Bitty's first Bath(s)

The hospital at OU has an interesting policy about babies and baths. When a baby is first born they clean her off thoroughly, but don't actually wash her. They say this is because newborns have difficulty regulating their temperatures and they want three consistent temperatures before they bathe the baby. This made perfect sense when we were on our tour before Maggie was born. On the day of though, it was a little disconcerting. The problem is that what they have been swimming in just doesn't smell that good. So, you have adorable, yet stinky kid for awhile. In our case, it was more than six hours when we finally asked if they could please bathe her. The recovery nurse seemed surprised that this hadn't been done up up in L&D, but took care of it for us while doing some other minor procedures (blood draws for screens, etc).

I can't really consider that her first bath as we didn't get to participate or witness it. Therefore, I'm going to say her first bath was on the eighth with my mom and I. We had been hanging out with B when my mom asked him if he'd like to help give Maggie a bath. He was all about it and knew just what to do. He herded everyone into his bathroom and told my mom to take off Maggie's clothes, then her diaper and then proceeded to direct the drawing of the water. Brent had the presence of mind to take some photos and videos of the event. However, the whole thing went quickly downhill as she started screaming bloody murder. B fled the scene and Brent says the video is kind of pointless with all the screaming and people hurrying around. In any case, this was just a quick rag bath as she still had her umbilical cord, but good to clean her off a bit. It was neat to do this with my mom just as I had with B previously.

I was, however, a bit worried when it came time for her "real" bath on Wednesday. Granted there isn't much difference between the rag baths and real baths at this age, but her sling in the tub (borrowed from Cousin John- Thanks!) did rest in some water so part of her was underwater for some of it. Brent did the honors this time and I did the photos. B was awake, but busy playing trains naked following his own bath. Luckily, she handled this bath alot better and seemed to mostly quietly enjoy it other than the attempts at cleaning the belly button which she is very sensitive about. In her defense, it is still bloody and oozy so I'm sure it isn't very comfortable. She also resisted the whole being cold and wet afterwards as we tried to dry her off and get her dressed in her fun footie pjs. Overall, after another try on Thursday, I think she is generally pro-bath and very cute with downy wet hair and sweet smooth skin just after.