Michael’s First Bath

We don’t bath our newborns very often in the beginning.  Since they are born in water, their first bath won’t be before they are 5 - 6 days old.  All the vernix that cover the skin and which is the best ‘cream’ you will ever find, can then been absorbed and prevents a dry skin.

On Wednesday night 22h00 we gave Michael his first bath.  The house was quiet and peaceful, we dimmed the lights and introduced him to his first bath.  Since our 3rd baby, Josua, our newborn babies bath with either me or Christo in the big bath.  They don’t get a fright of being all alone in the water and it is a special time of bonding between baby and especially dad, who is working all day and only have a little time with our newborn baby!

We don’t wash them with all kinds of baby shampoo’s and baby lotions.  We only use a white unscented  tea tree soap, to wash their bodies and hair.  With the first bath we don’t even wash them with soap, we just let them get used to the water and being without clothes.  We also dissolve 2 cups of Epson salts in the bath.  It is excellent to sooth the muscles (and for us woman an amazing tonic for the hair, leaving your hair bouncy and shiny) You will most probably still remember how newborns, when they are in the water with nothing to cover their body, throw their arms in the air and start crying because of the ‘unsafe emptiness’ which they are not used too. So I wrapped Michael in a cloth nappy 

and put him in his Dad’s arms, who carefully emerged him into the water.  While I gave him to his dad in the bath, I gave him my pinkie finger, to suck on.  Your pinkie finger is an excellent dummy! (Make sure your nail is trimmed short) Not one of my babies ever had a dummy, their dummy is either my breast or my pinkie.  This keeps me attached to my baby and I save myself the trouble to get them off a dummy sometime in the future.

Michael enjoyed his first bath soooo much! He didn’t even cry once! He just laid in his daddy’s safe arms and almost fell asleep of the warm, soothing water.  Just before we took him out of the water, we slowly let the cloth nappy drop from his body in the water and then I wrapped him in his towel, as Daddy hands him over to me. 

My babies normally don’t want to get out of the water and only then start to cry.  Then my pinkie finger is ready again to sooth him.

This is how we bath our newborns!  No pain, no fuss.