Taking 6 month old baby to an evening wedding abroad - any tips?

[Pelly8]

A close relative is getting married in Italy this summer and their wedding starts at 5pm (our little one’s bed time routine usually starts at6:30pm).

Leaving our little one at home isn’t an option and we won’t be able to get a baby sitter while we our out there. Our hotel is 20 minutes away from the wedding venue.

Any tips on how to get through this and make it as comfortable as possible for our little one would be much appreciated. I’m already feeling the mum guilt...

How is your baby at sleeping in the pram?

Ours went to a wedding at 8 months she just fell asleep in her buggy a bit later than normal and we parked her in the corner next to our table and she slept through until 10:30 when we walked back to our hotel gave her a bottle and she went back to sleep...

I realise this was very lucky as sometimes she screamed for hours on an evening but we went with the plan that there was no plan and we’d do what we needed but she just fit in.. in fact much easier than I suspect she will be now 3 at an evening wedding in a few weeks.!

It’s Italy, they love kids over there. Don’t worry, you’ll feel like home. Just put the baby in the pram for a sleep, job done. There’ll always be someone willing to pick the baby up and cuddle for a while. They’ll always trip over themselves to help you with a place to change/feed the baby. No worries there. At all.
Enjoy.

Put baby to sleep in the pushchair, then maybe leave when they wake up?

Thats what i did on holiday, put dd to sleep in pushchair after dinner, had my evening downstairs until she woke up around 11 and took her up to the room to put her to bed properly

It will be fine. They really won't suffer without a routine at that age. Bring a pram/pushchair that can lie flat and a sling. We took our youngest to a wedding away at 7 months. He stayed up a bit later than normal, then crashed out in the sling later in the evening. We left about 10pm. No affect on sleep at all. Actually, being away with a baby that age is tricky (he was crawling from 5 months so into everything in a non-babyproofed airbnb), but the wedding bit was easy.

I should also add that I took the same baby to Barcelona on holiday alone at 8 months (my dh was home with our school age dc as was term time). We were out at 8-9pm having dinner or ice cream most nights or strolling in the park (well, I was having ice cream, he wasn't!). No affect on his sleep at all. It's very normal for children in Europe to stay up quite late. I've seen toddlers out having dinner at 11pm before. They just might sleep a bit later in the morning.

Our 6 month old is a screamy nightmare if she isn’t in bed by 6.30pm (only has three or four half hour naps a day so needs her night sleep).

Not the same as a wedding, but when away last week we did bedtime routine as usual at the villa, then when she was sound asleep laid the buggy flat, slid her in her Sleepyhead into it, covered the buggy with a Snoozeshade and made sure her white noise machine was on full volume in there. She slept through a 20 minute walk to the restaurant, a long and late three course meal with lots of noise and the whole walk back!

Could you maybe slip away somewhere quiet at 6pm ish and do an adapted bedtime routine somewhere quiet, walk him/her round in the buggy till asleep and keep the buggy covered up in a corner?

I have to say, I think this only works for us because DD needs it cave dark with loud white noise to sleep!

Is the wedding venue a hotel? My cousin got married in Italy. There were a few people with babies there and the hotel provided these little cot things for babies/toddlers in the evening. It was a small family run hotel and kids were king there.

We’re also doing a wedding abroad in the summer. My dd will be four months old. Wedding starts at 7pm. So I could have basically written your post!

I’m just going to put her in the sling as she always sleeps well in her sling, whereas she’s not so good in the pram. I’ve also booked a hotel very near the wedding venue so if it is awful I can just leave and me and DH can take it in turns staying in the hotel or enjoying the wedding.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I am going to take the pram, sling and ear defenders to block out the sound for the little one and hope for the best. So nice to hear that people love kids in Italy!