Childcare and napping!

[ShutterHaze]

I will be leaving my 9.5 month old baby with a grandparent to look after for between 4 and 5 hours during an afternoon to early evening. DD has never been looked after by anyone other than me or my DH before, although this grandparent will be looking after DD for a whole day either once a week or once every couple of weeks when my baby turns one.

She’s currently on two naps a day and doesn’t self settle for naps. I can typically get her to sleep really easily, but she went through a stage of not settling for DH, which makes me think she might not like being cuddled to sleep by someone she’s not used to being settled for sleep by (although she does see this grandparent once a week or once every couple of weeks).

She’ll be due her pm nap while being looked after. I’m getting really nervous about the grandparent being able to get DD to sleep, to the extent that I’m wondering whether it’s a bad idea to go (although appreciate I will need to contend with this when I go back to work!). Any words of wisdom?! I know I’m flapping!

I should’ve mentioned - she’s not fed to sleep (although I do BF, but she will take a bottle) but cuddled to sleep

I completely understand why you're worried, but babies can be remarkably different when they are with other people - you'll find when she's older that she'll eat things for Granny that she wouldn't eat at your house and so on. I think she'll adjust very quickly and her naps will be fine.

As PP said, she'll adjust and no point worrying about it - what difference will that make. Good for baby to get used to others looking after her. And those grandparents have been parents themselves!

It might be tricky at first but grandparent will need to find a way to make it work.

You will need to leave her at some point and unfortunately it won’t get easier as she gets older because they can fight sleep and stay awake longer!

If you trust grandparent enough to leave your baby with them, then you need to have faith that they will figure it out. I’m sure they will. They could also try doing naps in the pram.

p.s. my DS is 2.5 now and will only nap for his grandma and not for me 🙄

It’s lovely to see when they develop strong relationships/bonds with other people.

Our parents did their routine with our childand we did ours I figured they raised us ok so have looked after babies before

Thank you so much everyone - I feel really reassured. Thank you for not criticising me for flapping - I found all of the comments really supportive 😊

My DD never napped well with my mum and dad (or in fact anywhere apart from her own cot, in her own room!) but she’d catch 40 minutes or so when they took her out in the pushchair, and then we’d put her to bed a bit early if she seemed extra tired as a result. It was totally fine.

i had the same worries, my mum gets my Lo to sleep in the pram and my MiL gets her to sleep in the car. Even though she naps fine in the cot at home with me, that’s what works for them. I’m sure yours will find their own way too :)

I was in a similar situation when my parents started looking after DD 2 days a week at 8 months when I went back to work. Before then I hadn’t left her with anyone for an extended period; my mum had had her for a few hours every so often if I was getting my hair done or something but that was it. She had a good bond with my parents though as had seen them a couple of times a week since birth.

I was mega stressed about napping but it was fine, DD overall gets less sleep at my parents’ but they take her for a walk in the pram if she doesn’t sleep, and my mum has found her own ways to get her to sleep. They have a cot set up there but she often falls asleep on cushions on the floor or on the sofa (my mum gives her one of her bracelets to hold on to ) and they just cover her with a blanket, she would never do that at home!

Thank you for the additional replies 😊 I am feeling so much less stressed about it now!