Before I had my baby, I went online and watched several videos on how to bathe a newborn. It really helped me feel prepared, and if you are new to parenting, I suggest you do the same. However, below are some things specific to our bath time routine that you might find helpful.
First off, I decided to go with an inexpensive baby bath sponge to place on a counter for sponge baths, then to place right in the tub after our baby's cord stump fell off, rather than a baby bathtub. Those tubs take up a lot of space, and are only used for a short time until your baby can sit up on his/her own. The sponge cost about seven bucks, stores/dries right in my tub, and the warm water soaks in and helps keep my baby warm during bath time.
Speaking of keeping baby warm, my son HATES to be cold. The first month of baths were miserable for everyone, because our son wailed through pretty much the whole thing. We tried running the shower to steam up the room before bath time and turning off the AC, but nothing worked. However, my mom saw a baby bath cozy for sale at a local shop that stopped the tears and made bath time an enjoyable experience. The bath cozy is essentially a fish-shaped towel that you wet with warm bath water and then drape over baby to keep him/her warm. My son LOVES it. From the moment we started using it, he stopped crying at bath time. Now that we know about the concept, we just use a hand towel to drape over him if the bath cozy is dirty. It works like a charm!
My son has sensitive skin, and we couldn't get rid of some skin irritation, despite using a few all-natural baby body washes. My pediatrician just told us to switch to Dove soap for sensitive skin; hopefully it will do the trick! (Edit: It didn't, so I'm going to keep using California Baby unscented body wash and shampoo.)
I hope you find these tips helpful!
