First Post - Taking 8 mth old to Hawaii for our wedding (long)

[luminosity]

Hi all,

My fiance and I are finally getting it together and are getting married in Oahu, Hawaii on July 15th this year.

My fiance is Canadian so all his relatives live in Canada and the US and all my fam lives in Aus...Hawaii was the half-way point where we could all meet in the middle. Hey, if a cornfield was the halfway point, we would've just had it there

We booked all our vendors for our initial wedding date of May 31st 2007 but found out we had a surprise resident in my womb so had to postpone the wedding and only lost a couple of grand (ONLY? well it could've been worse...)...so yeah, that's the little backstory...

Anyway, my daughter, Maya, will be almost 11 months by the time we hit Hawaii for wedding festivities and I have been worrying about how things are gonna pan out. See, there are a number of things that don't make for 'ideal' in regards to sharing the care of Maya with relatives so that we can get things done....

1) She is breastfeed and rejects bottles and sippy cups so far, even when they contain boob milk. She takes in SOME solids, but generally has maybe 6 tiny spoonfuls before she loses interest.

2) I have developed the habit of feeding her to sleep. I lay down beside her on the bed and she eventually drifts off while suckling at my boob like a happy little camper. I then transfer her to her cot but she'll wake anywhere from one to three hours later and need a top-up. Which will send her to sleep for another 1-3 hours.

3) When she wakes up again (between 11pm - midnight) she comes into bed and co-sleeps with us for the entire night, where she has easy access to breastmilk all night.

I know that 10 weeks (or whatever the countdown is to July 15th is) is a long time in a baby's development and she might take to a sippy cup etc before the wedding but I am just worried that no one will be able to take her for the night. My fiance has booked a hotel somewhere else on the island (not far away) for a 3 night mini-moon for just us two but, gawd, I don't know if we're gonna be able to get away for that long! Don't worry about her, I don't think I can be away from her for three nights!

Thing is, it'll be a new place for her, new timezone etc. Even if I manage to get her into a good sleeping routine here we all know babies are easily thrown off by change/new teeth/etc.

Also, I'm kinda nervous about her wanting boob right before I'm ready to walk down the aisle and am all zipped up in my dress lol! Or wanting to feed in the middle of the ceremony and throwing a tizzy.

Don't mind me, I haven't stressed about anything else in the wedding yet so I gotta stress about something lol!

/stresshead

[luminosity]

If anyone has had a similiar experience with their baby where they breastfed to sleep and the like and have managed to break the habit of feeding to sleep, I would love to hear what you did.

[KatieRabbit]

Hi
Just a suggestion- why don't you copy and paste this into the breastfeeding support thread? Many will be able to help you there and Barb the lactation consultant may have some great ideas. Or there is the solids, bottlefeeding and breastfeeding thread too.

[Snacks]

Hi Luminosity! Welcome to BB and congrats on the impending nuptials!!!
It sounds like you've got a whole lot to think about! I don't blame you for stressing out a little. I soooo KWYM about not knowing if you could be away from Maya for three nights... My Natalie is 15 months and I don't reckon I could leave her. But everyone is different, and hey, perhaps if it were my honeymoon we were talking about it'd be a different story
IRT the feeding overnight... We didn't co-sleep, but Natty was fed frequently through the night until she was about 7.5 months. We night-weaned (and this involved a fair bit of crying, which I know is something that lots of people wouldn't do). She has never taken a bottle or a dummy, so I didn't feel that we had any other option (except just to keep on the way we were going). I think at 8 months you'll be really lucky if you're able to train your DD to take a bottle... Personally, I'd ditch the bottle idea and go straight for the cup.
I know there are people around the forums who've gotten married after having their bubs... Hopefully they'll drop in here soon and let you know what they did IRT having a night off for the honeymoon.