EASY and outings

[vicki3]

Hi all, I am 35wks pregnant and would like to put EASY into practise. I am concerned about what stage of EASY do you go out - either to do the shopping, visit a friend etc with out disturbing the routine i will be trying to get into. Thanks. Vicki 

[GabrielleD]

Since DS is now awake for most of our outings, I try to schedule them during his activity time and try to be home by his nap time. HTH and congratulations on your upcoming baby!

[asher and noël's mama]

how does that work when activity time is just 40 minutes?  i really need to get out of the house for longer periods, it takes 20 minutes for me to just get to the store?  any advise?

[GabrielleD]

Noel's mama,

We appear to be a little more fortunate since because of his age my DS's activity time is about 1:15 minutes, not including the feeding. Plus our store is about 5 minutes from our house, so it's easier to get errands done in the alloted time.  When he was younger I had a much harder time scheduling our outings around his EASY schedule, since his activity time was much shorter. But I cheated...since he was younger, he tended to fall asleep the moment he was put in the car, and stayed pretty much asleep during the outing in his car seat in the stroller. So I just counted that as his nap time, and I think I had a much longer period of time alloted to that. Remember that EASY is a guideline, if you go over by 15-20 minutes it is not the end of the world. Good luck.

[estherofi20]

I totally agree with GabrielleD, try to do the outings on his A time, its hard the first month, i acctually didn't go out for a hole month just to stablish a routine, (shopping done by family or friends), i remember the  first time i went out was for DS first doc. appointment. I would recommend that you ask family to try to help you in these things as much as you can, if no one can help, then i guess, newborns do sleep during any car trip!!! 

P.S.: A time will increase a lot, my DS can stay up for 2 hours including a feed!!

[Noelle]

Hi 
I found going out a lot easier with a newborn as they sleep all the time, LOL.  But in general, I would say right after a feeding/ "E" time.  Noel's mom, if it takes twenty minutes to get to your destination, hopefully by the time you have finished feeding, got everything ready and in the car, the trip will be nap time, and then feed when you get home.  It's all a little bit of hit and miss and being prepared.  If you have trouble BF in public it gets a little trickier but if you bottle feed, just have a bottle with and a "plan".  I did find myself watching the clock a lot in outings so I wouldn't get blindsided, LOL.  Sometimes I would stop by where I worked to feed, or I would get to a dr's appt a little early so I could feed there, etc.

 

[asher and noël's mama]

thanks ladies!  your input was very helpful. 

so, if i did the feeding and then the "activity time was getting ready to go and get to the car, would you guys suggest that i make sure she is alseep while we drive, or just assume she will probably sleep while we drive.  and then, my big question is what do i do when we get some where and we are not moving and she wakes up in what should be her nap time?  i would usually stress about it, "oh no she is awake, now this will throw everything off."  we have just been on e.a.s.y. for 11 days, and already she is doing great with it.  but, i am afraid to venture out and mess everything up, after all of the hard work.  but, i also really need to get out sometimes, ya know.

[GabrielleD]

If you are pretty consistent with EASY for the most part, occasional variations shouldn't make a huge difference.

[*Natasha*]

I found at the beginning my DD slept whenever we went out which made it easy but at around 3-4 months that changed and she was getting very interested in her surroundings and just wouldn't sleep. So i didn't go out alot around that time. I am just finding now that her A time is so much longer and she is only having 2 sleeps a day it makes it easy.
I think if you have a good sleeper then going out at the beginning is quiet easy.
Good luck with the birth of your new and wonderful baby it is such a wonderful experince(except when they are teething and grizle half the day, only joking that is just me complaining )