Where to sleep while traveling if 1-yo won't sleep in PNP?

Our travel experience this weekend finally drove me to register and post: we took our 1-yo for a one-night trip to "practice" for a weeklong vacation coming up. We learned many valuable lessons, but the most concerning is that our 1-yo DS refuses to sleep in his PNP. We finally got him down at 10 PM and he woke up at 3:30 terrified and spent the rest of the night with us. It makes sense in retrospect since he has never slept in the PNP, even when he was an infant in the bassinet.

So what do we do for our trip? We are staying in 2 hotels and the first does not have any cribs. We might be able to borrow a PNP from family but I don't expect that will work any better than it did this weekend. I am looking into crib rentals but we are not going to a very touristy place so there don't seem to be any options there. I have seen recommendations here for the peapod plus and the toddler aerobed, but I think he would hate the PP+ because of the tent and he seems too young for the aerobed. (He is vigorously crawling and may be walking by the time of our trip.) That leaves co-sleeping, which we do not do regularly and I am worried he will crawl off the edge of the bed before we can catch him, plus that won't work well for naps. Any ideas? Will he get used to the PNP after a couple of nights? After only one night, I am not sure if it is the PNP or the strange surroundings that bother him more. He also does not really have a "lovey," so we don't have that as a crutch. Thanks for your help!

Welcome! It's funny what brings us out of "lurker" status, isn't it? Since you have the PnP already, I would try putting him in it at your own house (in a different room or something?) where you can let him get used to it. My DC don't have any loveys really, but we had the grandparents buy two matching items to serve as this purpose. We keep one in their bed and just give it to them whether they like it or not. The other one is put away for when we travel. Inside the PnP (or aerobed for the 2.5+yos) we put the sheets washed in our detergent, the bear, dog, lamb, and their sleepsacks. In the other end of the PnP there is some space for the monitor, and we shove the sound machine in there somewhere as well. I think it is important to create an "almost like home" sleeping environment. My guess is that our sound machine masks a lot of noise that might otherwise wake little ones. We use the Marpac machines.

I have traveled with the P and P several times. DS never sleeps in it unless we travel. I have found that the first night is always the worst. I agree with the PP make the environment as close to home as possible. Good Luck!

Agree with pp on the PNP working. We have also done co sleeping or mattress on the floor. Often when traveling we lay next to them til they fall asleep.
/hillary

In a hotel, we get two queen beds and co-sleep. I sleep with the baby, and my husband sleeps with the 4-year-old. (We don't co-sleep at home.)

ETA: pool noodles make GREAT bed rails! We plan to get some for our next trip once we get to our destination.

I agree with others that you should try and make the PNP as much like "home" as possible (maybe you did this though?!). Practice in his room, put some comfort objects & blanket in there, if you have music or sound machine in his room bring that along. The only way our DDs would sleep in a PNP is if they had their blankets & music along.

If that doesn't work what about carseat for naps? It's not ideal but sometimes driving around for half an hour is better than no nap. Or if he'll cosleep next to you, lie down with him at nap time and read a book (or snooze yourself - at worst you'll end the trip extremely well rested :))

Thanks for the ideas, everyone! I never would have thought of pool noodles! And good point about the noise...it seemed like every time he was about to drift off, someone would go by with a suitcase or cleaning cart. I like the idea of ending the trip well rested.

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Originally Posted by pastrygirl

ETA: pool noodles make GREAT bed rails! We plan to get some for our next trip once we get to our destination.

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How do you use pool noodles as bed rails? I can't picture it...:confused:

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Originally Posted by Smillow

How do you use pool noodles as bed rails? I can't picture it...:confused:

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Put them underneath the fitted sheet, near the edge of the bed.

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Originally Posted by MommyAllison

Put them underneath the fitted sheet, near the edge of the bed.

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Yup, that's it. :) I like to put it in a couple of inches from the edge, otherwise it might roll off the edge of the bed if you have a kid that moves a lot. My son moved into a bed at 23 months old and never fell out with the pool noodles there.