Need a plan for carseat sleeping....PLEASE!!!

[mommycarrie]

I hope this is a good place for this post.

DH and I tried to go out for supper tonight at 5:30.  Rylan was good for all of maybe 10 minutes b4 making a stink in the restaurant.  DH went to the lobby with him so we wouldn't disturb anyone else's meal.  No sooner than we got our food, he got really grumpy.  It was about 6 and we had to get our meal "to go".

I had just started pu/pd earlier this week with success.  I am also using the 3 to 4 hour routine switch in the book.  So for the past couple of days he is going to bed earlier than usual (no fights).  He is so used to going to bed in his crib for the past 7 weeks (we were visiting family for a month before) that he won't sleep in his carseat anymore.

DH and I are doomed to ever eat at a restaurant for a while unless Rylan can learn to sleep in his carseat again.  I was thinking of trying to pick a naptime at home and get him to sleep there for that nap time.I already know it's going to be a battle but does anyone out there think that pu/pd is a good way to do it?

I love Tracey's way of doing things but I feel as if she forgot one important piece of the puzzle.......a parent's social life.  I know we give up a lot to be parents but eating out shouldn't be one of them.  I kind of wish that she would have touched on the topic of teaching your child to sleep anywhere.  I know you need to keep things low-key and quiet before going to bed for the night and a restaurant sure isn't either of those things.  I wish she was around to ask :cry:

WHAT'S A MOM TO DO?

Carrie

[Hunter & Sithia's mom]

Don't have any answers for you, just the knowledge that you are not alone here.  After Hunter turned 4 months or so, he refused to sleep in his carseat unless he was super tired.  Once the car stops he wakes up, even now.

Good luck, I like the idea of PU/PD in the carseat, don't see why it wouldn't work.

Beth

[albertasweetpea]

Awwww Carrie, that sounds so frustrating!!
I also don't have any solution to your question as we haven't tried taking Molly out for dinner yet!   :oops:   We did take her for breakfast one time and that worked out fine...LOL.
Could you try a bit earlier dinner time?
Hopefully as your LO gets older he will be able to stay up a little later and will just sit and happily play or watch people while you enjoy a dinner out.
Just remembering that I did have Molly out around dinner time for my brother's wedding about a month ago. DF was out of town so it was just me and Molly but I remember walking her around with a blanket over her head to get her to relax without all the stimulation. Once she was relaxed and half asleep, I put her in her carseat (on her stroller) and just put the blanket over top so she could not see out. She fell straight asleep! I know those strollers take up tons of room though and you might not be able to bring them into the restaurant, but you could try it just with the carseat??
Good luck...now that I think of it, I miss our dinners out!!
 

[Katet]

We don't have a removable carseat, so it has never been an option for us & while we don't actually go out much, when we do/have we have always put our boys in the pram as they can be rocked to sleep. I take my 2 boys for a walk nearly every day & my #2 (3mo) always has a nap in the pram, so he is used to it. It might seem like rocking them to sleep in the pram is starting a bad habit, but I have found as long as you don't do it every sleep (even once a day is fine) then it doesn't become a prop or a sleep issue.
Sure if he slept in the car seat, you wouldn't have to get him in & out all the time, but they grow out of the car seats long before they do the pram  being able to sleep in the pram is skill I stil utilise with my 2yo, if we have a day out.

[Deb_in_oz]

i agree with Kate to try the pram so that you can completely cover it to minimize stimulation and then you can rock/use motion to keep bub asleep.

we don't ever go out to dinner with the kids.  i did it a few times when alex was very young bbut once we got on a routine with her, bath/bedtime was sacred and apart from a few dinners at friends' houses, we stick to lunchtime instead so that it is just a nap, rather than interfering with the nighttime sleep. this way - you get to eat out and baby only nheeds to be kept asleep for a short period of time (and if it goes badly there is a later nap to make up the sleep without making overnight difficult)

[Jaime]

i think it depends on the type of the baby.  #1 was textbook, so she never minded sleeping the carseat during dinner.  as she got older, she needed to sleep less during that time, she could sit in a highchair & could be amused during dinner.  furthermore, her bedtime has been around 8pm for as long as i can remember, which helped

#2 is a whole different ball game.  since he's touchy, we haven't been able to go out nearly as much.  he never liked sleeping in the carseat either, and you can't really force them.  for a while we just didn't go out much.  we can now go maybe once a week to a place where you get your food pretty quickly, and every so often to someplace nicer.  he's old enough to stay awake, but doesn't want to sit in the highchair yet.  :roll:

you may want to rethink what you consider a "social life" (wow, that sounded harsh!)  what i mean is, if you really want the food, maybe you can get it as take out & eat it at home - while your lo gets the catnap.  then, to get out, maybe take the stroller & go to the mall or whatever to walk around.  while he hates highchairs, ds really seems to like the stroller!

HTH

[Mommy Moo]

It may be helpful if you call ahead to the restaurant and order your meal before you get there so it's ready when you arrive.  The quicker you can manage the meal the less agitated your LO may become.  We always took our two kids out to restaurants. Most of the time they did surprise me, but of course there are a few times when my DH had to go to the lobby with one of them. :wink:

Anyway, I think the stroller idea is great. FWIW, my 14 month old has never fallen asleep in the stroller and barely ever in the carseat.    Just remember, it will get better as your child gets older.   HTH.

[mommycarrie]

Thanks for your replies ladies!

We don't go out very often at all actually so I could even just be frazzled over nothing.  I would get cranky too if I was put in the middle of a noisy place and told to go to sleep.  I guess he will get older soon and want to look around more.  So I guess that leaves DH and I to wait a few more months.  Like you said Katet, he will not be in the carseat for very long, so it might not even be worth it to try and get him to sleep that way.

I think pram means the same thing as a stroller but not sure, and they are kind of a nusense to drag around.  A lot of restaurants here have the tables so close together that a person sometimes has to squeeze by...(that should be a fire hazzard hey??? :wink:  ) nevermind having a stroller in the way for people to bump and kick.

I guess by 'social life' what I meant was the ability to be amoungst adults.  I wouldn't think of taking DS to the movies or anything like that...that's not very respectful of his needs I think....(refering to my situation).  DS is a textbook baby so I shouldn't have too much trouble training him to go to bed later once he is in a regular wake/sleep pattern.

Carrie

[Deb_in_oz]

pram = stroller

when we do take it to a restaurant here we usually go to cafes for lunch so we sit outside and get a table with some room to move the stroller back and forth.  also if in a restaurant we have just made sure to get a corner table or whatever table in the place has the most room around it.

when dd1 was 1 month old we went with friends and family to a very expensive (linens and silver) seaside restaurant for dh's birthday and they even screwed up our reservation and had a table for 2 less people.  we were a party of 8 adults and 2 prams (4 weeker + 4 mo nephew) and we managed to have both prams around the edges of the table -  :oops:  :lol:  it was fine.  not something i have ever done again but it was my first baby and i did it for Dh.

[caljaccol]

Hi!  Nice to see someone form my neck of the woods.

We have eaten at many restaurants in your city and most everyone we have been to we have pushed a stroller into.  A lot are very quick to accomodate you. 

Another idea is to get toys for the carseat.  We had a mirror that dd loved to stare at when she was still a young age.

I found that it was easier to plan around nap time.  Sure it meant that we might have to go out at 2 in the afternoon, but the restaruants are generally quieter then so baby tended to sleep better and if baby did start to fuss it wasn't bothering as many customers.

[sandraorion]

We've been eating out once or twice a week pretty much since Adrian was born. Here are some tips:

- choose a place with lots of room and fast service, avoid "all grown up places"
- before your lo is able to sit in a high chair, go for places in mall that will let you keep him in the stoller
- choose your time wisely - during the day, when there is less people. Either line it up with a nap, or when he is hungry. I used to give him a bottle while we were waiting for our food. Then when our food arrived, he would hopefully be content for a bit to look around. If not, we would take turns eating and holding Adrian.
- bring his favorite toys, or have restourant special toys that your lo will be allowed to have only while out
- if you want to enjoy the meal and get a break from the baby - have a carry out
- avoid boots, go for tables
- avoid restourants with tablecloths

In my experience, things were easy until 6 months or so. Then we had an unhappy period until 10 months or so. In that period he was too big for the car seat and couldn't quite sit in a high chair. Then he could (boy, was he proud when he got his seat at the table) but was about to grab everything that is there to grab, then he become mobile and wouldn't bother sitting still for more than 10 minutes.

At about 10 months, he actually started sitting though the whole trip in a high-chair. Sure, we had our share of lobby time, but he can do hour and half trips now and will eat from real plates most of the time, and I can actually start to participate in conversations.

Our biggest challenge was a birthday party for some of our friends, about month ago, in a fancy Italian restaurant (table cloths, glassware etc). The whole thing lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes and the dinner ran right into his bed time. He did pretty good given the circumstances. I did end up with some Alfredo sauce on my shoulder, but that's to be expected.

[dkjokisch]

We've only eaten out with dd 10-12 times (but then again we never went out much before), but we've never expected her to sleep.  We actually try to aim for her awake time.  We hold her and play with her while ordering and waiting for our food, then put her back in the carseat/stroller while we eat.  She does pretty well.