Sick baby.

I had briefly noted in my post about our Avalon vacation, that BG had gotten sick. I still don't know quite sure what it was, but it was probably the sickest I've ever seen our little BG. She was completely stuffed up, but her nose was also constantly running (explain that!). She was coughing and sneezing a LOT. When we first got to the shore, that first day, she was just silently crying. Not making any noises, but tears streaming down her face. Then that night. She puked. About 4 times.

I'm pretty sure she got it at the hotel while we waited out the storm in Philly.

Now, we put BG to sleep in her own room at around 4 months old because I really couldn't sleep with her grunting, and sniffling, and making the cute little newborn noises all through the night. I kept thinking she was going to wake up at any moment, so why bother trying to fall asleep, when it was inevitable that as soon as I did, she'd wake up and want to eat. Those little noises, as cute as they were, were also very detrimental to my health.

So we finally put her in her own crib, in her own room. And our room was peaceful again.

Since then, we've stayed in hotel rooms a few times. There are a few tricky aspects to staying in a hotel room. 1) Assuming you're like the majority of people, you'll only have one room. 2) The walls are thin. 3) Temperature control is tricky.

#1. Having only one room means baby is sleeping in the same room as you. Before BG started crawling, this was fine. We could co-sleep pretty comfortably on a King sized bed. (Co-sleeping in a queen with BG is out of the question though. Not sure how she does it, but for the smallest member of the family, she takes up the MOST room, and there's just not enough for us to sleep comfortably with her in a Queen).

When people sleep, they go through cycles. They rotate between deep and light sleep, sometimes even waking up and then falling back asleep again. The problem with a little mobile BG is when she wakes up in the middle of the night, if she sees you, there's no going back to sleep. It's up and crying or up and wants to play. So trying to co-sleep with her now, even in a king sized bed, is really hard because she'll keep waking up, realizing we are there, and then starts crawling around because she's ready to play.

Mommy (and daddy) ain't havin any of that.

So trying to sleep in a one hotel room is pretty tricky. So far, what we've found is, we bring our pack and play and set it up in the little hallway in the room, between the door and the main room - where usually there's the door to the bathroom and the door to the closet.

If the closet doors swing out, even better, because then you can swing the door out and almost completely block out light and the ability to see into the main part of the room from her pack and play.

#2 Walls are thin - So when baby cries it's not a good idea to let her cry it out. At this hotel especially there was no swing out closet door, BG woke up a lot more often in the middle of the night and needed more comforting than usual.

#3 Temperature is tricky. Our apartment is set to 76degrees. and it occasionally still gets chilly. When we're in a hotel room, the rooms are usually always set to around 68 or lower. Which is fine for me and Jeff sleeping in a big bed with a fluffy comforter, but not so much for BG who's only sleeping in footie pajamas - because blankets in cribs are no-nos.

So even fiddling with the temperature. 76 degrees in a hotel room is stifling, so then you lower it to 70, but that's still too cold, so then you raise it to 74, but then that still gets too hot. It's a game really. Plus, you're never really there for long enough to actually figure it out.

So. BG's sleeping in the hall way. the temperatures are finicky, and she's waking up a lot more often in the middle of the night. I changed her diaper the last night we were there, on the floor, right between the pack and play and the door to the outside hall way. That's when I realize thers a draft coming in from the outside. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but seeing how sick BG got, I realize now (hindsight is always 20/20 right?) that the draft coming in from the outside hallway was hitting BG all night long. No wonder she kept waking up in the middle of the night. All that time, I had attributed the night wakings to the fact that we're in an unknown environment or that she was hungry (even though she never eats during the night at home). So I would bring her into our bed, feed her, comfort her, and then put her back down in her freezing cold pack and play.

No wonder she put up such a fuss, and no wonder she got sick.

Ugh, the things you learn on the fly. Note for next time we stay in a hotel room... Block the draft from the hallway with a spare towel or something.