Sleeping in an unfamiliar place: Baby G's got this!

Baby G, her dad, and I went to Wichita this weekend to visit some friends and family. We've taken a few day trips during Baby G's first year, but we haven't braved an overnight stay since she was about 3 months old (still swaddled, still sleeping in a bassinet, much easier to trick her into thinking she was still at home and not in some weird hotel). We've been putting it off (aka: dreading it terribly) for several months but with my hubby's nudging we decided to see how it went putting Baby G in a strange environment and expecting her to sleep all night long in her pack 'n play.

We brought several familiar things: her night-night binky, a night-night diaper, her Pony Lovey, and her sound machine. The plan was for Baby G and I to sleep in Toddler B's room (Toddler B being the adorable 2 year old son of the friends we stayed with) and for my beloved hubby to crash on the couch in the living room. Basically, I booted my hubby out of the room before he ever had a chance because I was so scared of Baby G's refusal to sleep if my hubby was feeling particularly "snore-y" that night. I was already concerned the night would consist of Baby G standing up in her pack 'n play staring at me for hours on end (like those scenes in Paranormal, but FAR cuter and less murder-y) and now that Baby G sleeps through the night like a champ, the prospect of anything less than that terrifies me.

The majority of the day was spent either in the car (with a roughly 30 minute nap for the kiddo, who refused to miss a single thing on our trip until she basically passed out... right before the city limits. Sigh.), playing with Toddler B, or running around "meeting" all of the adults, cats, and dogs in the house. I had high hopes that Baby G would be so tired by bedtime she would fall asleep mid-step and pass out into a pile of pillows. We did our usual pre-bedtime bottle in the rocking chair and I put her down with all of her familiar things. She was OUT in minutes. YAY! I stayed up for a while until it got late (late, for me, seems to be about 10:30) and then I snuck back into the room as quietly as I could.

*pop*

That *pop* was the sound of Baby G instantly waking up and standing in her pack 'n play, looking at me with her binky in her mouth and her Pony Lovey in her hands. It was as if to say, "What the heck are you doing here? Also, where the heck are we?" I picked her up, snuggled her for a second or two, then put her back down before crawling into bed. I heard her get back up and silently stare at me for a little bit, then I heard a THUD!

The THUD was the sound of a still-tired Baby G going from standing up to laying flat and sound asleep in one fluid motion. It was hilarious and I had to stifle my laughter else risk the chance of re-animating the baby. Throughout the night Baby G flopped around like a fish out of water. Having not shared a room with her since she was swaddled and in a bassinet, I'm not sure if this was normal for her or a result of a less-than-comfy pack 'n play, but I assume it is fairly normal for her. Occasionally I would hear her get back up, stand there staring at me for a little bit, then THUD! Instantly asleep again! Apparently our sleep training overrode her curiosity about sharing the room with me. We both got an acceptable amount of sleep considering the "out of the ordinary" conditions. The hubby? Well, he stayed up super late and slept on a couch. Heh... His sleep wasn't quite as acceptable. Oops!

The trip was more or less a success as Baby G and Toddler B had hours and hours of play time and we adults got to interact with some friends and family. The hubby and I even got to go to dinner Saturday afternoon without the kiddo as our friends wanted more Baby G time! BONUS! Toddler B and Baby G bonded over Yo Gabba Gabba, the love of food, the love of completely destroying a living room by setting off a toy-box bomb (metaphorical, of course), and randomly yelling things when adults were still trying to sleep. Overall, they got along swimmingly!

As we were leaving town Saturday morning (okay... more like LATE Saturday morning... Baby Time was in effect!) to head to Wichita I made a comment to my hubby: "This time tomorrow we will either be praising Baby G for doing so well, or that we will promise to never ever do this again."

While the trip wasn't ideal, it was certainly better than I thought it would be! It turns out Baby G is a "roll with the punches" baby and has a great time no matter what situation we find ourselves in. Baby G, you are such a good baby. We're totally lucky to have you!