How to Leave Your House with an Infant

You might be wondering if this is really the subject of this post. Yes, it is! I can not tell you how scary it was to leave the house with my baby for the first few weeks. And now that I have more friends who are new moms, this is a subject we always talk about so I assume we aren’t the only ones!

When you are pregnant and you are thinking about preparing for your little one, your mind is often filled with “what brands should I buy, what wipes are the best, how do I use the car seat, how do I find a pediatrician?” It isn’t until your baby arrives that it really sets in all that it takes to tote them around.

I asked my friend Sydney how to take William out. She gave me some pointers, but I also learned a lot from strangers I saw in the store. So read on for my personal tips and please, comment below your tips! I’m still learning!

The car seat stage. Do I put them in a stroller? In a cart? What part of the cart? Does this store have a cart the right size? These were a few of my questions.

Keep the little newborn in their car seat. At stores with full size carts you can toss that seat in the main cart. If you push forward the front seat section you have more room, or use it for your handbag or items you are shopping for. The only negative with this is you don’t have much space to add items. So if you are shopping for big ticket items, leave the newborn at home because there is no good way to do this yet. (unless you have a baby carrier- more on this later).

The smaller carts. These are my favorite! I didn’t know I could use these and my car seat for weeks until I saw a savvy mom pass me in the grocery store doing it. The infant car seat will fit in the half size carts as long as its facing sideways (imagine it is balancing on top of the cart baby facing outward to the left or right). Then you can use the entire bottom portion of the cart to fill with groceries.

Built in carts. Some stores have seats built in that you can toss the car seat in. These are great and you have full use of the main cart. However, I’m barely 5’3” so I can’t see over these.

Strollers- I love my stroller! See it here. This was my go- to when I only needed a few items. I would fill the bottom of it up with whatever I needed.

Besides the logistics of shopping carts, the other scary part is being worried about your infant crying or needing something while you are out. I started out by packing William up to drive 2 blocks to Starbucks and going through the drive thru. This gave me practice on the whole car seat thing, and I also got to get myself “ready” with an infant. Which is an entirely other monster! Soon I moved to the Starbucks 2 miles away, then I moved onto taking target trips alone, and the rest was history. I love going out with him, and I try to plan one outing a day to keep us from cabin fever.

There are other ways to go use shopping carts with an infant seat, but I don’t endorse them because I’m into safety and all that jazz. For baby carriers, I would imagine you have a lot more freedom, however William disapproved of them until recently so that was not an option for us.

Here are some of my main stores and what they have to offer in the cart department and some other baby friendly amenities!

Starbucks- drive thru, stroller friendly & changing stations in both men & women’s restroom

Target- Full size carts

Fred Meyer- Full size, half size and built in infant seats free fruit for kids & childcare

Nordstrom- Elevators, and mom changing/feeding lounge

Nordstrom Rack- Half Size carts

Grocery Stores- Full and half size carts

Marshalls/Home Goods- Full Size Carts

Costco- Full size carts & room for 2 kids in the front of the cart

Trader Joes- Full size carts & mini shopping carts for older kids to push

Haggen- childcare & Free fruit for kids

Restaurants - You can ask for a “sling” to rest the car seat in or flip the high chair upside down to balance the car seat on. This I just learned from a friend!

I hope this was helpful or maybe helped you realize that you aren’t the only one nervous about taking your infant out. Check back to read my post about pulling over for your screaming infant. I don’t have any tips on this, just another misadventure of me and my “chunk chunk” William!