did Thanksgiving mess them up?

[darcytrue]

We had some family over for thanksgiving. It was a mistake I guess. DD didn't get a good nap in before everyone arrived, nor while they were here - nor afterwards. She had a rough night too, definitely not the same as usual.

I'm soooo dreading Christmas, since were expected to go to 3 different places this year on Cmas eve and Cmas day.

[StrongFeather]

Ha! we didn't have anybody over, or go anywhere. It was a blissful relaxing day, except Sam wouldn't nap!! I was all excited since he slept 10 hours the night before with minimal waking, and then we got an hour nap (10am), then he cat napped the rest of the day and didn't grace me with a long nap until 5pm!! I felt like a sleep nazi yesterday. The more I tried, the less he slept.

sigh

[The4OfUs]

Crashing from new posts.

We gave up the holiday travel circuit once we had kids. Their sleep was always a hard fought battle and weren't the kind of kids that just adapted to sleeping in new places or new timeslots well (which we learned the hard way), so tinkering with it was always a disaster. If there's any way to beg off any part of it, or get a hotel room so you have a place to retreat, I would.

[cristeen]

Yes, it did. He refused to take a nap while we were there, although he slept the entire drive up and entire drive back. While I was there the most he got was about 10 minutes in the Moby. Just too much to see.

Luckily he let me bring him in from the car without waking up, but then he was up every 90 minutes all night, and decided sleep was over at 7 this morning.

[mkksmom]

We lucked out, though we were at home, and I did not pass her to anyone. I wore her in various carriers for naps. She was fussy by the end of the night. DH's parents stayed until 10 and I put her to bed before that, maybe at 9:30. She woke after an hour and a half and was up and fussy until 12. I handed her off to dh and went to sleep. He ended up walking her around in the stroller to get her to sleep and I went down at 1:20 to go round them up. He put her in the cosleeper and she slept until 6 am straight. But that is not the first night she has been tough to get down. The good thing is that she often goes 6 hours after a late fussy night. But all in all, she was up for 1-1.5 hours and then napped. We stuck with the routine pretty much. I also mostly took her upstairs to nurse. I needed the break!

eta: I do think it threw us off the days before because she was extra fussy and I think it was because I was so stressed out. She had vaccines, I had a 2 hour glucose test and am still spotting, and I had to prepare for TG company, so I was stressed.

[KayleeZoo]

Nope. We went to my moms, and I am a nap nazi everywhere, not just at home So she went into the pack n play in a quiet room after being awake between 1-2 hours, just like at home. Brought her swaddling blanket and binky, and did the same routine we do here. She took 2 really good naps and one kinda crappy one. Went down at regular 7PM time last night.

I learned the hard way that screwing with my kids' sleep schedules during holidays (or any other times!) just isn't worth it. And it's not fair to them; you get them sleeping well (or as well as they can at this age, for example) and then you change stuff around and they are the ones that get sleep deprived- which I view as just as detrimental as not getting enough to eat, seriously, it's that big of a deal. As a parent, I'm not meeting their needs if I let them miss naps, or go to bed late because of holidays, etc. So we occasionally piss family members off, but my kids go to bed when it's time, period. End of story. And we're all happier because of it. Well-rested kids are wayyyy more fun to be around, for everyone but mostly because it's what's right for my kids.

[The4OfUs]

Originally Posted by KayleeZoo

As a parent, I'm not meeting their needs if I let them miss naps, or go to bed late because of holidays, etc. So we occasionally piss family members off, but my kids go to bed when it's time, period. End of story. And we're all happier because of it. Well-rested kids are wayyyy more fun to be around, for everyone but mostly because it's what's right for my kids.

I remember 2 Halloweens in a row getting the hairy eyeball because we kicked grandparents out at 7pm for bedtime. They weren't the ones who would have had to deal with the 3 days of crappy sleep and attitudes afterwards if we would have let them stay up late, though.

Some kids are flexible on sleep, some aren't. If you have one that isn't, I don't see anything wrong with making their sleep needs a priority.

[mama2mygirl]

Our baby slept poorly and we were home.

[2boyzmama]

we stayed home and had no visitors, literally ate dinner in our underwear So no issues here!

We'll see about Christmas, we are travelling out of state then...i'm more worried about my older two, particularly ian--he's very reactive not just to sleep disruptions, but big time reactive to food changes. my mom understands that and will help us keep him stable, but my inlaws either don't get it or don't care because they feed him crap and then comment about his behavior. duh people!

[darcytrue]

Originally Posted by mkksmom

We lucked out, though we were at home, and I did not pass her to anyone. I wore her in various carriers for naps.

I held DD in the hot sling and she slept there while we ate - but other than that just a few doze-offs and screaming kids or talking adults woke her.

Our family is all within 30-45 drives from us and all want to see the baby this year ofcourse. So it will be very hard to get out of going anywhere and I'd feel guilty not letting anyone see our new child.

[MichelleAnnette]

nope
i wear her all day so it wasn't that different having visitors. both my babies have napped anywhere. i love it because i would not want to plan my day around the baby's nap schedule!

[coldandsleepy]

My in-laws visited Wednesday through Saturday... they didn't stay with us but visited with us for six or seven hours each day. We did a lot of exciting things... went out to eat (twice!), had a big Thanksgiving shindig at my house, visited a set of Japanese gardens, walked on the beach, etc, etc.

I was really worried about this overstimulating the baby but seriously... during their visit, he behaved like a dream baby. He took long naps, he went to bed when we wanted to go to bed (including once at 8 p.m.!), he was 100% sweet and cheerful when he was awake, and he didn't have fussy time at night.

Just showing off for the grandparents, though... today he's making up for it with the most epic fussy time we've had in at least a week! (He had a great day up until fussy time, though.)

Guess who's looking forward to going to visit the in-laws for Christmas even more than usual after this experience?

I'm guessing he was fine with the visit because it honestly wasn't that different than our normal routine. He got passed around to a few more people, but other than that... he goes out of the house with me more or less every day and I wore him almost as frequently as I normally do, so no change there.

[darcytrue]

Originally Posted by MichelleAnnette

nope
i wear her all day so it wasn't that different having visitors. both my babies have napped anywhere. i love it because i would not want to plan my day around the baby's nap schedule!

we definitely don't plan our days around the baby's napping either. I homeschool and work from home so there's no way that could be done. DD sleeps either on me in the sling or in bed for cat naps throughout most of the days. But I still noticed a difference on Thanksgiving because of all the kids in the family and all the talking, it was much, much louder than usual in our house. And DD was super happy while we had the company, that wasn't a problem....she just wouldn't nap all day and had a rough time that night. She was super sweet though! And she's used to being held by different people since DH and I and our son all hold her throughout each day. I guess she just knew something was different. Babies are very smart.

Originally Posted by coldandsleepy

My in-laws visited Wednesday through Saturday... they didn't stay with us but visited with us for six or seven hours each day. We did a lot of exciting things... went out to eat (twice!), had a big Thanksgiving shindig at my house, visited a set of Japanes gardens, walked on the beach, etc, etc.

my DD probably would have done better if we went out too. She does best when out and about. In fact, on Black Friday we went to the mall and walked around just to get out of the house and she slept for 2 hours straight while walking around the noisy mall. Weird.