Bedtime on Vacation

We took our first vacation as a family of four to visit friends and family this past weekend. We knew bringing the dog would be a bad idea, so we made a 45 minute detour to my parents house to drop him off.

We made the trip with only hitting a few pockets of traffic, only a couple meltdowns and only arrived an hour and a half later than we planned. All in all it wasn't so bad. Now, because we were staying with friends whose kids are exactly the same age. And when I say exactly I mean both kids have birthdays within days of their kids birthdays. We are reproduction soul mates. We figured with such a long nap in the car bedtime would be hard.

It was a long day in the car and we got there late in the afternoon. We started out bedtime routine around the same time as we do at home. Right after dinner, go up and get the bath started. The older girls got to have bath-time together. Brush teeth and get into pajamas was all good. We read stories and got snuggled into bed. The babies went right to sleep without much fuss. As soon as we heard the last of the baby cries, the big girls were up and downstairs ready to play.

Oye, we knew it was going to be a long night. We all go back upstairs and tuck them back in. They both protest that they aren't tired at all. Hmm what do we do? Well how much worse would it be if they aren't tired to just put them in one room together. They can play quietly with the door shut and the lights on and when they get tired, just go to bed. Okay, it can get so much worse - they are two 3-year olds! After less that 5 minutes we were up there again to separate them back into different rooms.

So what did we actually do? We took turns laying with her until after 11PM every night on vacation. It may have been the most exhausting vacation I have ever taken and the least amount of sleep I have had 4 nights in a row, except after each of their births.

Anyone have any tips for better vacation sleep? We could really use some advice for the next time!