One of the church's early liturgical documents is the "Apostolic Traditions" of Hyppolytus. This appears to date from the third century, though the extant manuscripts in Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic and Latin are much later.

The following is the first paragraph of section 21, under the heading "Of the conferring of holy baptism", from the edition "Hyppolytus: A Text for Students", by Geoffrey Cuming (Grove Books, 1976), page 18.

21. At the time when the cock crows, first let prayer be made over the water. Let the water be flowing in the font or poured over it. Let it be thus unless there is some necessity; if the necessity is permanent and urgent, use what water you can find. They shall take off their clothes. Baptize the little ones first. All those who can speak for themselves shall do so. As for those who cannot speak for themselves, their parents or someone from their family shall speak for them. Then baptize the men, and lastly the women, who shall have loosened all their hair, and laid down the gold and silver ornaments which they have on them. Let no-one take any alien object down into the water.

This is to take place on a Sunday. Earlier in the document there are instructions about preparing for baptism, starting on the preceding Thursday. Part of this states "And if a woman is in her period, let her be put aside, and receive baptims another day."

Clothes were to be put on after baptims and before receiving communion.