To ask what you do with your baby all day?

[Eminybob]

DS is 14 weeks old and I'm worried that he's getting bored when we're at home and I'm not stimulating him enough.

We have outside the house activities most days, we do swimming, baby sensory, rhyme time and a baby group. And some days we'll just go shopping or meet my friends.

When we are at home he has a baby gym playmat thing, a bouncy chair, and other toys which I do play with with him, or sometimes he is happy playing my himself but only for a short while. I look at picture/black and white books with him etc and read to him. And we do tummy time for a bit but he's not a big fan so we can only do a couple of minutes at a time.

But I obviously can't be playing with him constantly, I need to get on with stuff so I pop baby TV on and he will happily watched that for a bit. I do worry about him watching telly from such a young age though.
Sometimes we just sit and cuddle while I watch a bit of grown up telly.

Does this sound ok? Any tips for keeping us both entertained? Can you tell me what your day looks like with your baby?

Oh dear I think we are similar :) we do baby yoga, mum and toddlers, baby massage and rhyme time. I love the baby massage actually it totally relaxes my wee guy, he sleeps for hours after. At home he plays in his rainforest gym or in his swing or his bouncer or cuddles on me. I agree with the pp who said to bring him in to different rooms with you. My wee guy loves the bathroom too, he will lie on his mat for ages while I have a bath Hopefully soon he will be old enough for his jumperoo, my toddler loved it

"All your baby needs is you" is true, and all well and good, but its horribly boring and lonely!

Before I had my first baby I worked in a friendly environment with people I actually enjoyed spending time with, could go out and walk around or shop in one of the most exciting areas of London at lunchtime, go out for drinks or meals whenever I liked, go away for the weekend whenever I liked, sleep soundly all night and lie in til 9 or 10 or whatever at the weekend, please myself for 48 hours and then begin again with the old work routine.

Losing ALL of that plus 5 of my 8 hours sleep per night was the most tremendous shock to the system! Having a baby is the hugest, most life-changing thing ever. No wonder people don't really know what you're supposed to actually do with the little blighters.

I went out most days for fresh air and for myself. Just to ward off loneliness. Mostly coffees and the occasional swim / baby group or to light a candle and local church etc.

At home I sang to baby, let him watch me from his bouncer, bit of tummy time, bathes him.

This is a lovely time in your life so enjoy it! :)

Once your DC can sit up (in a month or two) life gets a lot easier as they can more easily entertain themselves. Both my dds loved a box (eg big plastic Tupperware) filled with things they could take (or tip!) out, bang together, chew etc. Plastic fruit or duplo are good (my youngest dd, 8 months, LOVES playing with her older sisters duplo) and they'll play with them when they're older too.
Haven't read the rest of the thread, but try a sling where they face you, take them out for walks and chat to them about what you can see (particularly nice at this time of year with all the lovely autumn colours). I love having my dd smile up at me when we do this, makes me go all melty inside

And YY to what Mrsgrumble said- this is a lovely time. They're just so cuddly at this age (and easily pleased!).

I think there is a danger of doing TOO much with our DC. They need to be able to be bored. To be still. To amuse themselves. I was the same with DD1 at first and now I look back at all that time I could have spent watching tv and reading instead of active playing with an oblivious baby .

DD3 is now about 14 weeks and she:

Sits/lays in/on something and has toys to chew while trying not to be squashed by her 2 year old sister or smothered in love by her 5 year old sister.

She watches me tidy, gets dragged on the school run/to gymnastics/to playplaces/shopping/toddler sing time and is subjected to repetitive bouts of umizoomi and renditions of "Let It Goooooo".

By 7 o clock she is blissfully happy as the furore turns to peace.

Enjoy your PFB, do the activities you enjoy and eat lots of cake.

I didn't put cbeebies or any baby tv on for my ds till about two months ago (he's 13mo old) an even now it's only ITNG and sometimes waybaloo between dinner and bath. It's not that I dislike tv, just that when younger the moving images and lights were entertainment enough even if it was actually the news at 1 or the daily politics!

my ds just kind of hung out on his playmat or in his bouncer till he could sit up, even now he mostly potters around when we're home. we go out a couple of times a day for bike rides or walks or the park or swimming so house time is pottering/chilling time if it's not mealtime or nap time.

Yeah, my dd2 gets ignored A LOT more than dd1 and she seems to be doing just fine.......

DH has been home with ours since she was 2 1/2 months old. I did lots more with her than he does but he's much more relaxed about the whole thing than I am and probably rightly so. We have signed he up to some prohibitively expensive swimming classes I can do with her at the weekend and she has been to one sensory class she bawled her way through but will start more regularly next month. Swimming I thought was a good idea as you can never start too early ime and I wanted to have something which was her and me time (really for me not her).

But aside from that she sits in her pram and loves Baby TV and there is Little Baby Bum on YouTube that she sits and watches for ages and loves it as we all sing along to the rhymes together. She also loves it when I sing to her and when DH plays with her. Playmat is good as we get all the toys out and have puppet shows which she also loves. Or just practicing rolling on the floor. We were also given this sensory toy which is a bear called Violet and talks and flashes lights.

Tbh I think most activities are there to part you from your hard earned cash. Most of the stuff you can just do on your own.

I have a 19 month old we dance mostly and eat fruit mainly tinned

She also likes to stroll up and down the trough lounge with her empty Pram while I hold the baby on emu lad and watch

My baby isn't even 4 weeks old yet, so sitting him on my lap and chatting to him when he's alert, and sometimes trying to get DD to interact with him, is about it for now. I agree with other posters that the simple, mundane tasks are more than enough for them. I also liked making up treasure baskets for DD to explore when she was little and will do the same for DS; you just gather safe, every day items from around the house, put them in a basket and leave the LO to explore. Beats baby toys any day imo.

At that age mine could happily lie on his playmat watching a helium balloon move in the breeze for ages. For extra excitement I would put the bracelet weight round his ankle so he could move it himself when he pumped his legs. He looked like he enjoyed that more than all the classes I took him too. Sometimes they were more for me to get out and about!