leaving 8 week old for an evening

[lucindapie]

I'm planning a few evenings out and wondering how my DD will cope! She almost always falls asleep with a boob in her mouth, and I'm not sure at what age I should try and 'train' her out of this, if at all. I don't want to resort to using a dummy, but will she be distressed if I leave her for a while? If any mums have some advice or personal experience to share, I would love to hear, thanks!

I'd do a few practice runs of someone else doing the bedtime routine with you still in the house, but not getting involved, before you go out for a night for real IYSWIM. Are you planning for someone to give EBM? Or will you feed her, put her to bed and then go out?

My DS was 8 weeks when I first left him with DH to go out for a meal with friends for a few hours. They were both absolutely fine as we had done a few practices beforehand. DH gave DS EBM from a bottle and I made sure he was stocked up with loads of milk if it were needed. DS very often fell asleep on the boob too, he just grew out of it eventually and we've never used dummies. He sometimes fell asleep on a bottle of EBM, but not as much, so he would go to bed awake and settle himself then.

It's hard leaving them, but in my experience the sooner you do it the better for both of you so that your DD gets used to other people looking after her and you get used to leaving her now and again!

HTH. It's just my experience, obviously each baby is different. Good luck and enjoy your nights out!

Does she take a bottle? I'd get her used to one first. Why don't you want to use a dummy?

If you're planning to give EBM or Formula from a bottle then definitely try it out first. My DD refused bottles for ages and I ended up cancelling quite a few planned nights out because I couldn't leave her. She's now 5 and a half months and will take a bottle under duress if I'm not there, I'm going out for my second night out since the birth tonight

thanks for the advice everyone, 2'scompany I will definetly try a few practise runs first. She has been taking a bottle okay so far but we have only tried it a few times, bit worried as she's becoming very aware now so hope she doesn't decide to get fussy!