Going out for meal during baby bed time

[sassyx]

We're going away next weekend & have booked a meal at 7:30. Baby who is 6m bedtime is between 7-7:30. He's in such a good routine im nervous to break it! However I do need to flexible on holidays & do get breaking routine every once in a while is okay, hell soon get back into it! I'm hoping he sleeps in pram during. Has anyone done this before & have any tips? He's a light sleeper so thinking of putting muffy baby ear protection headphones on to block out some noise 🤞🏽

I was never a stickler for routine myself, but if he always goes to bed at that time, this seems like a bit of a daft time to book a meal for.

If you booked for 6 or 6.30, it would push things back a bit, and he would go to bed later, but not unreasonably so, but this seems to be waiting until he is at his absolute tiredest, and then sitting down for a meal.

If I have interpreted it right that you are taking him out with you? Or do you mean you have booked someone to babysit ?
In which case, wouldn't you be more relaxed, waiting until 8?

If he’s a light sleeper, used to a routine and you’ve not tried putting him to bed in his pram before then this sounds like a recipe for trouble tbh - for you and all the other poor people trying to have dinner out. Got to be honest I think you should aim for an earlier sitting or later and get a babysitter.

@UsingChangeofName @minipie I should probably have added the fact we will be in Center parcs. Baby sitter isn't an option & there are two other couples with children going so unfortunately I'm not able to call the shots on times. And as for the other " poor people " luckily it's a family orientated place so they're will be more understanding if she was to get upset however I'm confident she won't. She's an extremely happy baby & even if she was awake she'll be absolutely fine, it was just me who would prefer her to be asleep so I can somewhat relax (if that's even poss these days!) Must say I'm pretty disappointed by your response. I was looking for support & advice. Didn't realise I had to go into so much detail!

We had a similar situation when baby was 7.5 months. At home routine is baby dinner, bath, sometimes a play after pajamas, breastfeed to sleep beginning generally around 6pm, baby asleep by 7/7:30.

I was worried it wouldn’t work as baby is usually fed to sleep so was a bit nervous but we knew if our plan didn’t work we’d just scoot back to our accomodation.

This is what we did: baby dinner, bath and big breast feed in the accomodation a bit earlier. I’d also been offering extra feeds in the late arvo so he was full. Baby dressed in his pajamas. We got to the restaurant (also family friendly) a touch early and popped him in his pram and my partner took him for a spin around the block until he was asleep.

It did help that it was hot where we were so we sat outside and it was a bit quieter. He was also pretty tired as had a fun afternoon swimming etc! Having the knowledge that it might not be successful and we’d just leave if it was upsetting helped too, no big expectations!

He woke when we transferred him back out the car at the accomodation but I just fed him back to sleep there.
It didn’t have any negative consequences for his routine!
Hope it goes well!
Have fun!

If you've spent a lot of time in the pool, your baby will be very tired which will help.

What I would do is follow your usual routine, put them down in the pram and then go for a 20 mins walk before dinner to get them off to sleep

@Almondsandavocados @Batatahara Now this is the response I was hoping for 🤍 thanks both. made me start to feel like I was never allowed to leave the house after 7:30 😂 that’s sounds great! It’s a walk to the place so I’m hoping to do every part of the routine as normal, just put her in pram to sleep 🤞🏽 it goes well! If not that’s fine too. It's also due to be warm this weekend so the option of sitting outside may be good idea!

Ps I just noticed in my prev response i said she, I do mean he 😂😂 not awake yet!

Omg I mean HE! I keep referring to my eldest 😂

You honestly have nothing to worry about. What's the worse that can happen, baby wont settle and cries - ok, so you or your DH then just take the baby for a stroll in the pram for a bit and then come back once baby is either asleep or settled. Even swap over if you have to. Weve done this a couple of times when out and that 10 minute buggy push just seems to help massively with putting them to sleep.

My DS is now 11 months and I used to worry about breaking routine but as long as you go back to normal once home they soon understand and go back with their usual flow

In my experience keep your expectations low so you don't get too stressed out but also I have found these things tend to go much better than you think they will. Have a lovely holiday x

If he’s a good sleeper with good routine then definitely don’t worry about breaking it for one night!

id to the usual bedtime routine - milk, jamas, story, then instead of in to cot put him in the pram. Cover him with a snuzshade and walk him to dinner, he’ll likely fall asleep en route and stays asleep during dinner

worst case one of you has to rock him back off again

then I’d feel him when you get home again and pop him back in the cot