Bath time

      Hi!  I am a water bunny.

Hi Everyone,

Sophie's favourite time of the day is the evening bath.

Unlike most babies (I am speculating ofcourse!), she likes a hot bath, and I mean boiling hot, none of that  luke warm stuff either.

I think this was because I had a hot bath every night during pregnancy.  You see...when I was sore from the head down, and carrying all this extra weight but unable to go to the pool because of my eczema, that was the only solution.

I found as Sophie grew inside me, the hot water seemed to calm her down too. Perhaps because I was calm, and that had a spill on effect?! I'm not sure, but its paid off now!

Her first three baths were drawn by my mum and Andrew, and they were regulation luke warm.  She whimpered the whole time and looked at us with pleading puppy dog eyes.  So we made it like a military operation and resigned ourselves to this as some kind of baby torture scenario.

Then I took over, and on a whim decided to up the temperature.  She took to it like a duckling to water.  Before long we were getting splashes and a very placid baby.

Andrew was against daily washing at first, but after a couple of weeks, even he was convinced that we have a water baby on our hands.

During her most colicky, she would be crying her head off all the way till we dip her foot in the water.  Then miraculously it's like a switch has been flicked and she stops all her struggling and crying and kind of splay her body and turns very still.

Once she is in the water and we start wetting her hair (gotta keep them clean too, right?!), then her body completely relaxes and she gets this serene and very pleased look on her face.

Very occasionally we get a small smile, but its like we are not there.  She just chills out and blocks everything out to enjoy her carefree moment.

By the second month, Andrew added skin to skin with her before her bath, and that seemed to help father and daughter bond, and also calms her down too.  They also look absolutely adorable nestled together!

Since she has all that hair, it's a two person job to dry it too.  Andrew stands in the bathroom with the hair dryer and I stand just inside the bathroom with her held in my arms.  The look on her face is like a lizard basking in the first rays of the sun after a cold night.  Quite something to witness as she will be placid in the water, but might cry her eyes out putting clothes on.  But once she feels the hot air from the hair dryer, she is back to being placid again.  Weird huh?!

Since we don't want her nakedness all over the Internet, you'll just have to settle with her in her favourite bath towels.

      Sophie zoned out from the bath.