In the early church there was a point in the liturgy where the catechumens had to leave. (Some churches still include the lines in their liturgy that says all catechumens must depart, but I don't think many actually enforce it.) So not only were they not allowed to partake of the holy mysteries, but they were not permitted to even stay in the building. In fact, it seems like I read somewhere that they did not enter the nave at all. Obviously, that is not the case in our church although with 3 small children, we certainly spend a good portion of our time in the narthex in case we need to make a quick exit.
What we do, though, is after our baptism, a quick change of clothes, and receiving our crosses we then process around the font 3 times (we looove the number 3 for hopefully obvious reasons) and then enter the nave. New. All the while, the parishioners all around us are singing over and over "As many as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia." It is a lovely practice.
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