Going out in the evening past baby's bedtime

[Anoldcardigan]

Please give me your advice!

My 7 month old goes to bed between 7/7:30pm. We have regular commitments coming up that we need to go to once a week. We need to be there for 7pm and we wont be home until around 9:15pm. Im very anxious about it as his sleep has recently improved hugely and I'm worried it will muck it up. 😬 Our baby wont be able to sleep there. So we're wondering if giving him slightly longer naps in the day and a nap for an hour just before we arrive would help? Then go home and try and get him to bed as soon as possible? Does this sound like the best thing to do?

We've been avoiding evening plans since he hit around 2 months as he was no longer able to just sleep anywhere. So I need help from anyone willing so I can figure out what's best so he gets his rest and hopefully we dont disrupt things too much. 😬 Thank you!

Get a babysitter

Babysitter
one of you goes
dial in

Not an option I'm afraid!

It's there any circumstance where he'll sleep there? In a sling, pram etc? If not just brace for a rough time the next day and make sure you've not much planned.

Yep.

Anything else will be disruptive

But if out of the question financially yes experiment with longer naps

No, he won't sleep in the pram there. Too much going on. That's why we thought about giving him a nap beforehand and keeping him awake until we got home.

Oh dear, sounds like it's not going to work very well is it 😩 this is what I was dreading.

No this won’t work.

Is it something like couples counselling? Can you do it online?

Why do you both need to be there? What is the event?

Have you tried him sleeping in a buggy at that hour? Mine are crap sleepers and stop napping early but generally don’t have difficulty either 1) staying up a min extra hour or two (though often this is scenarios like a family party, where they are loved and held, and fed snacks) or 2) being put down in the buggy in a quieter corner with bedtime comforts (sleep sack or blanket, milk, white noise). Can you trial it before the event? To see how they/you cope? Or shift bedtime to later?

Why don’t you get a babysitter? Really this is what people do!

This is going to be really tricky. Can you not get a babysitter

Why cant you get a babysitter?

I’d take baby on a walk starting at bedtime so he’s asleep in the stroller or baby carrier for the appointment

It'll completely bugger everything up, he'll be over tired and cranky, and will like not sleep well that night at all, rolling in to the following days. It's nearly impossible to mess with routines at that age.

Can you not pop him in his bedtime things- using a snoozeshade, and maybe some white noise.... We did it lots at that age- can't see out of the pushchair as it's dark like their bedroom.... And we would walk her for 10 minutes to get her to sleep in it. Or you could use a travel cot- can get blackout covers for them too ..

I've never held any of mine to a strict routine and they sleep fine. You can't revolve your life around a babies sleep schedule, sometimes you want or have to be out past 7pm.

It will be fine, take him in the pram. If he’s very tired he will go off - if not, it’s really not the end of the world

I’d worry that you’d have an overtired and very noisy / clingy baby disrupting whatever it is.

If you really must do this, I’d wheel him around outside until he’s asleep in the buggy at a little after bedtime, then park him up back inside.

You might be lucky and he stays asleep until you get back and can transfer him into bed. Or he might treat that as a nap and be up till 1am.

In short, I’d do whatever you can to avoid this.

This, he will be fine

Try. We can't tell you how your son will manage. It's impossible.

I would get a babysitter or one of us would stay home.