How long between Birth & Baptism

[StrictCatholicGirl]

so i guess i should have shopped around at all the parishes till i found someone to do it.

Or you can use this time for education and preparation.

Can. 850 Baptism is administered according to the rite prescribed in the approved liturgical books, except in a case of urgent necessity when only those elements which are required for the validity of the sacrament must be observed.

Can. 851 The celebration of baptism should be properly prepared. Accordingly:

2° the parents of a child who is to be baptized, and those who are to undertake the office of sponsors, are to be suitably instructed on the meaning of this sacrament and the obligations attaching to it. The parish priest is to see to it that either he or others duly prepare the parents, by means of pastoral advice and indeed by prayer together; a number of families might be brought together for this purpose and, where possible, each family visited.

Can. 853 Apart from a case of necessity, the water to be used in conferring baptism is to be blessed, in accordance with the provisions of the liturgical books.

Can. 857 §1 Apart from a case of necessity, the proper place for baptism is a church or an oratory.

§2 As a rule and unless a just reason suggests otherwise, an adult is to be baptized in his or her proper parish church, and an infant in the proper parish church of the parents.

Can. 859 If, because of distance or other circumstances, the person to be baptized cannot without grave inconvenience go or be brought to the parish church or the oratory mentioned in can. 858 §2, baptism may and must be conferred in some other church or oratory which is nearer, or even in some other fitting place.

[savienu]

My daughter is getting baptised on Sunday. She's 5 weeks old. I wasn't aware I was supposed to do it within a month, and I've never heard that stated anywhere. I just called the priest and we set a date. I thought  6 weeks (right around the time of the mother's churching?) was normal now that babies aren't (for the most part) in imminent danger of dying anymore?

[mamalove]

all of my post conversion babies were baptized before they were 2 weeks old.  my baby who died before he was born, we baptized him when he was born.  our TLM priest told us to baptize him, even though he had died in the womb.

[SouthernCross]

We have done it at about 1 1/2 weeks. 

We had a priest tell us in catechism that the mother doesn't have to be there.  Well, in the old days in France for example, I am sure that the father could walk the infant over to the church next door to the hospital and come right back.  As it is for traddies nowadays where there is a good chance you have quite a drive to get to the closest TLM parish it is a little bit different.  Babies and mothers just need to be around each other and should not be apart.  I don't like taking babies out of the house so young, but of course baptism is the first order of business and then stay home for the rest of the first month.

It is traditional that the unbaptized baby is not taken into the church until the actual baptism.

One reason I have heard to have early baptism nowadays even when you can expect most infants to survive without a problem is to remove the child from the influence of the devil.

[CanadianCatholic]

I just dont see any point in waiting. You never know what could happen. My best friend, that lost her baby, he dies from the group B strep infection. he was born with an un detected immune disorder, and had he not caught that infection, they would have brought him home, and a slight sniffle would have killed him, without them even knowing there was a problem to begin with. I know Im probably being paranoid, but it just scares me so bad.