This is a question for my readers who have napping kids and attend church.
I miss church. Craig and I have really been missing church since Madeline was born. We both want to go. I really want to start volunteering again. But Madeline is strictly breastfed and doesn't really have a schedule. No two days are the same for her, but I can count on a morning nap - right smack in the middle of church.
Madeline usually isn't a car seat sleeper and if she does fall asleep in the car, I can almost always guarantee that she will wake up when I come inside, thus ruining any nap she would have had. She really sleeps best in her crib, which is good and bad.
So, how do YOU do it with your napping infants? Do you miss church? Go to the evening service? Skip Sunday School? Go alone and leave a spouse with the baby?
My volunteering is a commitment. I attend the first service, go to rehearsal for the hour in-between services, then sing at 11. I get let out anywhere between 11:25-noon. I'm not leery of Madeline going to the nursery, in fact, I want her to interact with other babies. But she is so unpredictable right now. I'm trying to get her on a schedule, but you can't force things on a baby.
It's your turn. How do YOU do it?
9 comments:
We miss church. Our church has 2 services, though, and a ROCKIN' nursing room (it's A-MAZING) so before Dave started volunteering for the IMAG team (big cameras) we used to attend whichever one "fit" the best and I would nurse whoever-it-was at the time in the nursing room. Since David is doing camera now, I just have to miss. He has to be there from 7:00-12:30 and Korbs naps in the middle now. I may start trying to go to the early service with the boys but doing all that by myself and the drop-off and pick-up is a lot of work.
Ever since Elsie was 10 weeks, I guess, we started putting her in the nursery at church, so we go every week and haven't had to miss. Our church has Sunday school from 9:30 to 10:30 and the only service is from 10:45 to 12:15. So, normally, I feed her at home at 8:30 (because she's good to go for about two hours), then between SS and church I go back to the nursery and feed her again. And then when church is over I have about 15 minutes to talk/chat/make it home before she's hungry again. Our infant nursery is small--4 babies--so Elsie takes a nap during church most of the time, and is good to go when I pick her up. I am also at an advantage because Elsie can eat to full in 10 minutes or less (usually less).
Every baby, every situation is obviously different, but I hope this was helpful, at least a little bit. :)
I have nothing helpful to say, but it's ironic Anthony and I were just discussing this same topic yesterday. I'll be stalking your blog for tips...
Hey, Jen, Nancy Luzoro. I also exclusively breastfed from 5 to 6 months with each of my boys. My suggestion is to just stay home and know this won't last forever and it won't happen again, not in the same way. You are young and will have plenty of time to get back into the routine. This is your job now. The other suggestion is to go alone. Nothing wrong with that. Craig will feel rewarded that you would consider this option.
Take care. Think of yall often.
I know this may be more difficult, but have you thought about expressing enough to cover the church service? I only nursed Connor for 5 months, but that's what I did. I would have enough for him to last then just sacrifice his morning nap on Sunday. I know another mom who would get there early, nurse, then put her baby down before she left, but our nursery has a separate room for babies to sleep. I also found our church's cry room helpful (if yours doesn't have one, maybe you could ask them to set up a speaker in the back for you?).
I do pump...Madeline doesn't take the bottle too well, but she will take it. I should visit our nursery to see the lay of the land. I can also nurse her in-between the service and my performance...but practice is sometimes unpredictable. She is a pill to get down for naps now. It's probably my fault because I know the breast will always calm her down. So, she usually falls asleep nursing (I do put her down awake but it's rare that she likes it). I think I've created a high-maintenance baby. Madeline is definitely NOT low-maintenance. :-) I wouldn't change her a bit, but it does make things more difficult.
First of all- I try to limit my commitments during that first year. My sons come first and they are only this age once, and if it means I have to wait to go back to teaching kids, playing in the orchestra, AWANAS, etc....that's what I do. I stressed myself out BIG time when Ben was 3 months old with church commitments- Mark was deployed, too- and I learned how to say 'no.' But I still went to church regularly and through the week. You aren't letting anyone down if you put you daughter first for a little while. And you aren't a failure if you can't volunteer as much- that's what I felt like. I also had to give up stuff when Josh was born because it's a LOT different with 2 kids. It took longer to get back into all of the activities I'd been in before.
Every baby, and every FAMILY, has different needs, but here's what worked for us!
For the nap thing, we just dealt with it. I would keep him in a pouch with me, nurse when needed, paced the halls when needed, used the 'nursing' room, etc. Josh would often sleep in the pouch. I had no Sunday morning commitments (other than my attendance) because he was unpredictable. He was 9-10 months old before I was putting him in the nursery on a regular basis.
Ben LOVED the nursery. I would nurse him in between worship and small group. Sometimes he napped, usually he didn't. Because he transitioned to the nursery so much sooner (3-4 months,) I went back to my commitments sooner.
Since most days of the week it wasn't a problem getting them down for the morning nap, we just decided to treat Sunday a little differently. They'd go right down when we would get home, and then maybe they'd go to bed a little sooner. When Josh was little, he learned to sleep anywhere because I'm not the sort of person that can stay home every single day. He took a lot of naps in the stroller or on my back (or front) while I was out with Ben or friends (whether the zoo...a park...a friend's house...) I think that just came naturally for him as the second born. Ben was more like Madeline in that he rarely slept anywhere outside of his bed.
Sorry this is so long, but I seriously, could not not go to church....it was hard enough for us to stay home for a few weeks when they were first born!!!
I actaully headed back to church with miss michaela at 2 weeks.. I wore her in my sling the whole time.. but i would just feed her right before we left for church and then in between the service and small gorup i would feed here again and if needed nurse before i left the church.. napping.. sundays are jsut rough and my kiddos go down for a nap about 2.. i also taught my kiddos to transfer form the carset to the crib so if you can get her to do that.. then it'll work out
Jen you got a ton of great advice here!
I'll ditto a couple of the answers, including limiting commitments for a little while and to not be afraid to just stay home and enjoy her {I TRULY believe that is one of the most amazing ways to worship: just enjoying spending some time with your kids!}.
Here's a quick recap of what happened with us: when Noah arrived, we were attending Saddleback which was nearly an hour away with little traffic. Needless to say, after Noah arrived, we mostly attended church by watching the sermon live online. And, despite the fact that they had an amazing nursery set up, when we would go to campus, we kept him with us for the breastfeeding reasons {he too hated bottles and down right refused them around 5months}. He didn't go to the nursery until we moved to Texas - around 10 months. I regret that. He still {at 25 months!} has problems going to the nursery at church. When we go now, I still strap Ellie on in the Moby, but as soon as she becomes even a little mobile, I'll be putting her in the nursery too.
She naps at 9 and 1ish, and sometimes a quick one around 5. We typically attend the 9 service so she generally sleeps through the singing portion and sometimes I end up listening to the sermon in the nursing mother's room.
It's tough. Because you want to go, but at the same time, you don't want to just leave the hubby sitting there by himself for the majority of the service... just know you are not alone with this!
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