The Prince and Princess of Wales knew before Prince George was born in July 2013 that their experience of parenthood was going to be different to most. They introduced their baby son to the world on the steps outside St Mary's Hospital and Kate has admitted that she and William had "tried to practice" a difficult moment.
The Prince of Wales took charge of strapping little George into his car seat and securing him safety in the family's vehicle. Doing this with the eyes of the world's media upon him wasn't easy and on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, Kate described using a doll to prepare for it.
"We were like 'What do we do?... in a swaddle?'. 'How's this supposed to work?!'" she told host Giovanna Fletcher in 2020. "We even tried to practice with a little baby, like a little doll, at home".
She admitted "it just never works out the way you planned it so it was quite hard to do that on the world's stage" but added that her husband "did a very good job". By that point the new mum was "keen to get home" with George and William, so she was likely relieved it went so well.
The Princess talked openly about how she had "all the memories of being in hospital because of being sick" when she suffered with Hyperemesis Gravidarum during her pregnancy. She didn't want to "hang around" there and "was really desperate to get home and get back to normality."
Even so, she knew that being at home could be a challenge too. Kate explained she's heard stories from mothers who "took their child out of the car seat and put it on the sofa and didn't want to touch it" because they were so worried about accidentally doing the "wrong thing".
After returning home with her husband and son, the Princess of Wales didn't make a public appearance for another month whilst they spent time as a family and adjusting to parenthood. Unusually for a future Queen, Kate didn't have a full-time nanny at first.
The way she and William confirmed Prince George's birth was also very different too. He was born third in the royal line of succession and the new mum apparently "insisted, with her husband's backing, that the Palace wait four hours" before making the announcement.
According to royal author Christopher Andersen in his book, Kate! The Courage, Grace, and Power of the Woman Who Will Be Queen, this was "so that they could savour the moment in private 'as any young family would.'"
A royal press release was shared that evening and a formal notice of George's birth was also displayed in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. The first official pictures of Prince George were taken in the garden of the Middleton family home in Berkshire by the Princess of Wales's father Michael.
This could be seen as another way that the Waleses were doing things differently and trying to have more privacy in this special time. A family friend previously claimed to the Daily Mail that Michael proposed the idea and wanted to "organize a stress-free photoshoot" and "save them the bother of getting in a photographer".
"It meant the nervous new parents could stop any time they wanted," they alleged.
