There are few things tougher in life than being a first-time parent -- the midnight (and 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.) feedings, the ear-piercing, gut-wrenching meltdowns and the alarmingly overloaded diapers. Now, imagine trying to adjust to all that under the watchful eye of the media.

That's the unenviable position Nicole Richie, 26, and Joel Madden, 28, find they're in a little more than a month after welcoming daughter Harlow.

On Tuesday, the New York Post speculated that the couple's "nanny must be raking in some serious overtime" because of some recent grown-ups-only outings, citing their attendance at several Grammy-weekend soirees and an appearance last Saturday at a Los Angeles hot spot with the Good Charlotte front man's twin brother, Benji.

"It's almost as if they aren't parents," a spy sniped to the paper.

That had some around the blogosphere crying foul, with responses over their excursions ranging from the concisely unconcerned ("So what?") to the sleep-deprived voice of experience ("Every parent deserves quality time to themselves").

That quality time has also included a Feb. 5 diaper run, an innocuous errand that also earned Richie and Madden criticism, both for stepping out sans Harlow (even though some doctors recommend newborns be kept at home for the first six weeks) and for carrying their environmentally friendly 7th Generation diapers in plastic bags.

Given that we're in the Britney era, this level of parental nitpicking isn't surprising, but do a handful of baby-free activities really deserve such censure?

A source close to the couple tells MSN Entertainment that Nicole and Joel are devoted to and "totally smitten" with their baby girl, who has the distinction of having a charitable foundation created in her honor.

Still, points out the insider, "They are human beings who need to get out of the house and interact with the world!"

Joel and Nicole attend the opening celebration for the Eli Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles on Feb. 9.

Among those interactions was a Feb. 9 appearance at the Eli Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles, where Richie's dad Lionel performed (Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman, whose son Max debuted one day after Harlow, were also there), followed later that night by a quick stop at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy bash.

"We have to get home!" Madden was quoted as telling a friend shortly before midnight (per Us Weekly). "[Harlow] only sleeps three hours at a time. She's with Grandma [Nicole's mom] now, but if she wakes up ..."

The next evening, the mag clocked their party-time at exactly three hours and eight minutes, noting that the already-slim-line Nicole noshed on kabobs and "sipped on a tiny glass of champagne."

And what of Richie and Madden's midnight stop at Teddy's last weekend? Seems it was a birthday party for a close friend of Nicole's, and she wanted to surprise him.

"Nicole was having a blast," a spy tells Us Weekly. "She was her old self again -- not in a bad way, but she was letting her hair down."

But it didn't stay down for very long: After about a half-hour, they headed home, where Richie's mom was reportedly keeping an eye on Harlow.

"Me and her mother feel like the luckiest two people alive right now," Madden gushed in a Jan. 23 blog posting. "This time in our life has been amazing. We both look at our little girl every single moment every day and know there is nothing we wouldn't do to protect her and her perfect little innocence."

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