8 Things to do with your newborn baby

I asked my husband to help contribute to this blog piece and his response was, 'what? Newborns? You can't do anything with them, all they do is eat-poo-sleep'. OK it's kind of true, but there are some fun things that you can do with your newborn baby, and sometimes it doesn't matter if they're asleep or awake.

Massage is a nice way for you to bond with your baby, your baby will love it and sleep so soundly afterwards. There are classes that you can do to learn in a group, or check out this YouTube video.

Surprisingly, newborn babies keep their clothes quite clean, yes, there's the occasional baby vomit- but it's usually milk coloured, and the very occasional exploding poo- but don't let that stop you! Now is the time to dress them in white and let them wear super-cute things!

Take your baby for a walk in the pram, dress them up nice and warm with a cozy blanket over them if it's winter, or in something cool with a shade cover in summer and go for a leisurely stroll together. You could arrange to meet a friend and walk together, ante-natal classes are a good place to meet mums in your local area who might be keen to walk and talk with you.

Just sit back and chill with your baby, give them a big cuddle and enjoy how beautiful and amazing they are, then drink up that amazing newborn smell.

You could walk to a local cafe with the stroller, or drive somewhere and meet a friend. There are plenty of baby-friendly cafe's around, and if you aren't getting to sleep for 8 consecutive hours each night you might enjoy a hit of cafiene.

I've got to admit that I never did this, although I always wanted to. A few movie theatres do mums and bubs sessions one or two mornings a week. Apparently no one minds if babies cry, because everyone has babies with them, and they keep the lights on low so you can find things like toys, blankets, and your boob or bottle if you need to feed your bub. A good thing to try when your baby between two or three months old, and crawling age, although they say all children under 5 years are welcome.

And look up at the leaves together. Babies particularly enjoy looking at contrasting colours, so they love watching the leaves move in front of the sky. It's a nice bit of chill time for you too.

SPACE is a fun programme run by Playcentre for first-time parents of babies. They run weekly classes all over the country where different topics are discussed and babies have a chance to interact. It's a good excuse to get out of the house once a week, and the classes are held at Playcentre so you don't need to tidy your house before everyone comes over, like you do with coffee group.