Wedding and small baby - advice from parents please!

[Gollumsprecious]

Hi All,

NCd for this so I don't out my usual username... Looking for some advice please! Hope this is the right board for it too...

We have been invited to a wedding where the couple has specified no children / babies when our first baby will be approx 5 months old. I think tat having no children there is completely fair and up to them - it's their day after all - I am just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for first time parents for what we might do...

I am assuming that I won't be able to go to the wedding as I am planning to BF, the wedding is not near to where we live and we have no family close to where we live or to the venue who we could leave the baby with...

I know I could express and ask the GPs to babysit (they would be delighted to I am sure) but I am not sure whether the baby will be just too little to leave for the time it will take us to drop him off, go to the wedding, pick him up etc...

What do you think?

I am happy not to go, I am happy for DH to go without me too as they are his friends predominantly anyway so I am just really wondering if there are any other recommendations / advice that anyone has that might be helpful before we RSVP...

Thanks all.

I think 5 months is fine to lead with the GP's as long as they've had some regular contact in the lead up.

Also I want to reach down the Internet and give you a huge hug for beingso damn rational about this.

Agree 5 months is fine to leave with GPs.

DD is 6 weeks old and we'll be leaving her with PILs overnight at the end of August for a wedding

just wanted to add another perspective. my ds was ebf and would not take a bottle. as I didn't want to ff that meant I couldn't leave him.

so you could plan to leave them and go to the wedding but you may change your mind depending on circumstances!

Five months is fine to leave with GP Op. It will probably be hard for you leaving the baby than it is for the baby. Go and enjoy yourself.

Hi, if you give your baby a bottle of expressed milk every couple of weeks they should take both breast and bottle. My health visitor advised this as I was going back to work early, just for a few hours and it worked fine with both my children. Have a good day x

I couldn't have as my bf babies didn't take a bottle. I think it is hard to know how you'll feel until nearer the time which isn't terribly helpful.

I tried and tried with every type of bottle under the sun, DD simply wouldn't take them so at 5 months leaving her for a full day would have been impossible. Hopefully your baby will be a bit less stubborn :)

Is it at a hotel? Is there anyway the GP could book a room too and you could treat it as a family weekend away? You could go to wedding and if still BFing nip upstairs every so often?

I have also had bf babies who wouldn't take a bottle. I have also found that 5 months can be on the cusp of when a baby knows who you are and notices if you have gone! We left DS1 for an hour at that age with GPs and he was inconsolable once he realised I had gone. Mummy is very important to a bf baby - source of food and comfort taken from sucking on a nipple.

Sorry that sounds so negative - it is of course not true of all babies. Just offering my experience to the pile!

8 years ago, when we only had our eldest, we attended a wedding that included an overnight stay. He was 7 months old - EBF but had started on solids - and his grandparents stayed at our house to look after him. I left a whole load of expressed milk, he was used to taking EM in a bottle and was absolutely fine.

However, by the time we went to bed that night my boobs were about to explode! I must have anticipated this as I remember drunkenly expressing milk with my electric pump. Without that I think I'd have been in agony! So, as your baby will be 5 months old and probably not even on solids you may find your boobs are pretty full by the evening too, even if you're not a mega-milk machine like me! So if you do decide to go to the wedding, my advice would be to take a pump to get that milk out and prevent painful engorgement!

Hugh's idea is good.

Hi All,

Thank you so much for all of your help and suggestions - I think we are going to see if GPs will come and stay at the hotel with us and look after DC - that's the current favourite plan anyway!

Thanks again all!