baby sleep question.

dunvilles

Now that lo has started sleeping longer and more predictable stretches, we are doing sleep, feed, play/cuddle (repeat). I am also putting lo in his crib for all naps that we are home.

When the grandparents are over they want to hold lo the whole time he sleeps. I don't want to take special time away from them but want lo to develop good sleep habits.

What do you do? Still follow your routines when you have guests or make exceptions?

(We did not follow a routine with ds 1 and he was a terrible sleeper for 10 months)

snowwhite1979

I echo @bribbon, and would add that it depends on your LO. Our first baby was super fussy and needed strict structure and routine, so in a situation like you mentioned I would have said sorry, it's nap time, and would put baby to bed.

My new LO will literally sleep anywhere, so we can easily stick to his (very loose) routine whether he is in his crib, in his car seat or in someone's arms. At the same time, the first few months are so random, IMO, and so short. I think letting people enjoy holding him (within reason) is more important this time around (for us) than maintaining a schedule. If they are just holding LO while he sleeps, nbd, but if they are keeping him awake and he's getting over tired, you need to step in.

E3A7AGGIE

With Daphne right now, she is on no schedule. I didn't plan on putting her on one for a few more weeks. But just from DS1, I wish I hadn't been so finicky with him. He is super picky on where he sleeps, and for basically his first 15 months+ of life, I was ALWAYS stressed out about his sleep. If he was late for a nap, or if we were out and about while he was supposed to nap, etc, I got in such a bad mood. It ruined the whole time and I really feel like a lot of time others would have spent with him was lost. He was a very colicky and so that didn't help, but looking back, I wish I would have just been a little more easy going with it; especially when he was tiny. 

Now with Daphne, I don't care where she's sleeping -- as long as she is getting some rest.