by Kelly Wilbanks posted in Parenting

The first time I gave our newborn a bath it didn't go so well. My sweet Vivianne was only a few days old, she still had her umbilical cord attached, and she was not happy. I saw it as one of her first milestones and I wanted it to be special. But she shrieked throughout the bath as though she was being tortured.

I thought I'd done everything right, but she was not convinced. Oh, those long-suffering firstborns! We eventually figured out how to make our babies happy while they bathed, and it's easier than you might think. By the time we had Annie, our third baby girl, we were pros.
Now that I know what I'm doing, here is my advice to make that first bath a special moment.
First, don't think you have to bathe your baby right away. There is a movement growing in favor of delaying that first bath. I decided to do just that with my third daughter, Annie, and I don't regret it. She technically got her first "bath" in the hospital when they cleaned stray birth goop from her hair, but we chose to only tidy her up for the next 14 days.
Two weeks later she had a little more fat on her, her umbilical cord had come off, and she had some obvious hygienic needs. Even then we didn't fill up the tub and submerge her. We took a gentle and FAST approach. It was basically a sponge-bath with a strategic plan in place to make sure she didn't get cold, her neck-folds were managed, and she was in a towel and drying off within five minutes....