About morning baby groups (light-hearted).

[KitKat1985]

So I am trying to get out of the house more with DD (nearly 4 months). I'm trying to do some more baby groups and really struggling. Why oh why oh why do so many of them start at 9 or 10am? Good lord if DD is up several times in the night and is having a grumpy morning it can be nearly lunchtime before I even manage to get dressed. On the occasions I do make it (late obviously, with still wet hair) the room seemed filled with well dressed women (with hair that they have even managed to style before going out), calmly sitting and drinking a fruit tea whilst their babies lie next to them in perfectly co-ordinated outfits. How are they managing it?!? Why can't I manage it? AIBU in wanting the groups to start late-morning at the earliest, or do I, as I strongly suspect, need to just sort my damn morning routine out?

[MegMogandOwlToo]

For people with older children, an earlier group such as 9am is ideal - they drop the kids off at school and then go there with the baby.

I agree though, it's tough to get out the door with the baby in the mornings!

[HedgehogsDontBite]

YANBU

The only group I take DS to starts at 2.30. We're normally ready by then.

[TinyTear]

I used to manage my 10am breastfeeding group, but I used to get up early to shower while DH was still at home, and then took it easy for a bit...

[WilsonWilsonWoman]

Style your hair the night before so no need to wash in the morning and try and get as much stuff ready the night before too so you are just needing to dress and eat before you leave the house? Leave any housework for when you get back? My dd is 7 now but am expecting another in May so can't remember exactly how I managed early starts, but think that might help a bit?

[kinkyfuckery]

You'll probably find that most of the parents that attend morning toddler/baby groups have older children that they have to be ready to take them to nursery/school. That was certainly the case with the morning group I ran a few years back.
Or they may just get up early to make husband's lunch! have an early rising household.

[eurochick]

I agree. The scream session at the local cinema was always in the morning. I kept meaning to go but today is the last day of maternity leave and I never managed it!

[redexpat]

Even if they started at 11 it would seem like a big rush to get there! Also i imagine that lots of the babies would be asleep. Os this one your first? If they have older dc already then they simply HAvVE to be up and dressed to get the others to school on time. I still have no idea how they manage to look so perfect though!

It will get easier. Getting everything ready the night before also helps greatly: changing bag refilled, clothes laid out etc

[workingtitle]

I used to think this (and believe me, it's not your morning routine - it's bloody difficult getting out the house with a small baby!) - but now that DS has dropped his morning nap I am forever thankful for having somewhere to go in the morning, rather than having seemingly endless hours stretching ahead of me

[PrimalLass]

Yup, my HV told me it's because it works around older children. Plus most babies move to a long afternoon nap eventually.

[VeryPunny]

YANBU!

There is a sweet spot around 10:47am when DS may not be starving, shouting or asleep and I may be up and dressed. No chance attending groups that don't span that time!

[MrsMaker83]

Perhaps they have kids at school and have no choice but to get out early?

At first i never booked onto morning sessions, only went to them after 12pm!

I figured out pretty fast that i needed a better morning routine to enable me to get out more. I got up, showered and dressed (sometimes even a little makeup and hair!) before my dp left for work. He would do the first morning feed (anything between 6&7am) while i got ready then i would take over when he needed to get ready.

I also would do as much as possible the night before, make sure changing bag was stocked up, put pram in the car, prep bottles, get clothes out for us both etc.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Think of it as good practice. when you have two or go back to work it won't be such a sick to be up and out the house.

It's good for people who don't get out much. less time to dwell on the worry of getting out and potentially not going.

[Sneakyweasel]

YANBU! It does get easier I promise. I have an 8 month old and we are only just managing to get into a good morning routine but I still turn up looking like death warned up with my hair scraped back while other mums look immaculate...I've always been pretty scruffy though!!

[trilbydoll]

DH brings me a bowl of cereal after he has ironed his shirt. Once I have eaten this, the prospect of getting up doesn't seem so daunting!

I have never styled my hair though so I can't help there. I go to work with wet hair, never mind baby groups!

[sebsmummy1]

Totally agree. I had the baby who fussed and cried, everyone else seemed to have babies who slept beautifully during coffee mornings or lunches out.

I was permanently stressed and didn't enjoy it at all. I was either fighting to get out the door to various groups or having to wake my son up when it was a midday/afternoon session. I really think these groups are for parents, not babies, and unfortunately if you get a group of Yummy Mummys it's very easy to feel like total shit by comparison.

[editthis]

YANBU - but I'm with workingtitle now in loving having someone to go with a two-year-old in the mornings. Your routine changes so much in the first year, I found, that soon you'll be screeching to yourself, "Baby sensory finishes at 12.30?! What are they THINKING? I've got to get HOME and give her LUNCH and she'll SLEEP IN THE PRAM AND IT WILL BE A DISASTER!" If, like me, you're sensible about these things, that is.

I always wanted something to start at three to fill the long, dark afternoons of clock-watching until bedtime; but now my daughter wakes for the afternoon at about 3, I doubt I'd even make those.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

YANBU - this used to annoy me when DS1 was little. Not so much DS2, because I was already up and out of the house and one of the ones with nice hair and makeup on

Wilson what sort of hair do you have that survives the night in bed? Mine needs washing every morning regardless of how dirty it is, because otherwise it sticks in all directions and has a flat spot where I've slept!

[Thurlow]

Oh, I always liked morning groups - felt it gave me some focus to the day and reason to get ready and get up and going!

If you keep the change bag packed and ready to go at all times (so do it the night before) then in the morning all you really need to do is shower and/or get dressed, get the baby fed and dressed, and then leave the house?

[editthis]

^somewhere to go with a two-year-old

[redskybynight]

DS used to wake up at 5am so I considered a 9am group to be mid-morning.

[mrsmilkymoo]

Yanbu. Our baby group officially starts at 10 but most of us turn up much later! It's very relaxed and people come and go between 10 and sometimes as late as 1pm. But I would love an afternoon group as that's definitely the time I most want to get out the house. On nice days we go for long walks but something for these dark and miserable afternoons would be great.

[editthis]

By the way, I was ALWAYS still in my pyjamas, hair standing on end, when the postman knocked on the door at 12pm or so. I just made sure I always grabbed the baby so I had a visual excuse.

I tell a lie; sometimes I was wrapped in a towel. He probably thought I was trying to make a pass at him, poor chap.

[MyCrazyLife]

This wound me up when my PFB was a baby, as I didn't even get dressed until he had his first nap. As a result, I didn't go to one class with him.

However, as PPs have said, now the early ones are ideal as I can go straight from school.

[ThreeFrazzledFandangos]

Morning groups are easier when they get a bit bigger, they've been up since 6am and you feel like if you don't get out of the house in the next 10 minutes you'll throw yourself through a window!

I used to do 2 morning classes a week, hair done night before, easy clothes - skinny jeans and a top - maybe even a bit of mascara. On the other days I used to spend all day in my jamas and not even comb my hair!

[thatniceperson]

With my first I never made it to early baby groups, barely any even in the afternoon. With my second I do as I have a drill Sergeant toddler who wakes me up nice and early and makes sure were all dressed and fed by 8am.
People like me may look tidy and organised but inside I am a hollow husk of tiredness
thank god for morning groups, by 9am my toddler is so over energetic I would cry if I didn't have somewhere to take him out to!!!

Also, motherhood gets easier after a year or so (your standards slip) so getting out the house is faster. I have a 4 month old too.