First London walk as a family

Dom and I have done a couple of London walks in the past but we thought it would be fun, ney, a challenge, to take our 6 week old daughter with us this time. And it was a challenge -but fun too. We were to do the Westminster walk, going round the area of Parliament, 10 Downing Street, White Hall, Pall Mall, the Horse Guards Parade, St James Park and Buckingham Palace.
The day was hot and the tourists were out in their droves, especially large groups of foreign students, which made pushing the buggie a bit of a challenge. By the time we had parked the car it was lunch time. So we decided to find somewhere to eat. This would be the first time Dom and I had eaten out with little Megan on our own as a family, and none of us knew what to expect or how to deal with things as they arose. First we had to make sure the pub was child friendly. Well there were a couple of kids in there so I guess it was okay. The pub was a smoking one but it was fully ventilated throughout. We ordered food and our eyes were constantly on Megan watching to see if she would cry. Sure enough, as soon as the food arrived she started to cry. I had my back to other customers but Dom could see they were getting annoyed. My reaction was 'tough shit', but I know I would have been one of those kinds of people before I got pregnant. I could see Dom was getting a little stressed by the whole situation, desperately trying to stop Megan from crying. Maybe her nappy needed changing? It did, but there were no baby changing facilities. So I used the floor of the disabled loo which was right by us. She calmed down and we ate. A few minutes later, she really started crying. We knew we had been putting off the inevitable, but I wasn't sure whether to breastfeed her in the pub. In the end I ask a young female member of staff who kindly told me to 'go for it!'. I have learnt to breastfeed very discreetly and soon Megan was a contented baby. Still, I can't say that that was the most relaxing of family dinners. I have never seen Dom eat so quickly, bless him! Pretty soon Megan had done a major poo but we thought we'd wait til we got to the park.

In all the walk was lovely. It was extremely tiring for me as this was the first real exercise I had done since giving birth. Coupled with the heat too! In the end we were in London for 4 1/2 hours. We saw lots of spectacular buildings sweeped in history and many monuments to support major events of the past. We think Megan enjoyed it too. It was good to be in the outdoors for a long period and to do things together as a family. I love this!

Outside the gates of Buckingham Palace

Enjoying the scenery of St James's Park