When Judah first arrived and we brought him home I was petrified of giving him a bath. With all the directions and rules the doctor gave me due to his circumcision and his little belly button stump it seemed way too difficult! I turned to my mom for help. She was shocked that I would ask her for help and even more surprised that I hadn’t already given him a bath (we had already been home a few days)!
My mom and I set up the tub in the sink and gathered the needed supplies: thermometer, wash cloth, towel, and baby wash while my husband looked on with the camera. The tub we have has a little sling-like piece that you hook on top of the tub that works like a hammock and keeps the baby from going all the way into the water. I lowered Judah into the sling and the water just barely covered his legs and back. He screamed his head off! It sounded like we were torturing him! For the next couple of weeks, while we were waiting on his stump to fall off, bath time was not enjoyable for me or him! He hated it! My mom thought it was so weird and kept telling me how my brother and I loved the bath when we were infants.
Finally, after his stump fell off, we were able to take the sling off the tub and lower him deeper into the water. Judah didn’t scream, he kicked and splashed! The tub quickly became the thing that soothed him at night and no longer the torture device it was the first few weeks of his life! I guess the sling held him up out of the water and it was too cold. Now he loves bath time. It is so funny, once you begin taking his clothes off he realizes what is going on and he can go from fussy and crying to cooing and smiling! And, we get a kick out him splashing, kicking, and cooing while in the tub. He is wild when you put him in the water. He literally soaks the whole kitchen! Now bath time is MY favorite time too, not the scary thing it was in the beginning! Isn’t it funny how even a baby’s personality and likes/dislikes change so quickly in the beginning – not just their little bodies?
Bath Time Images
