January 9, 2015 - Give a baby a bath

Okay a quick disclaimer: I didn't give an actual baby a bath. My skillz (yes, clearly that deserves a "z") just aren't there yet, and I didn't feel comfortable with the real thing. I'll get there one day (I hope so or least, otherwise I'll be sending the Smelly Kid to school).

My parents have both fondly told me how they used to bath my brother and I in the sink (after removing all of the sharp objects).  I think this is an experience that most of us have in our collective memories. I'm willing to bet that most of the people reading this have been treated like dishware by their parents at some point in their lives.

I wanted to try my hand at this task.  So last night after work, I started to practice. First, I had to find a messy baby. Luckily, I had one lying around.

A fan of mustard

My dad said that what my mom used to do was put a towel down in the bottom of the sink after giving it a thorough scrub down. I did the same here.

Ready for bath time!

I filled the sink up with only a few inches of warm water.  It should come as no surprise to anyone, but babies are kinda delicate.  In fact, they can get third degree burns in 140 degree water in less than a few minutes (the average shower temperature is close to 110, so you can see that we are not talking about scalding water here).  Once it was filled, I turned off the water per the recommendation of thebabycenter.com.  According to this site, it is important to do this because the water can quickly become too deep or too hot if it is left running.

Next, I had to disrobe the baby and then slowly lower her feet first. I was sure to support her neck, because I know that this is something that will have to happen with Nugget.  With my large noggin (and with Elizabeth's equally bulbous cranium), that's a good chance he's going to end up looking a bit like Hey Arnold.

She cleans up quite well.

To make sure she stayed warm, I kept pouring water over her.  Babies often find warm water soothing because it reminds them of the nine months they spent floating in amniotic fluid (like everything else I've read about babies, there's research that says that many babies HATE baths...can I get a straight answer about anything?!)

I used my hands, but a cup works just fine for this process

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The key was to make sure that I was constantly making sure that she was supported and that I was attentive.  According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, unintentional drowning is the leading cause of death among children 1 to 4 years old.  It only takes a few inches of water for this to take place.   This is a terrifying prospect, and it illustrates just how fragile life is at this stage.  But this exercise was helpful because it continued increasing my focus.  I am responsible for another person now, and I can't lose sight of that even for a moment.

Once the baby was cleaned, I began the process of drying her.  Normally, this would have involved a dry, hooded towel and a soft touch.  I learned that through all of this, you don't want to scrub vigorously.  But since this was a baby doll, I went another route...

Dry!