Sunday, August 26, 2012

Mission - bathing the baby

i never knew bathing such a tiny person would take such a long time. The doc told us not to bathe the baby until his cord stump would fall off, and we should give him just a sponge bath, if at all. Baby's hair was not smelling good anymore and S and i were on a mission, 'bathe the baby'. We planned so much, and it was time for execution.
We set the room temperature right and S removed baby's clothes. (It took him forever). Then, we took him to the bathroom. The tubs that are available here has a mesh so that the baby's head would be supported by the tub and water would drip off easily. Ok, if we place the baby on the mesh, then how do we lift the head up? There is no space for that so, the baby has to be held by someone and the other has to bathe because if we pour water directly, it may go inside his ears. We could not decide whether to wash the body first or the head. (So much for planning) and while we were doing this, the baby pooped on S and some fell on the floor. S screamed out, 'do something'. What am i supposed to do! The focus suddenly went from baby to S and the floor. i ran and got some paper towels and wiped the floor. The baby, by this time was crying his lungs out as S has kept him dangling in the air. S handed him over to me and removed his shorts. i was visibly pissed as he had been concentrating on himself. i am his wife and i didn't really care in what state of undress he was, i wanted my baby to have a bath. S also found a towel and wrapped himself. i was so angry by then that my pout was about to reach India. S held him and we started bathing him. Baby was still crying and in that anxiety, i poured more water than required, which wet his ears. S reacted. We threw some unpleasant adjectives at each other. In the twenty minutes, we managed to wash only his hair and legs, and decided to leave the rest. My baby was just about 21 inches then. :-) We promised each other to plan better and also ignore smelly hair for sometime.

Now, it is a thing of the past and i bathe my baby effortlessly. It is fun remembering.

3 comments:

Meenakshy said...

:)

austere said...

This sounds as tough as hell.You did a great job.

Stone said...

hahaha, that reminds me our first time bathing the baby - mother-in-law and wifey were doing all that which you mentioned and I was making the video of his first grand-bath after first 2 minutes I got so furious by their clumsiness I threw away the camera and took over the mission :-)
Now that video is classic in our household, it starts with everyone smiling accompanied by my cheerful commentary and within seconds everyone becomes so grim and tense.