November 21, 2014

In eight full weeks, I have yet to produce a post entirely about baths.  Shocking!

I have lots to say about this subject.  A Facebook post about a French nurse’s bathing technique for newborns changed my whole thinking on the matter.  Before watching this video, I was among the millions of new moms who struggled to choose among competing bath apparatuses.  Do I use the whale tub? or the mesh baby recliner?  Which whale tub do I use?  (because goodness knows I now have five of them from friends with toddlers…  apparently there is only one option in plastic tubs — the whale tub!)

Okay…. So I went with the mesh baby recliner.  How do I keep the baby wet enough to keep her warm with all the water rushing straight through the mesh to the countertop?  How do I keep the baby on the mesh recliner without straps and snaps?  Why would anybody want to bathe in a mesh recliner?

And then I watched this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx-SwXgrefs

After pondering the likelihood that I would drown the baby and hoping the odds would be in my favor, I decided to try it.  Selah June is rather colicky, and we’ve tried many many things to help calm her down — especially during the evening witching hour.  This is one of the few predictable things that will make her little body relax.  She loves floating around in the sink full of water.  She loves the warm water ladled over her head full of hair.  She loves the full body massage we give her after bath time is done.  And I love her loving bath time.

On another related note:  How do infants get so much crap between their toes?