McKenna's First Bath

There are some milestones and events of a newborn's life that people inadvertently place fear into the hearts of new parents (namely, every new experience that occurs). I would imagine that the anxiety alone is enough to make it a difficult experience for both parents and baby. The First Bath is no different.  It is so common to hear that Babies HATE baths (envisioning a crying, shrilling, cold, shivering baby is enough to make me upset!). So naturally, there was a bit of anxiety on my behalf (Kevin has yet to really experience any major sort of anxiety, aside from hearing his Lil Princess cry for more than 20 seconds).

We had already given McKenna a sponge bath the previous week that went relatively smoothly.  She was whining most of the sponge bath but not shrilling (though she doesn't look very happy in the pictures). Luckily Daddy did a stupendous job and that went rather quickly.

When her umbilical cord finally fell off (perfectly timed just hours before her newborn photo shoot) we knew it was time for The First Bath.  I was excited to get the adorable bathtub out and see what it was all about, but was still nervous about her crying through the whole thing.

Daddy headed up Bath time. We ended up with the Fisher-Price Animal Cracker Rinsin' Fun Tub -- it had everything I was looking for and I love the soft colors and neutral design (and it matched the Baby swing we got :-). We found no need to keep the tub in the kitchen or bathroom, we thought it would be better to have it somewhere we could easily hold on to McKenna (and without overhead lights beaming on her face).

The mesh newborn add-in looked way too small for any full-term baby to fit in, but I was wrong.  She fit snugly in with just a little bit of her body resting in the water..... AND SHE LOVED IT.

 

I think she was more upset when bathtime was over, though she didn't seem chilly whatsoever (then again, Kevin has repeatedly told me how hot I have been keeping the house!).

In a continued effort to establish breastfeeding and bonding (which I will get to in a subsequent post), a few days later we attempted McKenna taking a bath with me, and she loved that even more! Sorry, no pictures LOL. She loved being submerged (though for my own anxiety wasn't too deep), she stretched her legs out, and even enjoyed the back of her head floating in the water.  I was too scared to put her ears under just yet. I know, I'm crazy. I'm also a first time Mommy that has NO CLUE what she is doing!  If you try this, I would recommend having Hubby or your significant other there to hand her off and take her once the bath is done so you aren't trying to get in and out of the bathtub with a slippery baby.

So, not all babies hate baths... there is hope!  Makes me want to ignore EVERY piece of advice about what babies "Love" and "Hate" because each baby truly is unique.  And we are happy to promote our little one being a little fishy so we can utilize the pool when summer temperatures return (though the high outside today is in the 80s, the pool temperature will take a while to get back to enjoyable).