At what age can I do X,Y and Z with my baby?

[LikeACandleButNotQuite]

Does anyone know how old a baby has to be before it can:

1. go swimming
   
2. go to Odeon Newbies
   
3. go to any baby classes such as Massage / Baby Yoga?
   
   Discl,: baby not here yet, just would like to get an idea of when parents usually start these things with their LOs
   
   Thanks

[TheSkiingGardener]

Once they are out of hospital.

Seriously.

Some pools prefer you to wait until after vaccinations, many don't. At my baby massage class the youngest I saw was 6 days old.

Enjoy!

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

1. As soon as your loss has stopped - varies for everyone
   
2. As soon as you can get there (might be a bit longer if you've had a c-section due to not being able to drive)
   
3. Massage - see 2) !!
   
   If this is your first dc, take things slowly at first. There's really plenty of time to do things like this.
   
   Good luck!

[LikeACandleButNotQuite]

That's great, thanks for the replies! Dont worry I wont be whizzing around in the first week or two as DH will be on Pat Leave and I will be using LO as justifiable reason not to get out of bed but thought of doing these things once he's back at work. Didn;t want to get to that time and be told "you got to wait til 3,4,5 months"

[scarlettsmummy2]

You can do them all quite early. Although I wouldn't personally take a new born swimming before they have had all their injections- I may be being a little precious though!

We did baby massage etc at about eight or nine weeks, but that was run by the NHS so that may just have been their own rules.

[LifeOfKate]

Oh yes, scarlettsmummy has just reminded me that we weren't allowed to start baby massage at the local children's centre until the baby had had the 6 week check with the GP, something to do with making sure there were no problems that would affect the massage, but I'm not sure what problems they mean

[violetwellies]

Our pool said no swimming til after jabs.

[notcitrus]

When you feel up to it. In my case a)still never been at age 3, b) around 3 months, and c) 6 weeks when there was a local class.

Baby swimming seemed to be a big thing locally with lots of mums feeling they 'had' to do it, but I figured that if ds hated baths, swimming was unlikely to be a hit. After 3 months he started liking baths but even now takes up to an hour to go into a paddling pool.

[attheendoftheday]

I did swimming from 8 weeks, but I used a baby wetsuit thingy to stop her getting too cold. Baby massage from about then too, but dd didn't really like it, she's 17 weeks now and absolutely loves it. Starting baby yoga next week. I think it mostly depends what's available in your area, I do most activities through my surestart, so I have to wait for different activities to come around. I found the best thing when dd was newborn was to get to a baby club to meet other new parents, I was doing that from 2 weeks.

[zumm]

See how you feel when LO is here. I still haven't gone swimming (the shame, he's over a year!), and my attempts at massage have been pretty lame, tho I did go to the cinema pretty early on. I reckon everything's new for them so even looking at your face and feeding is, for them, like, WOW. Congrats btw.

[seeker]

don't know what Odeon newbies is, but went to baby massage at a couple of weeks and swimming at about 6 weeks.

But it all depends what you feel up to. It's all for you - the baby won't mind so long as you're cuddling her. She won't mind whether the cuddle is in water or involves covering her in almond oil or on the sofa in front of Bargain Hunt - it's the cuddle that matters!

[WorrisomeHeart]

You may find the movies are easier with a newborn as they will just feed/sleep through it. I took DS around 4 months and he wiggled and giggled and 'chatted' to the babies behind us so we didn't attempt it again!!

[LikeACandleButNotQuite]

I am very exited about the cinema thing been telling everyone. Can;t wait for a little pootle along to the cinema with a hopefully sleeping baby

[Bumpsadaisie]

I think in reality it tends to be when they are a few weeks old, say 6 weeks.

By this time, you have probably recovered from the birth, hopefully bfing if you are doing that is getting established, you are confident feeding in public and you are emerging from the initial fog of the first few weeks when you don't know if you are coming or going.

By 6 weeks as well a baby has already moved on from being newborn - they can see and hear much better, start looking around, and smiling at you and waving their little hands.

If your baby is a very clingy one who won't be put down at first like my DD was, this usually improves by 6 to 8 weeks.

FWIW with my NCT ladies I think the first thing we all did was start meeting for coffees at someone's house once a week when the babies were all v small Then we all did baby cinema, and then at about 8 weeks or so people started signing up for classes.