Jake and Dannie 
Lisa is now two months old and I’m starting to get a handle on things. Of course I mean that in the figurative sense - physically handling a two-month-old can be quite difficult. I have found this to be especially true at bath time. At first we stuck to sponge baths since that was what the doctor recommended for newborns, but she screamed and screamed and I thought that bathing her every night would be a mental and physical stress for us and for her!
As she turned 1 month old we started washing her in a little dish tub we bought. It wasn’t particularly easy to keep hold her in the tub. The bigger problem was that I couldn’t really control her movements, keep her head out of the water and use the washcloth to scrub her all at the same time. I always had to call Jake in to help, and we end up just bathing her during the day time and maybe 2-3 times a week. This meant we didn’t get the benefit of a relaxing baby bathing every night before bed.
So when Lisa turned 2 months old (and out grew her tub), I had to find a new solution quick, and after some Amazon search and trial ‘n return (love Amazon’s return policy), I can now proudly say that we now bathe Lisa every night before her bed time and the whole bathing experience has been nothing but pleasant! The secret weapon is the Leachco Safer Bather Infant Bath Pad! It floats in two inches of water and Lisa loves lying on it because it moves around a little and it soaks up the bath water so it’s nice and warm. She doesn’t squirm around nearly as much while she’s on it, so I can control her with one hand while the pillow keeps her head above water. I always keep a warm washcloth on her belly just to make sure she’s warm enough. baths are not only more enjoyable, it’s also easier to bathe her by myself.
The baby bathing pad dries itself pretty quick, I just let it hang over the tub and drain out the water on it’s own, it doesn’t need special maintenance, which is great, so that I can spend less time cleaning up. The packaging says it’s mold resistant (so far so good on that front) But once a week I do hang it out on the lanai to sun dry (we live in Florida so the November sun is still pretty strong).
Of course the hardest parts of taking care of a baby aren’t necessarily the most physically demanding ones. Yes it’s hard to hold her for hours, but sometimes it’s harder to put her down. And it’s hard to wake up in the night to feed her, but it’s harder to walk away from the crib when she starts smiling instead of sleeping. Even when I dreaded the prospect of struggling with a slippery wet baby at bath time, I couldn’t wait to brush her soft hair afterward while she coos, all wrapped up in a towel. Lisa really is teaching me how much I can enjoy motherhood.
