Have you ever left your dp to put breastfed baby to bed?

[Jane7]

and at what stage? i'm planning an evening away from my five month old ds. up until now, dp has done bath, then i've taken over, read story while breastfeeding him, put on lullaby cd and he's gone off pretty easily. my plan is to leave dp with a bottle of EBM and let him do all the other bits eg reading story, putting on cd.
do you think it'll work? has anyone else managed it? and how old was their dc?

[HolidaysQueen]

my DS seemed ok with this but he is a relatively unfussy baby so far as bedtime routine is concerned.
might be worth trying while you're in the house (you feee first but then leave room and let dh do book and cd at least) to see how it goes.

[giantkatestacks]

yes - third time tomorrow (my dd is 10 months) the first time was around 5 months I think but she was used to a bottle randomly from me as well as that was a problem with her brother.

Shes not a big fan of the ebm but as long as everything else is exactly the same then she seems to be ok - it helps that she doesnt have milk to go down for naps either - she gets a bf when she wakes up iyswim.

[fishie]

why bother with bottle? i just used to bf ds and hand him over.

[giantkatestacks]

fishie - presumably the OP needs to get out fo the house early - say 6pm or some such. Thats what is going to happen here tomorrow anyway.

[Beantin]

crikey, DS is just a month old and so far DH is chief 'put to bedderer'. After bathing him - although we both take turns on that - I usually feed him with CD on, etc. and then pass to DH to put down. Gives me a break to get away and start the dinner and for DH to have a wind down after work and have a cuddle with DS before he's off for the night.

[Grammaticus]

I did for the first time about 12 weeks. Disaster. DS wouldn't take the EBM and screamed for an hour solid. I fed him when I got home, he woke up (unusually), presumably because he was hungry, having missed his last feed.

Sorry, I know it's not what you want to hear!

[mothersmilk]

with dd it was a beeze left her at 4 months for the evening she was fine and has been ever since ds on the other hand awfull left him at 5 months thinking it would be no prob as dd was so good but oh no he screemed the house down dh had to call me to come home so iguess you dont really knoe untill the day i'd give it a couple of trial runs first to be safe

[tinierclanger]

Yes, but we normally do bedtime together ( I feed, DP reads a story) so is not too much of a problem for him if only one or other of us is there. As others suggest, I'd recommend a few practice runs first.

[UniS]

Yes, it can be done.
I used to occasionally- feed boy late afternoon, leave him with dh who did bed at normal time with a small amount of EBM in a sippy cup. I would get back in and do dream feed at 11pm - 12ish. Till boy stopped needing dream feed at 7m. Boy not very keen on EBM so he would only have a small drink at bedtime.

[ches]

I wouldn't leave your DH with instructions. YOUR routine is your routine and your baby will respond to a different routine with your DH. The way you settle your baby most likely won't work for your DH and might even make your baby angry that it's not you.

[NellyTheElephant]

Yes definitely (and from early on - i.e. a couple of weeks). Also my Mum looked after exclusively BF DD2 for a long w/e when she was 3 months old with no trouble. The main thing is that the baby needs to be used to taking occasional bottles of EBM rpior to you trying this or it won't work, also, I never breastfed to sleep - always put down sleepy but awake which I guess helped from DH's point of view.