was always in the push chair out and about. I think with holidays and little ones, no advice will help, just wing it and try not to stress and just go with the flow

Yes agree I think you just have to accept that he'll be out of routine and will go to bed later and may not sleep well. No use stressing about it! Things will fall back into place when you get home.

Maybe you can aim to make the whole bedtime a bit later like 8:30pm-7:30am or 9pm-8am using the hour time difference to your advantage but accept it won’t always work.

We’ve been away a few times (at 8 months, 9 months and 11 months) and found DD has slept fairly well while away. Naps have either been in the pram, in the car (if renting one) or a contact nap on a sun lounger (fully in the shade) depending on what you are doing on holiday. Always tried to have one of these options available around nap time. Sone people use the sling but mine won’t sleep in it.

Agree with trying to go with the flow.

Just forget the routine completely; they’re not in their same environment anyway.

They’ll get back into it when you get back home.

Teach them early that holidays are different, and you’ll have enjoyable family holidays, rather than clock watching and early nights and timescales.

The heat always knocked our DC out anyway, they actually slept better on holidays

I think it will help tbh- they will stay up a bit later and wake up later maybe with the small time change.
some babies sleep in the buggy- others don’t. Do you have a hotel room/ villa with a separate space or balcony at least?
9 month olds are lovely to take away if they don’t yet walk

I've always had lush holidays with my kids but I keep my expectations ridiculously low. It's probably shit advice but I've found if you just expect them to be a nightmare on the plane, then to cope poorly with the heat, their sleep to be all out of whack etc then at least once a day you'll be really pleasantly surprised.

Take them out in the buggy for the evening & take pjs with you, change them while you are out & take their comfort toy, blanket & dummy if they have one. Once you have eaten, give them a feed, change them & settle them in the buggy, when you get back, just pop them in bed.