Strolling the Stroller

For several weeks I've been taking it easy so I wouldn't push myself into premature labor. But now that I'm full term, I'm looking for ways to encourage things along. So tonight, Lee and I took a walk around the neighborhood.

We decided to make the outing a bit of an experiment. Lee has read that it's a good idea to take a practice walk with the stroller and the dog before baby arrives. This way you can get the dog used to the stroller in the hopes she won't bark at it incessantly on baby's first stroll. We pulled the stroller canopy across so that no one could see it was empty (except for one of baby's stuffed lions).

As soon as we walked out of the door, we were met by other neighbors taking their dog for a walk. Immediately, I felt self-conscious and wanted to offer an explanation. I could imagine what they were thinking, likely assuming we were pushing our new baby in the stroller. "Whoa, biggun'! You really need to work on losing that baby belly!"

I wanted to say that we were just taking a practice stroll, and that midsection of mine is still full of baby. But at the same time, it was a little weird pushing an empty stroller, and I didn't want to explain that one either. So while I was pondering all this, Millie stopped to sniff at their dog and I ran into the back of her with the stroller.

Great. That'll really make her comfortable with the contraption. It bit her.

Thankfully, Millie never barked at it, and for the most part, ignored it. However, she didn't get too close because I think she was afraid it would bite again. This could make it a little difficult for Lee if he's ever trying to walk the dog and the stroller by himself. But despite my self-consciousness and the stroller-hitting-dog incident, I think the experiment went quite well.

We walked to Millie's favorite park, and I took a seat on the bench for a bit. It was so nice. We waited until later in the evening to walk, so the air had cooled and a breeze was blowing. I missed taking walks, and didn't even realize it. We have such a great neighborhood for walking, and it was good to look at all the houses, landscaping, dogs and neighbors again. And I'm looking forward to sharing it all with the baby when we can really have her in the stroller with us.