Putting toddler to bed at friend's house,then rousting him out of bed to go home?

[Phoebe]

Have you done this? I mean, it seems common enough but I don't think it'd sit well with ds.
I am going back home for 2 weeks with my 15 month old ds in tow. We are going to spend 2 nights with my best friend (who doesn't have kids but seems to "know" alot about how they should be handled because she was an (inadiquite) day care provider). One of our girl friends told her that we could go to her house, and when the kids went to sleep we could hang out by her pool and drink some wine and then I could grab my son and take him back to my other friend's house to sleep. I have NEVER done this musical bed thing and I'm inclined not to try it. We cosleep, ds is not nightweaned, looks for me off an on during the early evening and has never CIO so he is NOT an independent sleeper that I just "put down" and he's not heard from til morning. My friend with the pool has a dd the same age as my ds and her nighttime parenting tactics are a stark opposite of mine and my husbands. It seems unreasonalbe for me to wake my boy up but I am also a little embarrassed that I KNOW that my girlfriends, and my mother, think I am totally caged and controlled by my son...which I am...but it never causes a problem until I have to mingle my life with other mainstreamers.

Would you risk your toddler being pissed at being woken up?
or
Would you just so nope, that won't work for us?

Sorry for the ramble...

amy

[jstar]

i just did this 2 nights on vacation. put my ds to sleep at our friends house and then roused him a couple of hours later to go home to my parents house. it wasn't too traumatic. he cried the first night on the drive. the 2nd night just went right back to sleep in the car. both nights i couldn't get him down in the pack and play once we got home. he just nursed down in the bed between dh and i. he is never an all-night sleeper

i don't think its a big deal. my other friend was with me the first night. her ds goes to sleep at 7pm and sleeps til 5:30am like clockwork. he was surprised at being woken up but didn't cry. and he was harder to settle down once we got home. but he did. (they were staying at my parents house too)

it was fun though. we did bathtime with my friend's kid and put on the jammies. and then of course my ds wouldn't go to sleep for a while because it was all so new

take the jammies and have fun! kids are flexible if you're flexible :)

[jdlobe]

My daughter is a bit younger than your child, but we have done this when visiting family in different cities. (ie: staying with parents, but visiting siblings). It worked better than I anticipated. I nursed her to sleep on the floor of a bedroom on top of some blankets and just kept a really close ear on the room. The minute I heard a squeak I was there (and often when I didn't) just to make sure that if she woke up she would see me before she would be scared by a strange environment. As for the transition home -- she never woke up. Straight to car seat, and then into my parents house with not a squeak.

You have to feel comfortable with your decision. Don't do it because you'll feel silly because of their opinion - but if you really want that evening with your friends to visit go for it. I always just told myself - if it isn't working, we'll just leave early!

[Phoebe]

Yall are both right. Flexibility is key. I am, can you guess, not very flexible!! I struggle when it comes to deviation from my normal routine. I do need a night with girl friends...by a pool with some wine! I'm gonna give it a try and just at the pp said, if it ain't working we'll leave or ds can join the party!
amy