Evolution of a Bath

Is there anything cuter than a baby in a bath tub?  Probably not.

I dare you to look at this photo and not smile.

Our little man is a big fan of his bath time these days. And in the 4 short months that Andrew has been in this world, bath time has evolved - as has is love for them.  His first bath was on day 1 in the hospital.  I was still bed-ridden because of the c-section, but had a ring-side seat for this momentous event.  Rather than take him to the nursery like they did with James, our lovely nurse gave Andrew his first bath in our hospital room.  He didn't like it - TOO COLD - he screamed!!  But he survived.

His second bath was in the kitchen and was a simple sponge bath since his belly button nub was still holding on tight.  He took to it pretty well. There were no screams and I even got a content stare as Daddy sponged him down.

At 3 weeks old, he got his first official bath in the tub.  Again, he took to it pretty well, but he did not crack a smile.  His face was mostly concerned the entire time.  Like a "please-don't-let-me-fall-out-of-this-thing" face followed by a "thank-you-for-the-warm-towel" grin.

Recently, we have changed bath time up a bit for our little guy.  Rather than pull out the baby bath every night, we now toss him in the big tub in the bathroom.  I picked up an oversized tub sponge at Buy Buy Baby for a whopping $6.99 and it has made all the difference at bath time.  We now get  giggles and SMILES!!  Andrew can splash and kick and stretch out those long legs of his - way comfier! Plus we can now get rid of the oversized, plastic baby tub that takes up more space than we have (anyone interested???).  

We can't wait for bath time to evolve into the boys taking one together (uh - hello time saver!), but in the mean time, this makes all parties involved pretty stoked. Rub a dub dub!!

Splish Splash

Since writing the title of this post, this song has been in my head so I thought I would share the wealth and put it into your head too.  You're welcome! :)

Since James is approaching 6 months, he is no longer taking baths on the kitchen counter in his Fisher-Price Rainforest bathtub.  He has graduated to the big boy tub upstairs, and with the help of Daddy, he gets cleaned every night as part of our bed time ritual.  

So a typical weeknight goes something like this:

5:30 pm:   Pick up the big guy from daycare

6:00 pm:   Dinner of oatmeal, a veggie (peas, carrots or sweet potatoes) and fruit for dessert

6:30 pm:   Playtime with Mommy and Daddy on his play mat or in his Jumperoo or ExerSaucer

7:00 pm:   Rubbing of the eyes cues that it is time for a bath!!

We try to sneak a grown up dinner in there somewhere, but once those eyes are rubbed, we know we really only have 20 - 30 minutes before we lose him so we start our night time ritual with a bath.  James plays hard at daycare so we think it is important to clean off all the germs each night.  We set up the tub with the necessities - Moby spout cover, turtle thermometer, bucket of toys, Aveeno wash and natural sponge and the ever important hoodie towel.  His current favs - his elephant towel with his name on the back (thank you Aunt Marissa!) and his froggie towel.

So James and Ed (who is in a bathing suit) hop in the tub and begin Operation: Clean the Bubby.  We clean the belly and the toes and the hands and the tooshie.  The face and neck are next with a separate washcloth and then it's time for the hair.  This kid has a lot of hair these days and it typically has lots of oatmeal in it so Ed goes to town.  James is not a big fan of this part, but he deals.

In between all of this, he splashes.  And splashes and splashes and splashes!!  Ed taught him how to splash and now he LOVES to splash from the moment he gets in the tub to the moment we take him out.  When Ed stops the splashing to wash his face or hair, he actually gets upsets and starts crying.  Such a diva!

Once the bath is over, Mommy takes over. We go into the nursery where we have his favorite tunes playing (Jewel, Lisa Loeb and Jack Johnson are current favs on the playlist) and the lighting is dimmed.    We dry off, diaper up and get a rub down with some lotion.  After dressing in his footie jammies and combing the hair into a proper quaff, it is time to head to the glider for the last bottle of the night, a story from one of his many books and a good night kiss from Mom.  

By 8 pm this kid is in his crib, zipped in his sleep sack and ready for bed.  I don't want to jinx anything by typing this out loud, but he typically falls asleep within minutes without any fussing.  I think he is so stimulated at daycare that he is totally beat and ready for bed.  And again, I hope I don't jinx us by typing this, but we are getting between 9 and 11 straight hours of sleep out of him.  A big change from the 2 to 3 hours for those first few months.  :)

So there you have it.  We anticipate that bath time will soon change again once he learns how to sit up on his own, but until then, bath time serves not only as a nightly ritual, but as bonding time for all of us.  

Rub A Dub Dub

Last night we had the pleasure of giving James his first real bath - Yeah!!! His umbilical cord finally detached after 3 long weeks, so we decided it was time to wash away his grit and grime aka spit-up and Lucy licks.

We set up the rainforest bath tub and all the bathing accessories in the kitchen since the upstairs bathroom is in need of some TLC (new mommy means no time to clean!).

I was a little nervous as to how he would react and was pleasantly surprised to see that he actually liked it. We started at the top, worked our way down and finished with his hair. Truth: we watched a video on BabyCenter.com on how to give your baby a bath. Hey ~ we are novices at this and didn't want to mess up!! :)

After the bath, we dried him off and gave him a baby massage with some lotion - the kid has some seriously dry skin!

Ed then took the opportunity to style his hair - one of Daddy's new favorite things to do!

All in all, it was a great first bath. Hopefully the next one goes as smooth.

Bath Time!

We gave James his first sponge bath this week and I have to say, we did a damn good job. Daddy took charge and made sure that all of his nooks and cranny's were washed. Mommy assisted by keeping the wash clothes warm and wet. Since his umbilical cord is still hanging on, we had to keep him on the counter but we look forward to the day we can have our first official bath.

Mommy took over for the baby massage after the bath which I loved!

I have a feeling that bath time is going to be one of our favorite times with James. :)