We went away last weekend for a work commitment and a friend’s kids birthday.
My work thing went really well, which is always a good thing.
Our friend’s kids birthday also went well, which is also always a good thing. In fact, we showed up (with their permission) in the morning long before the birthday party actually started. It gave us a great chance to visit and for Baby MPB to play with the other kids and explore new toys and a new space, which he always loves to do.
But, here’s what had me thinking all weekend, and still has me thinking today. How do people stay in hotel rooms with young children? We’ve done it before, when Baby MPB was born we were in a hotel room for a few weeks, we managed to make that work. And we went away for a long weekend a few months ago, and we had 2 bedrooms and a full kitchen, and that didn’t go particularly well thanks to the appearance of new teeth. This time, we had a standard hotel room – 2 queen beds and a mini-fridge. Of course, we brought the pack n’ play for Baby MPB.
So, what do parents do at 7pm when they are trying to get a small child to go to sleep? Baby MPB is not used to us being in his room at night – so it seemed as though in his mind the hotel room set-up meant it was play time. In fact, one night he played for 2 hours in his pack n’ play, rather then sleeping like he normally does. All the while Mr. MPB and I sat quietly in the dark reading news and playing games on our phones – not the most riveting of evenings we’ve ever had.
How do other parents do this? In the future should we just pay for a larger hotel rooms with an extra bedroom to separate Baby MPB from us? (Of course this is an option, but an option that means spending more money which we really didn’t want to do). Or is this just the new way of staying in hotels for the foreseeable future?
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We are in some sort of weird baby stage.
I have no idea what’s going on.
It seems as though every week he changes one significant thing.
His feeding habits are changing. We forced him to give up his 3am bottle before Christmas (best thing we ever could have done considering our crazy Christmas and our adult need for sleep). Then, two weeks ago while he was sick he chose to give up his evening bottle and now will not have an evening bottle under any circumstances. I think he started to refuse the bottle because we had Baby Tylenol or Advil in it and he was actually refusing the medicine, but the end result is the same – no more bottles, under any circumstance. Straw cups are the only option – in fact, he will only use the munchkin click-lock weighted flexi-straw cup specifically. And, no straw cup right before bed in his room. I’ll admit, I miss the before bedtime snuggle that went along with the evening bottle.
And, for approximately a week now we are also going through a major sleep regression and nap refusal. We are so not used to this. Asides from a few short-lived hiccups here and there, Baby MPB always goes down every single morning at 9:30am for a 1.5 hour nap, like clockwork. Then, he has his afternoon 1.5 hour nap every single day at 2pm, also like clockwork. If we were to try to push his nap back 15 minutes, he’d just fall asleep wherever he is. This little guy lives for sleep. So, here we are now, with Baby MPB absolutely refusing his morning nap and he has switched his afternoon nap to 12:30pm. And now at bedtime he doesn’t really want to sleep. Instead, he cries and takes a long time to settle himself before falling asleep.
We’ve talked to our more experienced parent friends and they’ve all said it sounds like he’s just given up his morning nap. I thought this didn’t happen until about 16-18 months old?
Oh, and he took his first steps. Well, maybe I should say that he’s proven he can walk independently – he took a few steps with our nanny and then a few more for me moments later. He’s done 4-5 steps a few times now. (Funny enough, he refuses to walk for Mr. MPB). But he’s pretty much vehemently opposed to actually walking on any sort of regular basis. In fact, if we try to encourage him to walk he sits down immediately. Basically, I think he’s proven he can walk but he also has a little stubborn streak in him. I suspect we are another month or more away from him choosing to walk on a regular basis.
So, in the span of about 3 weeks he’s managed 3 significant developmental skills/milestones all on his own. All we know is that it feels like our little guy is suddenly growing up very quickly! Somehow, I feel like my little baby might be turning into a toddler before my eyes!
I’ll admit, there is some sadness in seeing him grow up so quickly, but 98% of the time I am just so excited to see what he’s going to do next. He never seizes to amaze me, and I’m just so thankful I get to be at his side for each of his new adventures.
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