How young would you leave a baby with your mum so you could attend a party?

[paow]

Hi all.
I'm not sure about this one as I will be first time mum in October.
They have announced the Xmas party at work and it will take place when ds is 2 months old, the day before his Christening, which means my parents will be staying round that night and I thought they could stay with the baby if I was to express milk and me and dh could go out to the party for 4 hours or so. What are your thoughts? Is that too young to leave for a night out? Not sure! and I don't want to reply to the Xmas invite in case they think I'm nuts!

I think 2 months old is a good age to leave your baby with your mum. 4 hours isn't that long.

I went out to a party when DS1 was about 4 weeks or so I think - we left him at home with his nearly god parents.
Didn't cross my mind not to go (it was my brother's wedding party - in a noisy smokey pub - didn't want to take the baby)

A very personal decision.

We left ds at four weeks with MIL for just a couple of hours - a friend's party - and she fed him expressed breast milk. He was fine - slept cuddled up on her most of the evening.

Then we didn't leave him again until he was three months old. Dp was best man and me a bridesmaid at good friends' wedding - couldn't really not go (wanted to!), but wanted to get into our roles for the day; not be jiggling/feeding/soothing/mopping up in posh frocks. Sooo ... we went sans ds (church thankfully opposite our house). I breastfed before service, and again afterwards/before reception. I expressed and froze my milk for weeks in advance and defrosted all feeds needed before we left, leaving them labelled in the fridge. I took my pump to the reception and expressed twice there (poured milk away! ), and then fed ds from very full boobs on return.

Before we went, I also wrote down his rough feeding/sleeping pattern for my mum and dp's mum (they shared the caring). They said it helped no end - he seemed tired/hungry on cue! - and that he was fine the whole time. I was sooo relieved after being worried sick.

So I suppose if you're comfortable with it, if your baby's likely to be fairly settled in your absence, if you can find very loving and cuddly carers, and if you get organised beforehand - you can have quite a nice little break!

At 2 months old I would have taken ds to the party in his sling (non smoking pubs in NZ)

At 3 months I left him with MIL while we went to a party - I think we stayed around 2 hours, but our friends were starting a new life overseas and we wanted to say goodbye.

We left no4 to go to a friends wedding when she was about 7 weeks old. As we don't have any family near we left her with our neighbour - I don't think I could have left my first - but i'm a bit of a control freak. Have a great party - just promise me you wont spend the evening worrying about your ds!!

when dd was 2 months i left ehr with with my mum and dad for 2 nights while i was on my hen weekend nad then again 2 weeks later on my wedding night. if you want to go, you definitely should. and i left ds with a friend overnight when he was 1 month old cos it was my birthday.

bonsoir poisson

Went to a Xmas party when dd was 4wks.

Hee-hee. I saw this thread title and thought "About six. Years, that is". But if it was someone other than my Mum, well... 2 months is fine!.

Although, with both of mine, if I could have got someone to look after them for 4 hours, I wouldn't have gone to a party. I'd have gone straight to bed for 4 hours uninterrupted sleep. Four whole hours in a row. I dreamt of that for months and months.

I think it's a personal decision and is something you may well change your mind about. I think ds was about 2 months old when i first left him to go out for dinner. I do think though that arranging the party now is a good idea as once the baby is born you may find making the decision that much harder. My mum said we should go out for dinner "after Christmas" (he was born in November) and I kept putting it off because I wasn't sure I wanted to leave him. If the dinner had already been arranged I would have gone though.

As an aside, a friend of mine has a cousin who left her baby with her mil overnight the night she came out of hospital.

went to a party for about 3 hours when ds was 3 weeks old. It was just nice to feel like me again for a little while. Being a first-time mom at 38 was a bit of a shock to my system

it was my friends birthday last week and i really wanted to go to the party but ds was only 6 days old. i made all the arrangements to go but then i was far too tired to even contemplate it!!mum took him out the other day to say one of her friends - he was 10 days old. she arranged it without asking me first thinking there wouldn't be a problem. i really didn't want him to go but was sort of forced into it. did enjoy the "me" time but if i had had the choice i probably wouldn't have agreed. am going out next week with some friends - ds will be nearly 3 weeks and i think i will be ready by then. could all change though lol!