Leave the baby sleeping inside while you walk the dog?
Would it matter if you were in a house or apartment? What floor?
I think I'd bring a dog out in front of a house, but not from an apartment or sound the block or anything. Dh just wanted to know if I could walk the dog while she naps! We are on the third floor in an apt building.
cantaloupe / 6885 posts
I'd never take him for a walk, but I would sit outside on our front porch/back deck while he played in the yard. Luckily I have a lazy, sleepy bulldog who will go for a walk when we take him, but never goes looking for one!
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
@mrbee: my real baby is 5 weeks old, but for hypotheticals sake anywhere from 1 month to 24 months.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
@char54: my dog is very chill and would have waited but she's going to nap then I have to get out the door for an appt so I won't have time until this afternoon. We don't have a yard option.
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@Foodnerd81: I probably wouldn't consider it until the baby was out of the SIDS danger zone?
And then a quick dash out front with the window open so I could hear any cries... I would probably be ok with that! Especially if baby was a good napper by then, and the walk was just to go to the bathroom quickly and then run back in!
persimmon / 1198 posts
By walk do you mean just to use the bathroom, or to expel energy?
I live on the second floor of my building and I would probably bring my dog out to use the bathroom as long as baby was secure. My dog usually just goes in a small grass area we have, and then my husband and I usually take him for walks (to expel energy) in the evening.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
i wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. i'd be ok with going out to let them pee/poo for a few minutes, but not for a walk.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
I was scared to death to leave her alone in the house at 5 weeks old.
I'm in a house with a backyard I could let the dogs out into. IF the baby was downstairs in the family room and I could open the back door and let the dog out and keep an eye on both the dog (no fence, she's not a bolter) and the baby, I would do it. If the baby was asleep upstairs and I had the dog downstairs and she needed more than just pee, no way.
ETA: I wasn't even comfortable running to the mailbox and back when she was under 3 months old and sleeping in the house. The mailbox is like 10 steps out the front door. My fear wasn't that I couldn't run outside and back quickly, it was that someone may stop me, want to talk, and all I would be thinking is "THE BABY IS INSIDE ALONE!" Haha.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
Apartment building scenarios like this are so hard for me. It really depends on the building and the situation.
If its like a high rise where you would have to lock the door, go to an elevator, go out the front entrance, find some grass, then probably not.
If it were just three quick stairs right around the corner with a window or monitor that could reach, and grass right outside the door, then sure.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
@debbiei8: use the bathroom, not a full long walk.
Don't get me wrong- I'm not leaving my five week old alone in the apartment and taking the dog around the neighborhood! More wondering what people's comfort level is.
At my parents house I'd bring the dog to the front to pee for a few mi utes because I'd be within site of the unlocked front door. For me the locked door is a big problem (like on a apt building).
pomegranate / 3872 posts
If I didn't bring my dog out while LO was napping Id have a house full of pee! I figure I use the bathroom, clean, do laundry, etc. while she's sleeping. I just take the dog out to the back yard, he does his business and sniffs around, back inside in 3 or 4 minutes. I wouldn't leave the yard. If we're going to sit out there I'd bring the monitor. If I were running downstairs in an apartment, I'd probably bring the monitor.
squash / 13764 posts
I would bring a dog out to the backyard or out in front of the house, but that's it. I would not leave an apartment with the dog if the baby was sleeping.
grapefruit / 4923 posts
we live in a second floor apartment and my husband has taken the dogs out for a couple of minutes to pee/poo while LO was sleeping. he did this for the first time when i was away for the weekend and LO had gone down for the night. LO was well out of the newborn stage and in a reliable nighttime sleeping routine.
cantaloupe / 6397 posts
I would only go as far as the monitor would allow. I wouldn't feel comfortable otherwise. Luckily we have a yard so I can just let him out!
GOLD / pomegranate / 3938 posts
What kind of apartment building are we talking about? Is anyone worried about this baby being snatched or just injured? I'm slightly freaked out by this whole conversation.
eggplant / 11408 posts
We're in an apartment and will soon be in this position. We have a pretty secure building, and we're on the first floor, so I think I'd be OK letting the dog out behind the building to go pee. I figure, it is such a small apartment that we'd be much closer to the baby doing this than some people likely are on different floors of their homes! Plus, our pup would whine if she wasn't let out, so it seems like the options are a happy pup and sleeping baby or an unhappy pup and unhappy baby. Methinks the first one wins every time 
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@MrsMcD: How would a baby snatching scenario work? I'm assuming there's a deadbolt on the apartment door...
GOLD / pomegranate / 3938 posts
@mrbee: fortunately my sane mind doesn't know how sickos perpetuate baby snatchings from homes. Nevertheless, i think leaving an apartment building for any amount of time and for any distance is treading on thin ice. I imagine there are a lot of entrances/exits and people coming in and out. I wouldn't trust a deadbolt to secure a lo's safety. All so that a dog could pee? Why not wait until the baby is awake to take the dog on a walk?
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
@MrsMcD: Ah ok, for me leaving a big apartment building would also be beyond my comfort level for the first year or so. Then I might talk to Mrs. Bee about options.
I think if you lived on the first floor, used a deadbolt and watched the front door of your building while not going more than a few feet from the front door, the odds of a snatching are about the same as the odds of a home invasion? But those do happen too, so point taken...
clementine / 943 posts
Small apt building and going to the front of it to let the dog pee? Sure, I'd do that. But nowhere that I wouldn't be able to dash up a couple flights of stairs in the case of an emergency. That would be when the baby was a little older (one month or so).
I was terrified to let my baby nap out of my sight the first few weeks!
pineapple / 12234 posts
I wouldn't walk the dog. I would probably only take it out to go and come back w/ the baby monitor. Oh and definitely when older, probably around 3-4 months.
GOLD / pomegranate / 3938 posts
I don't have a little one, and I won't ever have any pets, so can someone please explain why the dogs must be taken out while the baby is asleep? Why not just wait until the baby is away and then take baby outside with you? I'm beginning to think I may become the most paranoid parent in the world when/if I do ever have a baby.
watermelon / 14467 posts
I would walk her in the yard as far as the monitor would allow, but no long walks.
GOLD / wonderful pea / 17697 posts
@MrsMcD: Well I imagine because the dog would need to pee and/or and doesn't use a toilet...
Where I live, I think I would have been comfortable taking a dog out to pee around 6 months. It was about that time I started feeling okay leaving him asleep in his crib while I went to check the mail (~500 feet away), but only ever with the video monitor feed on my phone in hand. I feel like I might have been okayish with it earlier, but we didn't move him into his crib/get a video monitor until then...
ETA: But my apartment has it's own entrance, so I only have one door to get through to get back to him (well two if you count the nursery door).
GOLD / squash / 13464 posts
My rule on baby being alone in the house is that I have to have the video monitor with me and I have to be able to see the exterior of my house. So standing in my next door neighbor's front yard would be fine with me, walking around the block would not.
I think I would be even more uncomfortable with this in an apt building though. I wouldn't like not being able to see the door to my home.
pomegranate / 3032 posts
my only concern would be taking the dog and by accident forgetting my keys and locking myself out. I do this often and in college my husband (then BF) would make me "Show me your keys" before we left to go out. That apt had a door that automatically locked.
eggplant / 11408 posts
@MrsMcD: yes, unfortunately, dogs don't always pee when we want! But honestly, I don't think I would be concerned. Maybe I'm naive, maybe I just don't know what I have coming in a few months, but I genuinely don't see what the big deal is. The front door to our building locks automatically, so as long as I have a key, I'm not concerned about the others in the building. I know they're not coming to break into my apartment because I have left my keys accidentally in the lock all night long, car keys attached, and no one came in, stole anything, or took my car. I was HORRIFIED, and I would HATE to do it with a child in the building, but really, I live with generally trustworthy people. It's a small building, though, so maybe that's why.
ETA: and maybe this is bad, but my thought immediately was, "oh, taking her out while the baby is sleeping sounds so much easier!" In our house, going out to pee often becomes an attempted squirrel safari, which sounds difficult while juggling a baby
nectarine / 2886 posts
We live in a high-rise and DH won't let me take the dog out for a quick bathroom break if LO will be sleeping (alone) in our apartment. His concern is if some emergency comes up like a fire, LO could potentially be stuck in the unit. We end up boarding our dog whenever DH is out of town.
bananas / 9973 posts
No. I would take the dog out to the front or back yard, but not on a walk.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
To the front or back yard, yes. Any further than our property line, no.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
@betsyboop: crap. Even though I posted this hypothetical, I just realized that I am going to be in this situation when Dh goes away for work in a couple of weeks. Luckily she loves being in the moby but three walks a day with the baby is going to be tough! Ugh.
squash / 13199 posts
No I would never leave her to walk the dog, especially not a mobile baby because they could wake up at anytime, plus who knows if some creep has noticed me always leaving without my baby, they might try to do something.. I dont know I worry too much to leave her
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
This is why we bought the house we did with a fenced in backyard. I didn't want to have to worry about these things, I can just let the dog out back.
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