Hi,
One of the things I really didn't want to do when DS was born was to 'train' him to only be able to sleep in a dark, quiet room... But he had other ideas! He never just dropped off to sleep easily and only rarely in the pram in those first few weeks, so I resorted to staying at home for all naps in a quiet, dark room (ours at first, then his), except for one nap a day, which he'd take in the sling (his only guaranteed long nap!). But by 6mo, the outside world was just too distracting and he was no longer able to fall asleep in the sling! If the timing's right, he can sometimes do a short nap in the car (we don't have our own, so can't really help him to learn to sleep for longer on long journeys). I can also still breastfeed him to sleep if we're flying and he'll take a short nap that way, but only if it's a little past his usual naptime and he's really tired - and even then he wants to look around, so it's hard work trying to persuade him to sleep! But anyway, we're unlikely to be flying again for a little while.
My question is: Is it possible to 'train' a toddler to sleep in different environments? I always seem to be telling people that I can't do this or that because it's DS's naptime, or I can't go to visit anyone who lives much more than half an hour away because we'll have to be back in time for his nap etc (still on 2 naps). Then there's my parents who say that they've never come across a baby who can't sleep with background noise, and they're always complaining that they shouldn't have to be quiet in their own home when we're staying with them - DS sleeps in the room right above the living room and does find it hard to get to sleep with voices/TV etc.
Does anyone have any tips? He just gets OT so easily if he doesn't get a decent nap and gets thrown off routine, so I never want to risk that happening, but it is quite limiting! I guess we'll have more flexibility once he's on one nap, but that still doesn't address the noise issue if we're staying in a noisier environment. TIA!
