Outing with newborn

[April1stbaby]

Hi. FTM here.
Any advice for an anxious FTM taking newborn out for the first time?

Take everything you need and don’t go far. Every time you go you will become more confident. You’ve got this.

My tip is go somewhere you know well as a first outing. Ideally it has baby changing facilities and parent/child parking. I went to m+s.

Do not worry if baby cries- baby’s cries are much louder to you than other people I promise.

As @Changeiscomingthisyear said, your confidence will grow with each outing.

Identify what you are actually nervous about, then remind yourself why it will be fine.
Take someone with you.

My advice is to feed her, put clothes on and just go. Even if it's just 5-10min that's a good start.
My first time taking DD was a disaster and I was very stressed about it. She was screaming after 3 minutes so we had to return home. And didn't try again until my parents came over and we went out together.
My DD is now almost 2.5y and looking back at her baby time I realise how many things I made unnecessarily difficult but that's natural with the first born I suppose as everything is new.
And congratulations! 😊

Make a list of everything you need and take it all with you. You'll quickly gain confidence and love going out with them x

Do it as soon as you can. We went out when baby was just a few days old, walked around block and came home. It made it so much easier to then stay out longer.

Id go everywhere just to flash my baby off.
Just so people knew I had a new baby.

What are you nervous about? Keeping her the right temperature? Where to feed or change her? Forgetting something you need? If you know what you're actually worried about people can give you specific advice.

Couldn’t agree more! Your confidence will deffo grow with each outing. Make it as easy as you can for yourself - go somewhere where you already know (so you know where the toilets are in case of changing etc), not too far from home and not a new place. If it helps build your confidence more, ask your partner or a friend to go and do a “dry run” before you go there (so they can check where everything is). You’ve got this!

Congratulations!!
My DH picked me up from hospital and we got home, startled they had allowed us to be alone with a baby, and DH just said right let's go to Boots, in the pram she went and we went shopping - it was a 5 Minute walk there, saw a neighbour who was literally about to give birth (had no idea she was pregnant ) to her first and thought ok this is fine we've got this - she just turned 16, and I still remember it like yesterday, and it is, was and always would be fine - you'll be great

Me too. Went home via Costas! Needed a coffee after all that hard work!
I remember DS being cooed over by a bunch of old ladies. They hadn’t seen a baby that small apart from their own or grandchildren.

You will be fine. If the baby starts crying, don’t worry about other people around you, just focus on bub. You got this!

I found the opposite helpful - I just stuck the baby in the pram with nothing else and went for a walk around the block. If anything happened, it only took 10 minutes to get home