Holiday parties and baby's bedtime

tarheelgirl8 · December 2015

How are you all handling family events around the holidays that are after bedtime? Are you skipping them? Bringing LO and just letting them get off schedule? Bringing LO and trying to put them to sleep at the event?

DH thinks I'm crazy for wanting to skip the annual Christmas Eve event this year. But I really don't want a cranky baby on Christmas.

psherman42wwsa · December 2015

My DH would NEVER let us skip a family event... or leave early... especially since xmas eve is at his side of the family. Were usually the first ones there and the last ones to leave. Which is pretty annoying to me especially since we now have a baby. So my poor sweet baby will be off his schedule for the holidays, not by my choice. He wakes up every 2-3 for night feedings anyway so it probably doesn't make much of a difference. However, I've really been trying to maintain a bedtime routine to make him sleep longer... so far hasn't worked lol.

tarheelgirl8 · December 2015

@lrwardrop, this is where I struggle. DD is a great sleeper. She usually gets up once per night to eat but has occasionally slept through. And I really don't want to mess with it since it's working. The problem is she goes to sleep around 6! So in order to stick to her schedule were basically stuck in the house every night. So even if we went for an hour or two it would be 3-4 hours past her bedtime by the time we got home.

Knottie1459358632 · December 2015

I have been worrying about this too! My boy goes down about 6pm and my husbands family's party starts at 530. We will either have a extremely overtired cranky baby, or he might get a couple cat naps and be fine. It's totally up in the air

ElleMF728 · December 2015

Fortunately, our parties are earlier. I will mess with naps and just put LO to sleep at the event but he is home for bedtime. My 2 year old can adapt, my 4 month old has a much harder time.

princesslockness · December 2015

We are staying over where the parties are. That way we can take the pnp and when L goes down he can stay down for the night.

nataha2 · December 2015

you

lrwardrop said:
My DH would NEVER let us skip a family event... or leave early... especially since xmas eve is at his side of the family. Were usually the first ones there and the last ones to leave. Which is pretty annoying to me especially since we now have a baby. So my poor sweet baby will be off his schedule for the holidays, not by my choice. He wakes up every 2-3 for night feedings anyway so it probably doesn't make much of a difference. However, I've really been trying to maintain a bedtime routine to make him sleep longer... so far hasn't worked lol.

You should make him take care of your cranky baby at the party and see if he still wanta to go next year. It's annoying how they want to go to the party but don't understand that you will be the one not getting sleep afterwards

wmellis · December 2015

I'm in the same boat. All of the parties are at my place (we just have the largest space to accommodate everyone and it's the tradition I suppose) but DH's family is loud and definitely won't respect when I put the little guy to bed to take it down a notch. I just transitioned him (unbelievably smoothly!) into his crib but people will end up staying the night and be very loud near his nursery in my ranch style home. Do I bring him back into the PnP in my room for that night? I'm thinking that may be best for all parties involved (myself being uncomfortable sleepwalking past his fam sleeping on the couch on my way to the nursery in the middle of the night and to those in the guest room next to the crying baby in the nursery. (I also may just want an excuse to have him in the same room as me one more time haha) as for the parties you ladies mentioned, I think The holidays all bets are off. It's just one or two nights of the year to enjoy all the family and friends and handle the baby and naps as best as possible. Don't stress! If baby gets cranky enough, drive home and make the husband take an Uber or something whenever he is ready lol! I say go to the parties if you can but if you truly have a gut feeling you should be home with the baby that's what you should do. Always go with your instincts as you ladies know what's best and all of our sweet little ones are different but they all should remain the PRIORITY for sure!

BabyBean815 · December 2015

I think I'm going with the mindset that one or two nights of a modified schedule will not be the end of the world. We're going to DH's mom's house this evening and will stay past DS' bedtime. I'm planning to bring his RnP and find a quiet, dark place to settle him when he gets sleepy. I'm also planning on making a joke that if anyone keeps him up, that person gets to be in charge of putting him to sleep when he gets overly cranky. Hopefully everyone will get the hint.

mrsb30 · December 2015

We still go and just leave whenever we need to for LO. Our LO goes to sleep late between 9-11 and then sleeps until 8-9am. I don't get home from work until 6 so if she went to be early I would never see her. She naps anywhere so it works for us.

KateDerek · December 2015

My baby falls asleep pretty easily wherever she is, so we will not alter our plans just for her. It's more like my 4 year old won't be able to stay up late so we will have to call it a night when he is too tired. I've never not gone to anything with either of the three kids as babies, they just roll with us and we adapt as we need to. My first two weren't that great at falling asleep on the go like she is, but we made do and they stayed up later. That's what the time off for us after Christmas is usually for, getting rest and back on schedule after a busy two days.

Lalala2326 · December 2015

I'm also of the mindset that a couple off nights aren't a big deal. Yes its harder to get them down, and we may be up more, but its also just part of life. I was crazy strict with my older daughter and looking back I wish I would have dealt with a few nights of cranky baby and enjoyed the phase a little more.

BecNJake · December 2015

I also thought the Christmas parties weren't a big deal. We got off schedule big time and now I'm paying for it! Poor LO doesn't know when to sleep anymore and he has been fussy which isn't like him. We are going to go ahead and skip the New Years Eve parties.. Lesson learned!

psherman42wwsa · January 2016

4 days in a row of Christmas parties where LO was held all day and cuddled to sleep. Trying to get him back to falling asleep on his own... struggling!

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