Keeping baby up past bedtime - any advice?

[Woodlands]

My nearly 10-month-old DS has been going to bed at about 7pm for months now - he's been in a pretty good routine since about 6 months. We've never tried keeping him up after this time. However we are going to two weddings on the next two Saturdays, which obviously have evening receptions. In both cases we are staying at the place where the reception is (though in the second case we are camping, eek!) so if necessary we can put him to bed at the normal time and take turns to stay with him. However, in an ideal world we would keep him with us so that we can both enjoy the parties.

I can't decide whether to do the bedtime routine with him quietly in our hotel room at the usual time, then put him in his pushchair and try to get him off to sleep in there, or whether that just isn't going to work with a 10 month old. Thinking about it, the last time we took him out in the evening was when he was 5 months and there was far too much going on for him to sleep then, so what chance do we have now?! I will also take our sling so that if he is tired but won't settle in the pushchair I can always put him in that (and hope he doesn't dribble down my new designer dress ). Perhaps his sleep routine will go out the window anyway and he'll have a late afternoon nap and he'll stay awake and happy till late in the evening, and then sleep long into the morning (well, a girl can dream...).

Any advice/suggestions? I'm overthinking this, aren't I?

IMHE it's not worth trying to keep them up, it's too awful and gets worse as babies get older.

We did this recently - DD is 8 mo and when she looked sleepy DH took her out in her pushchair, rocked her to sleep and then brought her back in asleep. I was amazed at what she slept through and she didn't need to go to sleep until much later than I anticipated. I would just go with the flow and not worry about it too much.

Yep, overthinking it! Just go with the flow as breatheslowly says and see how he is on the day. I don't agree with thefatishistory though - for some babies it IS awful and not worth it but by no means all. My 11 month old can happily stay up late, the only downside being she gets overstimulated and it can be difficult to eventually get her to sleep. But it's certainly not awful. Good luck!

I would plan to be flexible and see how it goes. You can try to get him to sleep either at the reception or upstairs and then bring him down - or if that's not working then you'll have to take it in turns. Is there a babysitting or listening service at the hotel? It might be worth asking.

thanks all, yes, i guess we'll have to see how it goes on the day. with long drives in the mornings his nap routine will go awry too so we may as well just go with the flow

Hope it works out well-we've always let routines go out the window to an extent at weddings,parties,holidays etc. As soon as we're home though the kids have always slotted straight back in to normal. Hope you have a lovely time

Our two year old is a veteran at this ( 2 glastonburies, several other festivals and parties and a few weddings) and when he was little we did the approach of taking him away, into room or tent and doing bedtime routine and putting him to bed in his pram. Then walking him to sleep, and then letting him sleep thru the party. Saves any confusion as to when bedtime is and means that you don't need to wake him to get him into his pyjamas later. If he woke up over the course if the evening, he'd join the party in pyjamas and after a wee while when he looked worn out one or both of us would go to bed proper with him. Sometimes he'd just sleep thru the whole thing though and transfer into his cot like a dream baby. Other times (like when seeing stevie wonder at Glastonbury) he'd be awake and buzzing for hours. He's now two and We were at a wedding last weekend and he demanded his buggy pyjamas and sleeping bag at 7, sucking his thumb watching everyone sleepily for an hour in his buggy looking like he as about to drop off. And then demanded his sleeping bag off when the music started and ran around dancing in his pyjamas like a lunatic till 10 when he crashed out happy.

Have lots of fun! It'll be fine!

Thanks Mapley, that sounds like a great approach. we will try it!