5-week post partum bridesmaid?

[SezP]

Hello 👋🏻 so I am currently 7 weeks pregnant (first pregnancy) and about to go see my best friend (who lives a few hours drive from me) to meet her new baby. I haven’t told her I’m pregnant yet. She very kindly asked me to be her bridesmaid for her wedding in late July next year. The problem is, I will have (hopefully, fingers crossed touch wood) given birth 5 weeks earlier. Can I seriously be a bridesmaid with a 5 week old? I am also intending on having an elective c section, so I’d assume I’m still going to be healing. The wedding is down in Devon - I live in London. My husband and my parents would be going too, but we would be reliant on my parents/taxis for car travel once down there as we do not have a car and do not intend to get one (we have excellent public transport where we live). I don’t want to tell her I’m pregnant until I know how I feel about the whole bridesmaid thing. The earliness of the pregnancy isn’t such a concern for me. Has anyone been bridesmaid with a very young baby? Has anyone had to drop out? Any experiences appreciated!

I was a bridesmaid at a wedding 2 weeks post c-section. Chose my own dress (not silk!!) BF/fluid friendly. Bought two so I’d an identical spare. Baby attended with me. Yes I was wearing big knickers and pads but hid them with shapewear (bought purposefully in a size up). DH was also with me and wore the sling. Wouldn’t have been possible if baby wasn’t welcome. Would have been more comfortable as a guest but really mattered to me to be there and be a part of the day.

However, it wasn’t my first baby. I knew what to expect. Knew I’d be ok to feed in public. Knew I’d be shattered and sore after. Could stay on site and had access to a clean loo! Did my speech. Changed into flats and danced. Took a few days to recover.

I was lucky and it was a family wedding so there were lots of people to hand baby around too, and at that age as long as they’re fed they tend to be happy in arms. It worked for me - BUT I did change the dress two days before! And that was NOT a fun shopping experience (I’d allowed for the bump post baby but underestimated the size of my boobs!)

Ah OP missed your update. That’s brilliant! Glad to hear she was excited for you (and understanding too). Hope it all goes well for you x

i went to a relative’s wedding where a BM was 6wks pp and she was fine. Changed after the photos, had a room where she could feed / change, parents had baby for the aisle bit. Put on dress for getting ready photos, took off to feed and put back on before ceremony. Was a good age baby wise actually as she was very easy. But BM and her parents (family) were staying onsite and it wasn’t in a field!

I was back to normal after my c-section at 5 weeks, in terms of physically being able to do things. I physically could have been a bridesmaid.

Mentally, no way would I have been able to do it. Being away from baby for that long would have made me anxious and just the stress of being a bridesmaid on top of being generally quite hormonal and emotional would have really stressed me out.