Kathy, Aiden has been swimming since 6 months & now at almost 2 is swimming a few metres with a bubble. I won't be taking Liam in until after his 3rd round of immunisations (6months in Australia), Some say you can do it once they have their 4month (2nd lot), but I think it is safer to wait, as their immunity & temp contol is still not good.
Jen, I must admit, I get out & about almost everyday (unless visitors), I try to make it at the same time ie between the 10am & 1pm feed. we either go for a walk to the park, got to the shops, Aiden's swimming, friends or Dr's appointments, on the weekends we do the same. I had PPD with Aiden & find I need to get out every day for mine & Aiden's sanity. I think that as it is rougly the same time, it is just part of Liam's routine. I also know Aiden naps from about 1pm & so most of the time, Liam has a longer nap at this time too.
Little Bear's Mum, to extend out the feeding times, after a 45min nap, try to get your lo back to sleep, with Aiden, I sometimes used to have a short actvity time & then back off for another 45mins so sort of EASASEA etc. Also your lo may also want to suck, try a paci, at this young age you can control it to get rid of the extra need to suck... I do it with Liam & having used it badly with Aiden, I just use it to help get Liam back off or as he is a quick feeder to give him extra sucking (which is helpful for speech development apparently)
I sort of feel after the problems I had with my first time, I am much more relaxed about it & as I was saying to my dh this morning, sometimes I use a paci, sometimes Liam ends up feeding to sleep, sometimes, he falls asleep in the car or pram & others in someones arms & then others he goes off on his own or with pat/sh... As it changes from nap to nap, I think well he won't get used to one thing & as long as I get him to go off from awake at 7pm then I'm happy. Liam is also slowly starting to find his fingers/thumb & that calms him, so I'm encouraging that as one Paci addict in the family is enough!
For you first time Mum's try not to get obsesed about sleep/feeding, as I did with Aiden & really feel like I missed so much of his first few months... cuddling off to sleep on occasions is not going to set up "bad habits" just don't do it all the time. You never get the time back & they are so special... I just had a beautiful moment, with both boys on my lap/sholder, Liam fell asleep with Aiden stroking his hair