Help please, how to cope newborn outings

I know you are bottle feeding, so hopefully what I say will have some relevance as I am exclusively breastfeeding. I would always make sure that Lucian had a full feed before going out when he was a newborn (I still do this now), and normally do things between 9am to 2pm in the day. This normally gave me a 2 to 3 hour timeframe to do things before he was due for a nappy change and feed. I would also make sure I knew if there were any parents rooms to change and feed Lucian as well.

You should be fine, just make sure that the buggy is covered, so it retains warmth. I have a MB Urban Elite, and use the suncover on top first, then the rain cover on top, and zip it up so Lucian doesn't get cold from any wind blowing into the buggy.

Hi - I had bubs out and about straight away and we only had probably 2 days at home full stop without venturing out at all! Our day was something like this

Breakfast bottle
Sleep
Lunch bottle
In the car off we go - mum needs coffee!!! and has   chores
Afternoon bottle
Sleep
Dinner bottle
Sleep
Supper bottle

Some days we even went out for a walk later on if the afternoon sleep turned to custard and off she would go to sleep.

I found it quite easy to duck out and was pretty lucky I didn't need to take a nappy bag really at all - we fortunately never had a poo while out! I used to find she would sleep quite contently for me while out and about - now at 8 months she wants to know what is going on all the time - no chance mum gets a quite coffee now - but it is so much fun watching her watching everything.

Probably to start with 2 hours would be fine. You might get some tips from thesleepstore.co.nz - I found this a great site.

Good luck.

I am so with you on this one- Im terrified to go out too. Locky is a super into everything kinda baby- so he wont shut his eyes if there is anything to see- then gets reeeeally over tired and impossible.

KitKat where are you? if your in weely maybe we can be brave together and meet up? :)

Thx Hannibal! xx

I have been dragging Cody around with me since he was 2 wks old. Normally an outing for us is just into town to do a few things and go to the supermarket. I would just feed him and change his nappy before I go and he normally falls asleep in his carseat. When he was younger he often stayed asleep in his capsule and now that he is bigger and we are using the pushchair he will often fall alseep in that as well. He also loves to look around at everything. When I was up in Auckland everytime I went shopping he would just sleep in his pushchair for the whole time.

I don't use a routine during the day and just watch for the tired signs and basically leave it up to him to decide when he wants to sleep. Seems to work well. I bascially just try and go with the flow.

the more you do it the more confident you become - i found at that age - a walk in the pram around 4ish was well needed - he generally slept in the pram - good luck

Yeah I also think the earlier the better, it can be hard at first but the more you do it the more confident you get. Going for a walk in the buggy sounds like a good idea as generally they will fall asleep in there and if she does start crying you can just turn around and head back home.

I find going to the supermarket is good as well as they seem to like sitting in the trolley, they can have a look around and then normally fall asleep once they are tired, they can wake up at the checkout though but normally some rocking of the trolley sorts that out.

You can buy some good travel sleeping bags for buggies or get a snow suit, babyfactory had some on sale. If your bottle feeding just make sure you always have a bottle with you because when all else fails a feed will normally calm them down.

I'm also a big believer of not having a routine, if you don't have one you can't get stressed about it not working but then I'm not a very organised person by nature and prefer to just watch for tired/ hungry signs but if you are a highly organised person then having a routine may work better for you.

It so depends on your baby. My friends baby could only cope with an hour being up and if you got her over tired, she was a total nightmare for the rest of the day, so for her it just wasn't worth going out much - however that does change and now at 8 months she is fine, in fact I think she got a lot better at even a couple of months old.

I used to feed him up before we went anywhere and tried to time going out with him sleeping, he normally went to sleep in his capsule and we could lug that around anywhere, it gets easier and easier honestly.

Try short trips so if it all turns to custard you can head back home again.

I made a point of leaving the house as soon as we was home from the hospital and we haven't stopped really! Also a fan of no routine (during the day anyway), as shes always in bed for the night by 7.30. I just told myself that everything would be fine and on the odd occasion she does spit the dummy I just deal with whatever the problem is then - I tend not to worry about what 'might' happen. If you're apprehensive and anxious chances are bubs will be too.

DD didn't like the carseat too much at the beginning but she loves it now, she now knows we're going on an adventure!
I'd highly recommend getting a frontpack/wrap of some sort, they are brilliant and babe feels alot more secure

Enjoy! You'll soon become super confident and enjoy taking your babe out... And babe will become use to being out and about with lots of people