Week 33 - Rub A Dub Dub

Week 33 - Rub A Dub Dub

(3/30/08 - 4/05/08)

One of the more terrifying things that I have ever had to do in my life was give a 4 week old a bath. In some strange way I was more afraid of that then actually giving birth. Fortunately for me (and Paul), Jacob's belly button didn't fall off until he was almost a month old so I had a little more time to get used to a newborn before having to immerse him in water! I come from a very small family and the only two babies in my life were my cousin and my nephew. Since I was 10 when my cousin was born I didn't exactly get picked to hold and carry a newborn around the house. My nephew was born when I was 16, but he lived two hours away and by the time him and my sister moved close to us he was 2 which didn't exactly make for a frightening holding experience. Paul on the other hand has 30 nieces and nephews but still hasn't had a lot of "newborn time". Paul is the go-to guy for the kids once they are walking, talking, and he can goof around with them! So you can see why holding a newborn, bathing a newborn, playing with a newborn, etc....were all very scary things for Paul and I.

From the start Jacob has loved bath time, it has always relaxed him and he would just lay in the baby tub and let us wash him. The progression to the "big boy tub" started pretty early thanks to our extremely tall baby, plus once he decided he wanted to start sitting up all bets were off having him in the baby tub (unless we wanted to use it as a reason to mop our floors!). But as with all of mine and Paul's learning experiences we realized that although he was too big for the little baby tub, he wasn't old enough or sitting well enough for the big tub. We kept Jake in the little tub for as long as possible and then experimented with different ways we could bathe him. The best way was found one day when Jake was dirty from head to toe (the reason I now boycott teething biscuits) and we HAD to wash him. The Sink just wouldn't work, probably because I was behind on the dishes, and because Jake didn't like it, so the big whirlpool tub in our master bathroom was the only option. So Paul and I headed up for the first big bath! Swimming trunks went on Paul and in he took Jake for his first "big boy bath"! Surprisingly enough it worked GREAT!!!!

But as you can imagine it wasn't very practical and I couldn't give Jake a bath like this unless Paul and I both were available to help out. So I went on a mission to find something to help us with bath time. I went online and to a couple of stores until I found the seat above. It works great and allows Jake to splash around and sit without someone in the tub with him. I find that I still get just as wet as if I was in the tub with him, but I guess that is to be expected with a baby who LOVES water! I can't wait to get him in the pool this summer, I wonder if he will like cold water as much as he loves his warm bath water??