We were blessed with an amazing sleeper from day 3. We escaped all the dreaded sleepless nights or reversed nights and days. She has basically slept through the night or only woken up once or twice to eat since she was born. Additionally, BB’s Nana and Tata spoiled her at a young age with a really good mattress. We learned when we went to Juneau for D’s final interview that she now only really sleeps when she is in her crib and strangely when she’s in her own room. She does not do good in a pack and play, not even padded with blankets. Quite the independent lady she is. Well…with this knowledge we knew we would have to get creative when it came to her sleeping situation on our trip especially with our puppy who cannot wait to be BB’s cuddle buddy. We brought the pack and play knowing there was a good chance we wouldn’t use it but we were optimistic.

The two nights before we left we had her sleeping on the floor on a big fluffy blanket folded up plus two of her own blankets. This seemed to work very well. She slept like she was in her crib and we figured as long as we kept this in mind we should be good. The first night we stuck with this set up. It worked pretty well but was obviously not her crib. When we got to hotel #2 we decided to try a trick I remembered my parents doing when my little brother was young. We put BB on the chair in the room and blocked her in with one of the desk chairs. This worked like a charm. Therefore, the next night we tried the same and once again, worked like a charm.

When we got on the hobo cruise there were obviously no big comfy chairs or couches we could use so we thought we would try the floor again. This didn’t seem to work as well as we were hoping. By the middle of the night she was up in the bed sharing with me. Neither D or I were big on co-sleeping so this was the first time we had shared a bed the whole night. To make sure I didn’t roll over on her (one of my biggest fears) I slept with her at my feet. This also helped with her tendency to want to stick fingers toes and her face in my face. This was the situation for the rest of the hobo cruise and it seemed to work for us.

Once we made it to Juneau we once again had her sleeping on the hotel chair blocked in. This also helped ensure that R wasn’t going to cuddle her to death atnight, which was comforting for me. You would think we would have learned our lessons by this point, but once we moved into the mother in law apartment we tried the floor thing again hoping that with carpet and 4 blankets it would be enough. That didn’t work, so we tried her pack and play, that didn’t work. After 3 nights with little to no sleep we decided to let her try the couch in the living room. Worked like a charm! By the first night she was back on her schedule and we were able to get sleep.

We have since been able to let her sleep in her crib and while she is sleeping a lot better now we are working on getting back into the routine and getting on some sort of schedule, with naps and night-time.

In addition to BB having trouble sleeping, R was also a little bit of a problem child. She definitely was stressed and picking up on our stress and she had no idea what was going on. The nights before we left she slept in her bed no trouble which was sort of odd. R is known for joining us in bed in the middle of the night and choosing one of us to be a cuddle buddy. It has been quite an adventure learning to share the bed with a dog who, if she had it her way, would take the whole bed. I was a little concerned about this with Hotels knowing just how much of a pain it is to clean up her hair. But, lo and behold the only way to stop her from barking is to have her come join us in bed. I think being the smart dog she is, there is now manipulation in progress regarding her trying to get into the bed. I think she plans it right when we are good and asleep and starts barking at…who knows, knowing we will call her into the bed to get her to stop barking.

All in all, you never know just how awesome a good nights sleep is until you don’t get a few in a row. We are also so lucky to have such a good sleeper in BB, just as much as her Nana and Tata have spoiled her, she has spoiled us.