Doll to practice with??

[DollDilemma]

Feel free to mock me.

I'm due in a couple of months. Neither DP nor I have ever held/bathed/changed/fed a baby. We are doing NCT but with the current situation it's all via zoom with no hands on practice, so we were thinking of getting a life-like doll to practice on.

Firstly - do you think this is a good idea?

Secondly - any idea where to but such a doll? I've obviously googled but everything seems to cost £60+ which seems like a lot.

Thanks

Save your money and learn in the real thing. A Doll doesn’t replicate the wriggling 🙈
I asked my midwife to show me, and she was happy to do so. You’ll learn very quickly, they go through a lot of nappies. My OH he never changed a nappy and he was brilliant at them.
You’ll be great xxx

I had never really held, bathed or fed a baby either. But you just learn as you go. For his first bath I watched a quick how to video on youtube. The rest i’ve just figured out when I needed to

I wouldn't worry, you really do pick it up very quickly. DH had never even held a baby before but after a week looked like an old pro!

Nappies and dressing are very easy to get the hang of.
Bathing I found a little trickier we got a demo at the anti natal classes which was good so ask for a zoom demo from
NCT. It’s also easier if two of you do the first few baths so one can hold the baby and the other can soap it.
The most important thing to remember when doing anything with a baby is to have everything ready and to hand before you start. You get the hang of it all very quickly

Nope I didn't have a clue how to hold or care for a baby either. A doll won't really help, they're wriggly. You really do just figure it out as you go along. DS is 6 months now and I have no fear any more. You'll be fine.

We practised how to put on the sling by using a teddy

When DS1 was born I had had quite a lot of experience around babies but DH had none at all. He learned how to hold the baby and nappy change within a couple of days just as I earned how to breastfeed.

Don't bother with the doll - there's no point - it can't replicate a baby boy weeing in his own face as you change his nappy, a colicky baby throwing up down your back or any of the wonderful and alarming chaos a newborn brings to your life

Save your money! The wriggling and the terror of breaking them are the main problems, and you'll replicate neither with a doll!

Once baby's been here for 48 hours you'll be a pro.

My dh had never even held a baby when ds was born premature! He was terrified but managed very well!!

Awww you’ll be grand. I was juggling babies since I was 10 but DH had only held a baby a few times & he caught on quickly.

OTOH Pooh Bear was great for practicing different BF holds & slings

Waste of money. Don't worry everyone was the same.

If you really want to practise holding, dressing, slinging, nappy changing.... here’s how to make a towel baby. Not so good for bathing, admittedly. They look a whole lot better with a babygro on. And when you’re finished playing, it goes back in the airing cupboard as a regular towel. Sorted.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=z4qXU3Yblks

I had no experience with babies until DD came along in my mid thirties. I’d practised putting a nappy on a teddy (for some reason I’d thought they were really complicated but they’re obviously not so I needn’t have bothered!), and bathed a doll at NCT. But as others have said, it’s the wrigglyness of a newborn, and slipperyness when they’re wet, that you need to get used to which a doll can’t replicate, it honesty doesn’t take long though! I remember our first night with DD, at 4am ish I changed her nappy, and she’d pooed onto her clothes, so I obviously changed her and she just screamed and screamed, me and DH were all bleary eyed looking at each other like-what are we doing thinking we could do this- as we took ages between us getting her sorted! But it very very quickly became second nature!

Thanks all. We won't spend the money then. Tbh it's the whole 'supporting the neck' thing that worries me the most. Don't want to get it wrong and damage my child 🙁

Or drop them..

(Sorry the above post was me with an unintentional name change.. Doesn't bode well for my competence as a mother..)

I was worried about all of this as well but you really do pick it up so fast. And the stakes aren't that high in most cases - for example if you do the nappy a bit too loose then it will leak. That's all. You change their clothes and wipe them down and learn a lesson. No harm done.

Bathing them does take a bit more practice but you can ask a midwife to show you after they're born. We asked at one of our home visits (I don't know if they are still doing those?) Or you could just watch a YouTube video.

Supporting their neck will come more naturally than you expect it to. Their head will be all wobbly because they haven't built up those muscles yet so you will be very aware of what needs to be supported.

You will be surprised at how your instincts kick in, I had had a lot of practice but my husband hadn't and he was so good at handling ours. Congratulations :-)

Try not to worry about that. If you go to pick them up and their head flops a bit you will instinctively go to support it. You just pick up with hand behind neck cradling head and a hand on the bum cradling back. But it will soon come naturally!

You will be fine. Also in my experience they are more sturdy than you think. This may have just been because I had a big baby. They'll help you in the hospital with how to hold them if you're struggling and you get the hang of it pretty quickly.

Best tip I had was to put a muslin under then in the bath, much easier to hold them in that than hold a slippery wet baby.

It will all come naturally to you, as your baby will find ways he/she wants to be held too. My baby just wanted to sit up all of the time, which was a nightmare when she couldnt hold her own head up properly. As long as you don't let the head drop backwards and you support it, then there are no rules (other than to be aware of the soft spots).

If you're unsure of dressing/bathing etc I suggest looking on the start for life NHS website they have lots of useful information on there and videos. Also YouTube really helped me, I had a meltdown as I realised I had no idea how to dress a baby and what items of clothing she needed to wear etc lol but mow she's 3 months old, I kind of just make it up as I go along, to make sure she's not too hot or cold and is comfy.

I watched Mothercare baby advice videos on YouTube. They were very helpful with the basics like how to pick them up and how to bath them! They didn't get taken down when Mothercare shut so they should still be there.

"Don't want to get it wrong and damage my child"

Please don't fret op, holding your baby wrong really won't cause harm. Babies are much more robust than you think.

I think it’s a good idea actually - at our NCT classes we practiced changing nappies, burping and swaddling plastic dolls.

Don’t bother with a fancy realistic one, just buy a baby doll for £10.

I’d never changed a real nappy until my baby was a couple of hours old and I was exhausted and recovering from a difficult birth, and I remember sobbing in the maternity ward while trying to open up the tabs on the nappy, I was just baffled by them. So the more practice you get in advance the better!