5 month old...being flexible with routine?

[Nessamommy]

Yesterday night, we went to a friend's house for dinner at around 5:00pm. They have a 1 1/2 year old and the other couple that came has a 1 yr. old. My son is used to his bedtime routine (bath around 6:00ish feed and sleep), so when we were there, he got pretty crabby (no surprise). My husband wants him to be able to go out and be flexible with his routine...as do I, but I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much from him. The other boys were fine (granted they are older), but we left at around 8:30 b/c my son just couldn't last anymore. Am I creating a monster in the fact that he won't be able to go anywhere past his bedtime, or is this normal for this age? I tend to look at all these older kids because that's what we are surrounded with.

I don't think its a question of routine, but how well your child copes at the end of the day. Some children will go to bed anywhere, and I think if you encourage it, then its a good thing. But if you are expecting him to stay up and be pleasant, they yes, you are expecting too much of him.

IME 18 months - 3 years was the time I found most hardest (aka 'the terrible twos'). So I would be mindful that this is a huge developmental time and he needs his sleep. HTH.

If you can encourage him to sleep in his pram it may help a little.

I would suggest that you can try to encourage him to sleep in other surroundings, but asking him to stay up beyond his bedtime is probably too much for the wee mite.

or a travel cot if you are going to a friends house? means you can stay out longer too.

so what did you do when you were out to try and keep him in his routine?
obv not a bath, but did you (eg) take him in his pyjamas then change, feed and put down in pram/travel cot at the usual time?

if not and he was at the party all night then of course he was stroppy

the trouble is you can't set up routines like this and then be suprised if ds gets cross when you disrupt them.

DD didn't have much of a routine at that age (which of course had its own problems) but did mean we could take her out to dinner and parties without meltdowns.

sorry, I read you op as your lo is 18 months old.

and didn't read the op prperly either then.

5 months? he should be fine.

I'll get my coat ...

I think some babies are less portable than others. My ds was just like this, very wedded to his routine and couldn't settle at other people's houses. It was more hassle than it was worth in the end so we just didn't do it - you don't enjoy an evening out when it's involving either an overtired and fractious baby or attempting to rock the baby to sleep for hours on end to stop them crying all night!!!

Prob not what you wanted to hear - yes it impinged on our social life but that didn't bother me too much; I just accepted it as part of having ds. It was easier and I like an easy life!