Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Small babies and wedding receptions

35 replies

Smiler2 · 06/04/2004 12:41

Have just found this site - isn't it great?!

Have a dilemma I'm hoping folk can help with. We're off to a wedding reception in a hotel in a fortnight. Do people think it's acceptable to put a sleeping baby down in a hotel room and then to leave baby alone while parents go back for speeches etc if baby is checked periodically? Any other advice about coping with weddings would be appreciated! dd is 4 months old and sleeps quite reliably when down.

OP posts:
Stargazer · 06/04/2004 22:09

Sounds okay to me - I'd take a baby monitor to listen out just in case and pop back regularly to check - make sure your DH helps too. Have fun.

Chelle · 07/04/2004 06:49

I took dd to a conference where I was presenting when she was 4 months old. I paid for a babysitter for the session I was presenting (room was in the hotel where the conference was held) but took her pretty well everywhere else with me. This included a couple of night's dinners in posh restaurants and evening in a rowdy pub and the conference dinner on a ferry crusing the Derwent River! She slept through all these events in her pram, waking only for feeding (which I actually did at the table where I was eating and nobody raised an eyebrow!). I wouldn't have been comfortable leaving her in the room alone and I was concernec she wouldn't be able to sleep in the pram, but as it turned out I was lucky she could pretty much sleep through anything!

tigermoth · 07/04/2004 08:19

just to add - do phone the hotel asap and ask them if they have a baby listening service or if you should bring monitors. Explain what's happening and ask advice. It can't be the first time the hotel staff have run into this situation. Make sure they book you a room very near the wedding reception area.

Also, there might be a quiet area near the main action - not a bedroom as such, just somewhere you can safely put a sleeping baby. I used to put my sleeping baby in his car seat underneath a table if we went to a restaurant. That worked well.

Bring monitors, even if you intend to keep your baby with you. See how you feel on the day - go with your gut instinct once you are in the hotel.

yankiegirl · 07/04/2004 08:29

I new here, but my DH and I took our DS (5 month at the time) to a evening wedding reception (after clearing it with Bride and Groom) and put him in his sleep bag in his carseat and kept him at the table. My MIL said to leave him in the hotel room, but just didn't feel comfortable, even with a monitor that I could get to him in time if something happened. But as with all parenting you need to go with your gut instinct.

JanZ · 07/04/2004 09:12

After Miranda2's admission, I will come out and say I too have left ds in his room while we were at a wedding reception. He was 9 months though, and he'd slept through practically from the birth. The hotel was supposed to have had a baby listening service, which unfortunately they had withdrawn (without changing their literature), but knowing our son's routines, (ie dead to the world from 8 until 6!) we decided we were happy to leave him.

You've got to do what you are comfortable with though.

WSM · 07/04/2004 09:52

DH and I did this at our own wedding in July last year. DD was 11 months old, she had her pm nap during the ceremony and then was awake for the meal with us (sat at the top table) and went up to bed for the party.

For us the buggy wouldn't have been an option anyway as she doesn't like to sleep in it and isn't one of those kids who can get to sleep when there is loud music, lights and lots of movement. I'm always amazed by those children who can sleep through anything !

We took the baby monitors and my Mum was in charge of them. DD was in her room anyway, in her travel cot. Once she got to sleep she was absolutely fine. I would definitely take a set of baby monitors though, wouldn't consider having her out of sight/earshot without them.

HTH

Codswallop · 07/04/2004 09:59

soupy says the baby is not called tabitha nd thats aother poster!!

DOH!

Original poster
Smiler2 · 07/04/2004 10:41

Codswallop - no, not anywhere near Wiltshire unfortunately! Otherwise would have taken up offer - though might not have got her back, she is just beautiful! Hadn't even thought to take babysitter. It's one of these weddings where we won't really know anyone except bride and groom. Am off to ring hotel re: listening services and whereabouts of room just now.

OP posts:
slug · 07/04/2004 14:37

Smiler2. I did exactly the same when dd was 5 months old. Dh and I wandered in ever half hour or so to check on her and she never once woke up. Just one thing....

5 month old...reflux....baby obsessed bride........................................................mashed pumpkin. It still makes me shudder to this day.

Original poster
Smiler2 · 07/04/2004 15:35

Hi slug. Have duly taken note of that...must not let baby get too close to bride (or anyone else for that matter!) Glad to hear that you did the same and didn't have any problems (apart from the pumpkin).

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page