Disrupting your baby's night / sleep routine for something

I wrote about not wanting to disrupt my baby's sleep routine in another thread and I got many responses that sometimes you have to.

I wanted to know if maybe I am the weird one here. do you take your baby places at night and then their sleep is disturbed? or do you take baby with and put them down in a cot wherever you are and then take them out again when YOU are ready to go home?

why should we do this to our children?

Up until recently, my son didnt have a set schedule. As it is he woke up a lot of times a night and needed to be put back to sleep, but if it was early enough on, like 9 pm, he would gladly be up when he woke up, and the sleep he had was more like a late late nap. So when he was still doing that, I would take him out, because it meant a later night, but wouldnt affect him. (He'd just sleep more the next day.)

Now depending on what it is, I either take my son or leave him with my husband. If its something my husband is also attending, I tend to take my son, and he often sleeps in his stroller on the way there, and doesnt get disturbed from moving him back from the stroller to the crib when we get home.

But if my husband is going to be home, I leave my son home because I dont want to disturb his sleep too much... because in the offchance that he DOESNT sleep in his stroller, he is a miserable kvetch and impossible the next day, so I avoid that if possible.
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Posted: Wed, Mar 18 2009, 8:34 am Post subject:

I don't go out often enough for it to be a whole issue.

When we went to our local Purim party, I made sure he napped later than usual so he'd stay up past his bedtime...
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as babies my kids didn't have schedules so with my first I used to take him out when it was convenient for me and I didn't mind if he went to bed a little later. but now my older one has to go to bed at 7.30 or 8.00 every night or else he is impossible. so it just works out that I stay home because of him or get a babysitter for him so I'm trying to get my one year old on a bedtime schedule too.
I do believe schedules are good but sometimes I'm selfish and mess up the routine if it suits me!

my oldest had no sleep schedule so I could take her out with me in the evening. (maybe thats why she had no schedule!)

I dodn't think your child will be majorly harmed if they stay up an hour or two late, but it depends on the kid. my kids sleep late if they go to bed late, some kids don't. you need to be flexible. for example I know parents who will never bring their kids to evening things because it means they will miss their 7 pm bedtime (I am talking about older kids). these kids miss out on a lot.

I am a strong beleiver in schedules, but there are times to break them.

Posted: Wed, Mar 18 2009, 9:07 am Post subject:

We're kind of flexible. DS#1 goes to bed sometime between 7:30/8:30 most nights...depends on how active his day is and whether he napped in the afternoon (he does at daycare but not otherwise). OTOH, if I have a sitter he often won't go to bed before 9 (DH often relieves the sitter around 9/9:15). DS#2, on the other hand, does not sleep well in the stroller. So we don't go out often. Or I suck it up and live with it. There aren't a LOT of places he has to go with us, although BIL's wedding last year (when he was still going down at 4:30!) was definitely one of them.

Some of it is personality, but some of it is what you get them used to. DS#1 can (and does) sleep anywhere. DS#2 can't. DS#1 could sleep through me putting away laundry in his room; DS#2 (even though he's ALWAYS had noise in the house during the day when he sleeps) would be woken up by my opening the bedroom door.
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we are very strict on sleep routines.. we dont go anywhere after bedtime... we try not to miss naps etc.. my kids only sleep in their own cribs so it would be a disaster.. in the 18 months that they have been born we went away for 1 shabbos abt a yr ago... its not fair to them imo
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