The Ever So Helpful Assistants

One of the things that I have been told by many people is that I must let the older sisters help with bathing or changing nappies so that they can feel part of the experience and not so neglected.  Which is great.  In theory…

At the moment I bath Knox in the baby bath in the middle of the lounge.  I guess that might be a bit strange, but the reasons for this is that it gets the beautiful afternoon sun – so the lounge is wonderfully warm, and I can stick him the sun for a couple of minutes (because he is still a bit yellow).  This also means that he is in the prime location for the girls to pounce on him at any given moment, take the soap and pour it on themselves or the floor, or mess with the water and cause a flood in the lounge.

Washing hair is hard work, thankfully Kyla helped me out with the soap.

See what I mean…  They are pretty much on top of him…

Can you tell how much he’s crying at this point?  Making me stress and sweat…  Who needs gym?!

Maybe it’s more clear how upset he is here…

I try and let them help me cream his legs after he’s bathed, but it is all a very traumatic experience for him still, so this just makes it more hectic for him.  So much for the calm, relaxing and zen like moment they talk about in all the baby books…  This puts over stimulation in real context.  But I guess that’s what you get when 2 little people who are still bigger than you accidentally poke you and put water in your face etc.  Although at the end of the day he is cleaner, which is the intended outcome I guess…

But I came up with a solution!

I let the girls bath their own dolls while I bath Knox!  Winning!

Well sort of winning…  Their water landed up all over the carpet and the floor BUT at least Knox (and I) had a relatively peaceful time.