To eat Christmas dinner while baby naps?

[bubs80]

Baby normally naps 1-3 should we eat downstairs ( leaving baby upstairs in a travel cot and with baby monitor on) or just eat after with everyone ( and maybe baby will sit nicely in high chair and have a snack)

Baby will be10 months old. We are having dinner at in-laws arriving around 11 and baby will eat lunch around 12 before nap.

Baby currently has all naps in bed with me. It's lovely but will I be anti social if I do that Christmas Day lol

We don't yet have a travel cot

What's everyone else done Christmas day in terms of eating lunch around nap times ?

Our first Grandchild,our DGS will be 3 months and our DD and DGS will be with us for Christmas,he won't be eating any solids yet obviously but he is breastfed so me and my DD have come up with the plan that she's starting to pump and freeze some milk a week or so before Christmas and that way if he needs a feed when were all sitting down to Christmas dinner me and her Dad can take over and give him a bottle(he's happly taken a bottle of expressed milk from us before) so she gets to eat her Christmas dinner with both hands.

He's a very content little baby luckily and we'll have his moses basket and his bouncy chair(that vibrates and has been a god send for our DD)and me and his Grandad are more than happy to spend most of Christmas day cuddling the baby whilst he sleeps.

As you can tell I'm very excited for DGS first Christmas and my Dd's first as a Mum.

I hope you have a lovely 1st Christmas with your DS.

@BlueLadybird so if I say do lunch for 3 would I still be rude to go upstairs with him 1-3?

When will you be sleep training if you are going back to work? It's a long process and the more "gentle" you want to be, the longer it takes.

I would judge a parent who disappeared for 2 hours on any day so their child can sleep. What happens at night? Do you go to bed at 7 too?!

@ohtheholidays awww that sounds such a lovely day :) maybe someone will settle my baby off for a nap and let me have my dinner in peace . Have a lovely Christmas 🎄

@Teachermaths no I don't go to bed at 7 lol he usually cries a couple times for dummy we go to bed 11 he sleeps until about 4 then comes into bed with us until 7. Genuinely interested what sleep training I could do?

Would you be able to lie with him until he's asleep and then move him to a cot/safe space to sleep? That way you can still soothe him to sleep but not have to miss out on Christmas dinner?

I understand OP, my DS is almost 13 months and still needs soothing to sleep. My other children were very easy to self soothe. Every child is different. Just do whatever is best for you and your baby.

There's loads of methods out there.

Shh and pat.

The gentle sleep solution book here : www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SRXR47Y/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

The moving chair where every day the chair/cushion moves further away.

Rapid return where you go back every minute, then 2 etc until baby settles.

If he can settle himself at night he can do it in the day.

@BellatrixLestat yes I will try this :) only beds in the rooms and not sure if room for a travel cot ( plus have to buy one ) so might just put a mattress on floor maybe from his cot here and then see if I can put that down safely with the baby monitor on. I know if I just put him in cot he will just cry so iv always just rocked him and he goes off within seconds it's been ok while iv been on maternity leave as able to rest too

Does he have an AM nap? If so, can you push it back so that he can stay awake longer on Christmas day for lunch, then once fed put him in the buggy and go for a post lunch walk til he falls asleep - wheel him back into the house once asleep and he may have another hour or so.

Why not get him self settling and used to napping on his own before then? Not so much for Christmas Day, but for you going back to work & Christmas Day is a bonus. It really is nuts having to nap with him every time and unfair in him if he’s not used to it by the time you go back to work.

You sound like a lovely mum OP but I do think you are overthinking it. I also agree with others that you need to break the cycle of him needing you to nap next to him considering he will be in nursery soon.

I do understand as my daughter basically napped on me most of the time until she was about 18 months! In terms of what you can do on a gentle way, i’d introduce a sleep time comfort object.

I’m afraid I also think it would be rude to disappear for two hours considering your MIL has said she will serve the meal at whatever time you want. It really doesn’t matter if routine goes out of the window for the day. I think it’s something you would look back on in a few years time as OTT if you missed Christmas dinner because you sat next to your sleeping baby for two hours. At the very least, could you hold him while he sleeps and eat with one hand?!

Tell MIL to serve dinner at whatever time she likes. If you ask her to do it at a time to suit the baby then the baby - no matter how clockwork their routine normally is, no matter how carefully you plan for all eventualities - will not go along with this plan, and will make it impossible for you to eat dinner at that time.

@Teakind thank you I will try a comforter . Unfortunately he would not stay asleep with noise.

@LisaSimpsonsbff yes that's what I thought as even if I planned it around nap I thought knowing my luck he will nap completely different. I think she usually has it 3 so he should be awake for then I'm just have him in high chair with a snack. It's more that I want to settle him off to a nap and be left to do that rather than having to just make him stay awake and be grumpy

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz yes wakes 7 nap 9-10 (ish) and then 1-3( ish) give or take half hour bed 7

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz just not sure whether to have him awake for lunch for if he better napping

@IncrediblySadToo I don't know how as tried cry it out and was awful and pick up or down terrible . I don't know what else to do . He will go to sleep when rocked in pram but recently I have enjoyed a snooze next to him as I haven't been very well

DS1 was 6mo on his first Christmas. He was a terrible sleeper and I told everyone how bad he was, how he refused naps, how he was up every 2 hours at night....the little monster spent almost the entire day and night asleep! He flaked out over lunchtime while we ate, woke briefly to open presents and was in bed sound asleep by 5.30pm (we stayed over with relatives). And he pretty much slept through! Everyone blatantly thought I'd been massively exaggerating!! So don't count on your normal routine!

My 10 mo DN will be having Christmas dinner with us. Unsure why that isn’t an option

At 10 months mine were in a vague routine but it could be thrown off at anything. You’ve got a long time to go, can’t you just go with the flow?
If he’s awake he joins you, if he’s asleep he doesn’t.
It’s just one day

@GrumpyHoonMain because If I say to everyone he will wake at 3 and when he does something different il feel awful people waiting to eat . He eats lunch early 12 and they don't want it that early

Completely over thinking this.
If (God forbid) your child decided it was nap time as your mil dished up the dinner couldn't you just put him down and settle him ( however you choose) then heat up your dinner when you are done?
Sure your child's dgp would understand.

Honestly OP I think if you want to do Christmas just the 3 of you then do that, and go visit ILs/Have ILs over on Boxing Day.

If he’s not up by 3 then fine he can still sleep. If the people hosting you will get stroppy over a 10 mo not performing to schedule then don’t go at all!!

@GrumpyHoonMain I know but even if we all eat at 3 when he wakes I don't know what to do while he is napping. Do I carry on chatting to everyone downstairs and hope baby stays asleep or lie upstairs with him like I do in the day normally.