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I have been lucky to only have had one troublesome sleeper out of my three boys.  Little J has never been a great sleeper.  He’s even been treated for sleep apnea.  He also inherited his dad’s ability to pop out of bed like a daisy.  It makes moving him while he’s sleeping nearly impossible.  I’ve tried lots and lots of ways to try to help him sleep better and in doing so, I’ve discovered a few things.

We just spent two weeks traveling.  Two weeks of my kids routines and schedules thrown completely out the window.  There was one week where my kids were out of the house until after midnight three times!  EEK!  Bedtimes were thrown to the wind and the hour difference in time zones did little to help.  Naps were snatched between errands, play dates and general mayhem – usually in the car.  Car sleep is less than restful, in my opinion.  It’s a huge understatement to say my kids didn’t sleep enough.

So how do you encourage your kids to sleep better when you’re away from home?  Well, it should obviously start with not keeping them out until after midnight… note to self.  There are some other things you can do, though, to help baby sleep better when routines can’t help but be disturbed.  It starts with their bedding…

TWO WAYS YOU CAN USE YOUR CRIB BEDDING TO HELP BABY SLEEP BETTER ON VACATION

1. To help baby sleep better, use the same bedding you do at home.  The Disney Baby crib bedding set was a huge lifesaver this last couple weeks.  Even though Baby N slept in a pack and play instead of his crib, I used the same bedding I do at home.  It was just enough to help him feel calm and comfortable in his new environment.  The first night we arrived, we got there late and I didn’t know where the bedding had been packed in the car (cue panic moment when I was afraid we’d left it at home).  We didn’t search for it, as we were exhausted, and Baby N didn’t sleep well that night.  I’m sure it was a combination of his schedule being all mixed up, the new environment and an increase in background noise.  Once I found the bedding the next day and got it all set up in his pack and play, he was more content and calm, which made getting him to sleep a whole lot easier.  He wasn’t as wound up from the beginning and that helped him get to sleep sooner, more easily and sleep better.

A fitted sheet can be wrapped around the pack and play mat that goes in the bottom.  Pull it tightly around the back of the mat as you drop it into place so the sheet fits tightly.  Loose bedding in a baby’s bed is a no-no.  (I’m sure you’ve heard it before but here’s my disclaimer: loose bedding has been linked to an increased risk of SIDS and should NEVER be used while an infant is sleeping!)  Baby N is a pretty calm sleeper, so I just tuck it under as I’m laying the mat down and it stays in place.  If you have a wild sleeper, you may want to use a few small safety pins to secure the sheet around the mat better.

 

2. Cover the pack and play with a fitted sheet for outdoor use. We had a family reunion while we were gone (actually, it was the primary reason we took this little trip) and it involved camping.  We were outdoors for about three days straight.  Have you ever napped during the day inside a tent?  And did I mention the humidity was around 80% each day?  Our tent made a nice little sauna and not a great place to try to lay a baby down.  I moved Baby N’s pack and play outside and stretched the fitted sheet of our Disney Baby crib bedding set over the top.  It made a much cooler napping spot since the light breeze could still blow through the sides.  It also kept the bugs off Baby N.  My sister-in-law used it with two-month old and I think she’ll be packing a fitted crib sheet next time they go on vacation!  Letting Baby N nap outside definitely helped him sleep better than he did in the tent.  Despite the increased distractions, the kid slept like a rock.  That’s the wake up face of a good nap!

This is super simple.  You just stretch the sheet over the top of the pack and play and secure the corners of the sheet with the plastic corners of the pack and play.  Try to get the sheet as taut on the top as you can.  You don’t really want a bunch of loose fabric hanging into the pack and play and over your baby.  It’s probably not long enough to entangle your baby, but better safe than sorry.  Kids can do some crazy acrobatics, even while they are sleeping.  If you end up with a lot of loose fabric draped over the sides, roll it under the elastic on the sheet to help keep the excess out of the pack and play.

 

BONUS WAY TO USE YOUR CRIB BEDDING ON VACATION

Use a comforter at the beach, the park, the lake, or anywhere you need a ground blanket.  I used the comforter in the backyard while we were outside one afternoon and my older kids were playing in the pool.  I actually used it both in the grass and in the bottom of the pack and play.  Baby N was not asleep when the comforter was in the bottom of the pack and play.  Putting him in the pack and play was a nice way to keep him out of the pool while the bigger boys played.  He loved that it was his space and his blanket was in there with him too.  And he thought the pool water was too cold anyway and was more content to sit and play in there than I expected.  When the comforter was on the ground it was a safe haven from that awful poky grass.

 

Want to try taking your own set of crib bedding on your next vacation?  Disney Baby has some adorable collections and they are super easy to care for.  I love the bag it comes in, which makes packing it up incredibly easy.

 

We have the Nemo set, which I picked up at my local Walmart, and Baby N loves it.  The textures and colors on the comforter are engaging and the sheet is comfortable on his skin.  The Disney Baby sets also include a dust ruffle for your crib back home.  Check out the entire Disney Baby line at Walmart!  Which is your favorite collection?

 

Travel season in here.  After Mr. Napping and I got married, we would make spontaneous trips together on occasion.  When kids started to join our family, it didn’t take us long to realize that spontaneously traveling with kids is incredibly hard and stressful.  Over the past (almost) six years, I’ve developed a list of things that we take on our travels.  Of course there are the typical things like snacks and things to keep the kids entertained and busy while we’re on the road.  I’ve written those posts, but this one isn’t like that.  These aren’t things that will excite the kids and help time pass as you put more and more miles behind you.  This list will help you, yes, you momma, make the trip as smooth and hassle-free as possible.  This is a list of the 12 things we always take with us when we are traveling with kids, no matter where we’re going.  Or at least try to always take with us – because no one is perfect and even I still forget the essentials some times… like a bottle for the baby, true story.

12 THINGS I NEVER LEAVE HOME WHEN I’M TRAVELING WITH KIDS

1. A good water bottle. We love these Nalgene 12 ounce bottles. Each of our kids has their own and they are amazing. They are some of the best spill-proof cups I’ve found (and I’ve tried A LOT of cups). They can be a little hard to suck through at first because the spill-proof valve is so stiff, but Baby N (15 months) manages alright with the one he got last week. Over time, they aren’t as difficult to suck through. If it’s a major issue, you can take the valve out (but then the cup isn’t spill-proof). I will usually do that when I want Baby N or Little J to do some serious drinking. Short car rides are perfect for this. Even if they drop it, it won’t be upside down long enough to make a huge mess.  I usually leave them in for longer rides or when they are in the diaper bag. One of my very favorite things about these cups though is that they are incredibly easy to clean. Big J took his bottle to Disneyland a couple years ago and it was perfect! These are definite must-haves in the car! Available in orange, blue, green, pink, purple. Designer options are also available. I opted for solid ones, hoping the bottles will grow with my boys. I have a hard time picturing my 7 or 8 year old using even the car design cup.

 

2. Toss-and-Go Containers. I love these Take and Toss containers because they are cheap and easy to replace. Sure they hold things like snacks, but they also come in handy for the rock collection my 3-year old adamantly refuses to leave at the park. Put them all in a container and then I’m not finding rocks rolling around my car three months after I think I’ve thrown them out. They are also pretty great for splitting things up into serving sizes. Because do you really want to hand your 5 -year old the entire bag of beef jerky? Mine would down that in 20 minutes, without a second thought. And he sits in the 3rd row of our minivan so handing him a new piece every three minutes isn’t really convenient (or terribly safe).  I can fill up a take and toss container, pass it back once and when it’s gone he knows his snack time is over.  I actually keep one of these in my diaper bag for the spill-proof valves from the bottles above.

There are lots of options when it comes to the Take and Toss line: sippy cups, sippy cups with handles, cups with straws, bowls, small containers, even silverware or a combo set with a little bit of everything.  I’ve seen most of this line at my local Wal-Mart and that’s often where I get mine.  Amazon prices change and they aren’t always the cheapest, so you might want to check there if the doorstep delivery isn’t super important to you.

3. Garbage catcher. Whether you use a fancy bucket or can or recycle an old plastic grocery sack, the purpose is the same.  When we travel I usually try to take a plastic container (like you’d store cereal in) and scented trashcan liners to put inside it.  I have had to change more than one dirty diaper on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere and no one wants to smell that until you can find a trash to dump it in.  Inside the container is for my comfort, the scented trash bags help protect the container so I’m not assaulted with the diaper stench long after it’s been discarded.  It seems to work fairly well.  Check out your local Dollar Tree for the container (or a similar one that will work) and the trash bags.  Some times they have them there and you can’t beat $2. The downside is that the bags are usually pretty thin.  Inside the container, they do okay; but, I wouldn’t use them alone as they are super easy to poke holes in.  And if the plastic container isn’t very thick, it can get weathered and crack or break easily.  We have the Snapware container below and my only complaint about it is that the back is a weird shape and it doesn’t hold a lot of big pieces of garbage because of it. Look for one that has a wide flip-top opening, like the container pictured below, and you won’t have to take the entire lid off every time you throw something out.

 

4. Wet bags.  Without fail, it seems like every road trip has someone leaking out of a diaper, having an accident, spilling their entire cup of water or juice or – my personal fave – milk, or just generally creating a gigantic mess that requires immediate clean up.  And they always seem to be wet and sticky messes.  We didn’t do a whole lot of traveling with kids before wet bags were added to our list of items to take.  You can collect plastic grocery sacks and use those, if you want.  I really like this Skip Hop bag.  Not only is it perfect for those unexpected car-tastrophies, it’s fantastic to take to the beach or lake or pool too.  It’s designed for cloth diapers and holds 9-10 of those, according to the listing. Or speaking from experience, it’ll hold around two t-shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of pants, a pair of undies and a small lightweight blanket.  Or three little boy swim suits and a momma swimsuit.  The mesh pocket on the front is just perfect for three lightweight sets of clothing.  We’re talking like knit pants and t-shirts, just to help give you an idea on that pocket’s capacity.

5. Pen and a pad of paper.  This serves multiple purposes.  It’s where I keep the list of things we forgot to pack and need to get at the store.  It helps entertain the children while we wait for… well, anything really.  When I’m getting the address of the friends we’re staying with over the phone and I need to write it down, it goes in my little book.  I’ve used it to leave a note on a cousin’s windshield when we separated during an outing and unexpectedly needed to leave, but couldn’t get a hold of them to let them know.  I’ve even used it to collect blog post ideas.  It’s just a handy thing to have.  My kids love the multicolor pens.  If it wasn’t such a big hit with them, I’d probably just carry a single color pen; but, during the last ten minutes of a grocery store shopping trip, I’ll use just about anything to get us out of that store without a major meltdown.  I like a spiral bound book because it’s easy to rip out shopping lists (6 colors available!).

 

6. First Aid Kit.  You might have one of these in your car, but do you really know what’s in it?  Is it really stocked and ready to go?  You can buy a kit already assembled or put your own together.  You might also want to consider when and where you will be traveling.  We tend to use a lot of band-aids and first aid ointment, so I try to pack extras of those.  I’ve often used them and forgotten to replace them and that makes an unfortunate situation a bit more miserable.  Before a road trip, it’s important to check that out and make sure you really are prepared for the unspeakable.  Easy access is also something to consider when you’re packing this into the car.

 

7. Extra blanket.  This is just an extra blanket we have around the house.  We usually leave it in the back of the car routinely and we use it all the time.  Kids ran through the sprinklers at Grandma’s and you’ve got no extra clothes?  You have groceries you need to keep cold?  Extra insulation for a cooler?  Forgot the picnic or beach blanket?  If your cargo area is open, like in our minivan, you may want to use it to cover some of your luggage.  You should always take valuables with you when you leave your vehicle.  I’m thinking more along the lines of keeping things out of hours and hours of direct sunlight.  A cotton blanket is great for wrapping up kids or using it as a picnic or beach blanket.  Our blanket, though, is similar to the wool one.  It works really well for insulating a cooler or other groceries and keeping the sun from baking our belongings.  It also makes a nice changing pad for unexpected parking lot diaper changes.

 

8. Non-perishable snacks.  Granola bars, nuts, jerky, crackers, applesauce, fruit cups and other things you can keep in the glove box.  Once you get to where you’re going, you’re probably not going to stay put.  My trip diaper bag is not my typical diaper bag.  There aren’t usually any snacks in my trip diaper bag.  I have forgotten to pack snacks, thinking they were already in the bag and taken off for the day with no food for my kids.  My kids have serious hungry anger management issues.  No snacks is no good.  They may also come in handy if you end up in a survival situation.  Of course, you should trade these out once or twice a year and replace them when they get used.  Ideally, your snacks won’t have anything in them that would melt or freeze in the extreme temperatures that cars can be left in, but if you need some chocolate drizzled on your oats and grains, I totally get it.

 

9. Wet wipes.  Not just for diaper changes.  We go through a lot of wet wipes when we travel.  It’s just easy and convenient.  Hand washes, face washes, cleaning up messes, wiping off public tables, snack spill clean-ups, feet washes before bed, cleaning up a bloody nose at the store.  I’ve used wipes for every single one of those purposes.  With three young kids, I pretty much always have a wet wipe within a few hundred feet.  I carry two bags in the diaper bag, a small pack in my purse and keep one in the car.  No less than three times, I have used wipes from each of those locations at least once in the time span of a 5-hour outing.  Fool me once… Now I just take them and figure better safe than sorry.  Life’s messy… especially when you’re traveling with kids.  There are even antibacterial wipes for a little extra clean.

 

10. Sewing Kit.  Nothing fancy, just something to stitch the crotch of your 5-year old’s pants back together when they rip at the playground.  A needle and thread would cut it.  If you plan to only use it in an emergency, it doesn’t even matter what color thread.  You can get kits assembled with just about anything you could ever need for minor clothing repair or put together your own.  You don’t have to be a great seamstress (seamster…? I really have no idea what the masculine form of that word would be…).  It doesn’t need to look nice, but if you have a mishap while hiking, you’ll be glad you can patch it up a bit.  It’s also a good thing to have in an emergency situation, in case you have to sew a tent from your clothing or even something more drastic than that.

11. Basic medicines.  Obviously, you’ll pack any medications you take routinely.  But it never fails, I leave the other medications at home and my kids will get sick.  While I don’t pack up the entire medicine cabinet, I do try to take my go-to medications with us when we travel.  What you pack for this will depend entirely on what you reach for when you have sick kiddos (or sweetie or even when you’re feeling a little under the weather).  My bag contains fever reducers, teething pain relievers, allergy medication, and migraine relief.  I actually have a cosmetic bag packed with our meds and it pretty much stays that way all the time.  It’s one less thing to put together in busy trip preparation and, if I can’t find the medicine when we’re home and the baby is screaming at 3am because he’s cutting 4 more teeth, I have my backup stash.

I have tried a couple different methods and, honestly, can’t decide which I like better.  Both have pros and cons.  I’ve tried the hanging cosmetic bag and it’s great because every thing is all in one place and it’s easy to keep track of.  I know exactly where all the medications are at all times.  I’ve also tried smaller cosmetic bags that I can transfer from bag to bag easily.  This is really nice to keep a small bag of children’s medicines in the diaper bag or the glove box, especially if someone is already sick (or teething!) before we even leave.  It’s easy to get to and administer any medications if I need to.

In any case, I definitely like the transparent or semi-transparent bags that make it easy to locate what I’m looking for without opening a bunch of bags.  And make sure you have the correct cups, syringes, droppers to measure and dispense the right dosage for each medication.  It can be inconvenient to pack them all, but it will be so much better than an accidental over-dosage.  Always medicate responsibly.

 

12. Battery charger pack.  Whether you are a children’s screen time advocate on road trips or not, a portable battery pack that can charge your mobile devices on the go is definitely something worth traveling with.  We actually have two of these Anker portable packs.  Mr Napping got one a few months ago for his travels with work and I borrowed it last month when I went to my cousin’s wedding.  It was super handy to be able to plug my phone in and just drop the charger and my phone in my purse.  If you’ll be using your mobile device for directions, this is definitely something to consider.  I decided to get my own so that it could pose double duty and be a back up charger in an emergency, should we find ourselves in that kind of situation.

The only time I have ever had to call 911 was to report a car accident around 10pm on a snowy night, somewhere out in the middle of the desert.  The car in the accident had spun, flipped and gone off the road.  There were no lights around.  We were the only other ones out there.  If we hadn’t seen the car flip off the road, I don’t know how long they would’ve had to wait for help.  We used our headlights to light up the accident so my husband could see and check on the car’s occupants.  We waited about 30 minutes for emergency vehicles to arrive.  Our car battery died and the EMT’s had to jump start our car so we could continue on our way.  Because it was so dark and we were between road signs and mile markers, I couldn’t pinpoint our location to the emergency dispatcher when I made the call.  They tracked our location via GPS on my phone.  That would have been a terrible situation for my cell phone to run out of battery.

Do you have any must-haves when you travel?  Share your travel tips in the comments!  Travel safe!