Tips for a 4mo at a wedding?

[rubybambini]

Hello - we've got two weddings coming up, when our daughter will be 4.5 and 5 months respectively. Both times, we're staying about 2 miles from the wedding venue. One is a very informal bbq in a field type thing, the other more of a sit-down meal.

How have you coped with a LO at a wedding? Have you stuck to bedtime and taken him / her home? Or taken a pram / car seat and used that?

She's EBF, but thinking about taking formula too.

Grateful for any tips!

Depends how routiney your baby is, but I went to some weddings and christenings at 5 - 8 months with ds.
We sat at the end of pews/rows during the service in case we had to make a quick exit - as it happened he was fine, we played pass the baby in one (ceremony was inside, audience outside, no-one could hear a word so everyone much more interested in cute baby), and in the other he chewed a collection envelope for most of the time.

We asked to be near the door for the reception meal, with space to park the buggy, so when he got sleepy could just push him around outside until he fell asleep and bring him back again. And later in the evening ditto - thought about a travel cot but he slept well in the buggy anyway so didn't bother. We did go home about 10ish though!

Hopefully other people will help entertain the baby and you can relax and enjoy in between feeds and nappies. A couple new toys help with sit-down meals, and you may find your baby screams when a roomful of people applaud - hence the sitting near the exit!
Have fun!

I can't tell you about a wedding specifically, but we've taken our 4-month old son to a sit-down meal in a restaurant and to a music festival recently. Our approach was to stay out for the whole evening, but aim for him to go to sleep at his normal bedtime while out. I think babies can be quite resilient to sleeping through noise - as long as the noise is constant, like people talking or music. At that age they're not so far off being in the womb, where there was constant background noise!

For the meal, we took the pushchair, he went to sleep in my arms at his normal time (7ish) and then I put him down in the chair next to the table where he slept for the evening.

At the festival, he also slept either in my arms or in the pushchair for the evenings, wrapped up in several layers and a warm blanket as we were outside. He woke once in the evening but I just fed him where we were.

I'm breastfeeding, and I personally would say this makes things very easy - no need to worry about making up bottles or anything. As long as you're wearing something that makes feeding easy, you can feed to sleep if they wake.

Our pushchair reclines flat, which helped - I'm not sure he would have slept so well for that time in a car seat.

A pushchair is a good idea as they will sleep through all the noise and I wouldn't bother with formula much easier just to feed them when they need it.

Thanks everyone. Will aim for the dress for bed, sleep in pram strategy, all being well. The formula idea is precisely because my dress is so unsuitable it's untrue. I'll be naked from the waist down whilst hoiking it up to feed her - not very well thought through. (But it is a lovely dress =)

I took dd 12 weeks to a wedding recently at which I was bridesmaid. I had a similar prolem with a dress unsuitable for breastfeeding - I took along a big t-shirt which I put on before unzipping the dress to feed to have a bit of privacy.

During the ceremony dp sat at the back and took dd out when she starting grizzling. She slept in her pram through the meal and speeches, I took her back to where we were staying about 10pm when the disco music was turned up loud, dp stayed on a bit later. It was fine.

We took DD to a wedding at 8 weeks, we sat at the back of the church and I just fed when she got grumpy. The bride had warned the reception venue beforehand that there were 2 BF mums there and there was a spare room set aside for us to feed in peace in, good job as I was struggling hugely at that point and couldn't comfortably feed in public. The other mum had her baby in a sling so was much more portable than us.

We left when the disco really got going as it was a bit loud but still had a lovely time.

DD did sleep in her car seat for a while as well as being cuddled by lots of people!

All good suggestions above. We had to leave a wee bit early probably because we just made our 4 month old go with the flow. In the end he cried his t**s off for about an hour because he couldn't cope with all the stimulation and by this time the disco had started.
I would have put him down in the pram in the corridor outside but it was in december in Scotland during the worst storm in history and too cold for him.

All in all, it wasn't too traumatic and he got back into his routine the next day, no problem.

Have fun, take advantage of all the nice older ladies who love babies and want to take your bubba away for a cuddle so you can chill out and enjoy!

Thanks again. We're going to park at the venue and I'm planning to use the car as a mobile nursery rather than fret about holding up the loo queue / finding somewhere private. I'm sure all will be well, it's just the first-timeness of it!