Womb to Bloom - Maternity & Beyond

Once your baby is a few weeks old and you are beginning to be able to tamp down the urge to spray hand sanitizer on anyone who even looks at him or her, you should start taking your baby out and about to broaden his or her horizons. These field trips do not have to be big production numbers at first. Your baby can reap benefits from any trip outside, even just up to the post office. The important thing is to expose your baby to new sights and sounds and to get him or her comfortable with exploring new situations.

When I was five months pregnant my husband and I naively went to an infant superstore to “check out” equipment. We had no idea that there were so many choices for cribs, gliders and diaper pails, much less strollers.

There were aisles and aisles of strollers in every color of the rainbow. Even though the description for each stroller made it sound infinitely better than the one next to it, they all looked the same. We couldn’t figure out what in the world we needed, except for a degree in how to collapse them. And our friends with children were of little help. People were as passionately hateful or in love with their strollers, as they were about breastfeeding.

My husband and I dated six years before we got engaged. It took another five years before we were blessed with or first bouncing baby boy. “Date night” had long been forgotten before the baby had even entered the picture. That being said, family and friends encouraged us to go out. Without the baby.

He was only a few weeks old. I was still a newbie at this nursing thing, and I just wasn't ready to leave him behind. So, we went out as a family.

“Did you get the diaper bag?” I asked my husband as I was getting dressed.

So, you are off for a day shopping, or to go visit a friend, and that empty diaper bag is staring you in the face. What on earth do you need to bring with you? Babies need so many things, and who knows what you might happen to want when you get where you are going?

Well, don’t get your panties tied in a knot. It isn’t as hard as all of that! You can pack an efficient diaper bag, and not be loaded down with a ton of stuff. In fact, unless you are going on a long trip, you can get away with a small diaper bag, for most places you might happen to go with your baby.