I need some advice! Traditionally on Christmas Eve, my DH's extended family has a get together in the evening starting around 5 pm or so at his cousin's house which is one hour away from our house. I am REALLY stressing about how we are going to attend this party with our 14 mo DS, whose BT is around 7-7:30 and BT routine starts 45-60 min earlier. I would love to just skip it but DH only sees his extended family 1-2 times a year and I know he really wants to show off DS. So I'm thinking the absolute earliest we could leave would be around 7, which would get us home at 8, which would get DS asleep by 9. He won't sleep in, and I could possibly deal with a short night and the resulting OT if we would be at home the next day, but the next day is Christmas and we will be going to my parent's house then my in-law's house with DS probably taking car naps on the way (he just transitioned to one nap a couple of weeks ago but will probably have to do 2 CNs on Christmas). So what should we do???
I've considered leaving the Christmas Eve party around DS's BT and letting him fall asleep in the car on the way home, but what do we do when we get home? The few times he's fallen asleep outside his crib for naps, he's never successfully transitioned into the crib - he always wakes up and then he's up, even if it's only been a few minutes of sleep. So I don't think we'll be able to get him from the car to his crib without him waking up (what age can you do that, btw?) and then if he's not tired enough to fall asleep for the night, we are screwed. He is an independent sleeper and resettles independently - fortunately we've not had to help resettle him since he started STTN around 7 mos.
I really have no idea what to do and I am DREADING the holidays as a result! Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!
