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?

Start at 9 or 10 for us with a baby and a toddler probably!

Toddlers need feeding at 12 and then sleep for 2 hours lol.

Have another baby and you'll wonder what you were doing with all your free time

When my DD was an infant and I was EBF her, I was lucky if we managed to be out of the house by 3pm. She was an autumn babay too so it was actually pretty depressing as the sun would be down within half an hour of us getting out of the door.

As she has gotten older I'm happy to have left those days behind understatement of the year and its only January

My 4 month old woke every hour or two until she was 5 months old. It was a total living hell and I shudder when I think back on it.

No amount of night before preparation could have helped me to get to a baby group at 9 am.

Baby groups are grim affairs anyway, you are not missing anything

I totally get that Kelly.

On the other hand, when your third child sleeps like that and you still have to be out the door for the school run, you thank the lord for morning toddler groups where the middle one can run off some energy and you can slump over a coffee.

My local baby group starts at 10.30am, which is about right for us (DS almost 5 months). With those kind of groups, it doesn't matter if you turn up a bit late anyway. The problem is with the expensive ones, like baby massage, baby yoga etc. I'm considering signing up for baby swimming, but as DS's naps are evolving at the moment, I have no idea what time slot to go for.

We usually go to 2 or three things per week. On the other days we still go out, but sometimes it's just a walk or to the post office. I think DS gets a bit bored if we stay home all day and I do too. More than one thing a day is too much though, I have found.

I also put DS in the baby bouncer while I'm having a shower and he seems quite happy to sit there so definitely try that. I'm worried about what happens when he grows out of the bouncer though!

mwahahaha just wait until you have a child at school and another baby, and are one of the mums at the group who's already done the school run. Coz that's so easy! And then you can make smug comments at be supportive to the wild eyed new mother with only one baby to juggle...

Ha penguins....this is why my DD is going to remain an only child.....sounds horrific.

I agree with Penguin.

Our school run means leaving the house for the first one at 7am, not returning until 8, then doing the second one at 8.20. I am twiddling my thumbs and willing places to hurry up and open by 9.

The baby group that started at 9.30 am was a life saver for us when my toddler's wakening time was 5am for several years. Baby was easy, able to eat and sleep on the hoof.

I'm one of those women you talk of and its because I have an older child I have to get to school first. If you organise yourself it can be done.

It's so different when you have just the one.

9-10 am isn't as convenient as 1pm.

But when you've got school/nursery runs the morning shift is the only gap to have them.

DD was/is a night owl like me. We did a baby class with friends from 6 weeks that started at 11am, but I picked up a friend first. DH worked away during the week. I used to just get myself ready and the pick DD up from the middle of the bed (we coslept) and take her still asleep in her babygro. (She lived in babygros for 6 months anyway.). More often than not she slept through the class!!

I loved the early groups when I had my first, as I was desperate to get out of the house and have some company. I could sometimes be found walking the streets with my pram at 8am!

I know a lot of my friends didn't like them because they thought they were too early but I never really understood that. The day starts SO early with a baby anyway!

I always wished baby groups would start at 8 or 9. Our 10am one seemed ages away, when both DDs were non-day or night sleepers and early wakers. I think I used to sob with relief when the doors finally opened.

X-post Pass me!

Rabbitcar - It's a shame we didn't know each other, we could have walked the streets together, waiting for playgroup to open

Quite!!