Tips for moving with 12-month-old, please

amother

Azure

Mon, Jun 27 2016, 8:20 am

Any tips/advice appreciated!

My mother is able to help with the baby- baby is pretty comfortable with Savta, but I've never left her awake with any babysitter for more than half an hour before. Also, while she eats a decent amount of solids now and drinks water, she still nurses several times a day. I don't want to hurt my milk supply.

The move is to the other side of the same neighborhood and we're disassembling/reassembling all furniture ourselves, so hopefully it won't take longer than 4 hours from when the movers arrive till when they leave. Assuming 3-4 hours, that's 1-2 nursing sessions baby will be looking for plus a nap. She'll only really nap well in her crib, though if she's absolutely exhausted she might conk out for up to an hour in her stroller. It's supposed to be in the mid 90s the day of the move, so she ought to be indoors with air-conditioning or at least a fan. I can send dd off to my mother's house about 10 minutes away by bus (though bus comes only every 20-30 minutes) or keep her with us- which is better? Old apartment has only our air-conditioner that we're moving with us, new apartment has a built-in AC unit in one room (though it's the room the movers will be busiest with).

One last specific point- I have dd's toys divided more or less into two groups that I swap out every 2-3 weeks so she doesn't get too sick of them. I just remembered that I last swapped them right before Shavuos- better to swap them now so they're familiar when she sees them again at the new apartment, or only pull them out at the new apartment so they're new and exciting? She has a couple of "lovies" I don't swap out in addition, so those would be familiar regardless.

TIA!

Stars

Mon, Jun 27 2016, 8:25 am

You sound like a great mom.

Definitely send her for as long as you can, four hours sounds a bit short to me. Maybe you can leave the assembling part for the evening when she is asleep? It's literally impossible to move with a baby in your arms. Even if she's the type of child who could lay in the stroller, I doubt she can do that for hours on end. Plus with all the chaos of moving, she will most likely want to be held more than usual.

Good luck!