This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/Huggies®.
Tips for Leaving Your Child Overnight
Leaving your child overnight for the first time can be a very emotional experience, whether it’s for one night or for several. But for most moms and dads, we will inevitably spend a night or two away from our littles at some point.
I can’t lie – it’s difficult. And it seems that the longer you have to prepare, the more you get in your head over whether your child will be okay or not.
Newsflash – they will be okay.
I’ve spent very little time away from our boy in the past. My husband and I both work from home and, at this point, stay home with him most of the time. When we travel, he travels. When we go out, he goes out. He does everything with us and we love it.
I did go on a weekend trip (two nights) with some friends when our son was a few months old, but he was home with daddy and that helped ease my worries.
When we went to Uganda, though, it was a completely different situation. Milo was 18 months old, he knew how to ask for us (“my mama and my dada”), he was with grandparents (my husband and I BOTH traveled), and we were gone for 2.5 weeks. We started planning the trip about 7 months in advance so, while we had lots of time to prepare, we also had lots of time to convince ourselves we were making a BIG mistake.
Standing on this side of things, I can tell you with certainty that he was 100% fine and that it was WAY harder on us than him. That being said, we did take several steps to help make sure our time away would go as smoothly as possible.
Create Your Ideal Scenario
In advance of your trip (preferably PLENTY of advance), create your ideal scenario.
Where will your child stay? Who will watch your child?
For us, we really wanted Milo stay at home at our house so it would be easier for him to keep his schedule. Since we were gone so long, we also thought he would just be a lot more comfortable. He’d have his bed and his dogs and his toys. He’d also be close to his pediatrician and our most trusted friends. Plus, we’d have someone to care for our animals and our home while we were away. This scenario worked out very well for us and I would HIGHLY recommend.
Knowing we wanted for Milo to be at home, we also knew that might limit who could watch him. We felt most comfortable with our families (our parents or our siblings). We ended up splitting the time between my parents and my husband’s parents because 1) we trust them and 2) they had the most flexibility to actually come to our home and stay there. They each came to our home for a little over a week. This was great. Milo LOVED having time with all of his grandparents and they were so grateful for the bonding time because we live states away from all of them.
Thankfully, our ideal scenario worked out, but we were ready to be flexible knowing that it was a big ask.
Stock Up on Your Preferred Products
Closer to you trip but still in advance, start stocking up on your preferred products. We have been fans of Huggies® since Milo was born and they just launched the Huggies® Special Delivery™ premium line of diapers, which are Huggies®’ softest diapers ever. They are also hypoallergenic, have no harsh ingredients, are dermatologist tested, and, like all Huggies® diapers, Huggies® Special Delivery™ infant diapers are free of parabens, fragrance, and elemental-chlorine.
You can find Huggies® Special Delivery™ at Walmart ( look for the end-aisle display in your local store) or click here to shop for Huggies® Special Delivery™ at Walmart.com.
We put so much effort into making sure what we put into our children is good for them by feeding them healthy meals, but what about what we put onto them? We love Huggies® Special Delivery™ diapers and Milo does too. They are so soft and comfortable and that have Huggies®’ trusted protection that lasts up to 12 hours. Since wearing these, Milo hasn’t had any overnight leaks. That’s a big deal, because he was leaking through his diaper almost every night before.
Before our trip, we also stocked up on his diaper cream, shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, wipes, and more. That way, our families wouldn’t have to rush out and buy products right away and they would know what we wanted them to buy if they needed more.
Leave An Ideal Schedule and Routine
Before we left, we wrote out his ideal schedule. We weren’t TOO worried about how his days would go as long as he was happy. But we did want our parents to try to keep his nightly routine because we had worked hard on it and we know sleep is so important. We let them know his usual schedule, with a list of some of his favorite activities (running at the park, riding his tricycle, chalk, puzzles, etc.) and his nap time and bedtime routines. This helped so much and he slept great for most of the time we were away.
Make A List of Your Child’s Favorite Foods and Meals
Milo is not the most picky eater, but he does have his favorites. We weren’t sure if he’d struggle with eating in our absence, so we made sure our families had his favorites that he CANNOT resist just in case. We left a list of all of his favorite foods and stocked as much as we could in the fridge before we left. This way, we knew he’d be eating while we were gone. We also made sure to leave a list of our preferences and any no-nos. For example, we prefer to feed Milo whole, organic foods when possible and we avoid added sugar except very occasionally. We know grandparents like to treat their grandbabies, but we wanted to make sure that treats were only very occasional so that he wasn’t living on french fries and ice cream. Though, I’m sure he would have thought that was awesome.
The Grown Up Stuff
This stuff is harder to talk about but honestly probably even more important.
You never know what the future holds, so these are good things to have in place whether you plan to leave your child overnight or not.
Months before we left, we met with our pediatrician during one of our scheduled appointments and asked her for any advice about leaving him. First of all, she said he’d be fine and not to worry or feel guilty. We were so grateful to hear this because someone close to us had told us this was a big mistake and that he was going to have permanent damage from us abandoning him. She also told us that we could leave permission for care at the clinic so that our parents could take him there for any reason while we were gone.
We also did the following things:
- Created A Will – we created a will and spoke to our designated guardians for Milo to make sure they agreed to take Milo in the event something happened to us
- Set Up Life Insurance – just do it
- Left a Medical Consent for Minor Form – in addition to providing permission at our pediatrician, we also created a medical consent for minor form, allowing our parents to make decisions for his medical care while we were gone (you can set specific dates and parameters) in the event that we could not be contacted
- Left Important Documents and Information – copies of our passports, Milo’s actual passport and birth certificate, copies of our travel insurance, our itinerary (flights and on the ground in Uganda), contacts for friends our parents could contact in our city if they needed anything at all, how to contact us in Uganda, who to contact in the States if they couldn’t get ahold of us, etc.
