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Baby's Day Out

By Belinda Clarke

My husband had been prompting me to get out of the house for some exercise with the baby for weeks. Now that the baby was seven weeks old, I had run out of excuses for both of us to stay in. What's more, I was starting to get a slightly scary case of cabin fever. Maybe it was finding the cordless phone in the refrigerator that did it, but my husband was calling home a lot, asking what I was up to and if I'd been outside yet today.

It was the mailman who finally did it. As I answered the front door for him so he could deliver yet another new baby gift to us, we discussed the weather.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" I said, cradling my fussy newborn and trying to be a good neighbor and smile in my sleep-deprived state.

"Yes, it is!" he replied. "And you both should be out in it!"

He was right. It was a perfect end-of-summer day in Chicago -- cloudless, breezy and about 74 degrees. I decided it was time to break in the new stroller and go for our first outing as mother and child.

Now I am not the type of woman to take small steps, which has, at times, been a problem for me. I tend to take on too much, and then wonder why I fail to get everything done and/or end up a nervous wreck. The day of our first walk was no exception.

I packed the diaper bag carefully, making sure I had enough supplies. Six diapers should be enough, I said to myself, and then realized I was going overboard and packed three. I added wipes, two pacifiers, socks and a change of clothes, stopping just short of stuffing my "Pump In Style" portable breast pump into the backpack. Did I actually think I would need all of this stuff? No. But hey, you never know.

We left the house a mere 40 minutes later, a new record for slow. At least I was prepared.