Please tell me about your bath routine

sweetpea2003

Good morning!

Do you bath them together, every other night (and bath separately), a combination?

Right now DS isn't reliable sitting up so I can't trust him in the tub with DD.  Last night I put him in his toddler tub IN the bathtub with DD.  It worked fairly well.  I washed DS while DD played, then let DS splash around while I cleaned DD, then took DS out and dried him off and let DD play a little more (she LOVES the bath and could spend hours in there).  But in the end, I had two wet babies and had to rush to get them in their jammies before I had a double sized meltdown on my hands.  I am thinking maybe bathing separately would be better for the time being?

DH just deployed and won't be home until December so I am flying solo on this one.  Any advice, tools of the trade, etc. would be MUCH appreciated.

Also... do you recommend bath seats?  I have thought about it, but the ones I am looking at (that open and close to allow big babies to be put easily in and out) are almost $30.  I don't want to spend $30 on something that isn't going to really help me.  I forget when DD started sitting in the tub on her own....

Help!

roundtheworldgirl

I posted our bath routine in the post down the page about Irish twins about bed/bathtime.  I'll paste my response below in a sec.  But first I wanted to tell you that a bath seat for DD2 made bathing SO much easier.  We live overseas, so I can't link to the one we bought, but it's similar to this.

 

Totally worth the cost.  Ours has suction cups on the bottom so DD2 doesn't move, DD1 can't knock her over, and it keeps our hands free.  DD2 sits up on her own now, but I still don't want her doing it in the tub with DD1 - it's a recipe for a cracked skull.  I imagine we'll be using this seat for several more months.

 

OK, here's our routine, as told on Tuesday:

Mine are almost-Irish twins.  DD1 is 19.5 months, and DD2 is 7 months.  I just did bathtime and bedtime alone tonight because DH plays basketball on Tuesday evenings.

We bathe them together.  I have a bath seat that DD2 can sit in without falling out, so I have my hands free.  When it's time to take them out, I take out DD2 first, and wrap her in a towel on the bathroom floor.  Then I take DD1 out, wrap her in a towel, and let her walk to the nursery (they share a room) while I carry DD2.  Then I put DD2 in the crib, still wrapped in her towel, while I cream up DD1 and put her in her night diaper and pjs.  Then I lotion up DD2, diaper, and jammies.  I nurse DD2 in the glider while DD1 plays on the floor.  After that, we do prayers, and then DD2 goes in the crib, where she inevitably rotates around on her belly so she can look at me and DD1 while we read books in the glider.  Then lights out, and I continue to rock DD1 while I sing to them.  Then DD1 goes into the crib.

(This is not totally ideal, because DD2 could really go down 45-60 minutes earlier than DD1.  On nights when DH and I are both home, I usually put DD2 down around 7:15, and then he follows with DD2 at 8 p.m.  But when we're doing it solo, things are a bit different.)

We did not get to this point until a couple months ago, though.  Before that, we bathed them separately.  DH always did DD1's baths (every other night), and DD2 got a bath every 4-5 days or so - I usually just got in the tub with her.  We didn't get a routine going until DD2 was about 5 months.

 

sweetpea2003

Thank you!

Yes, ideally my kids like to go to bed about 45 minutes apart.  DS is fading at about 6:30 these days while DD is ready by 7:30.  Last night we had been out so it was 7:00 when we got them in the bath and DS was a little fussy.

I appreciate the input on the bath seat.  I posed the question on FB the other night and was shocked at the sheer volume of opinions I got.  I ended up with 25+ responses from friends - mostly negative - and it discouraged me.  But after last night (my first attempt at bathing them together) I feel like it might be the "easiest" way!

 

mrsseguin

Here's how we bathe them together...

I fill the tub with a few inches of water.  Put the baby at the back of the tub and DS in the front with a few toys.  I bathe the baby, DS has never bothered with her...he's too busy playing with the toys.  When she's done I take her out and get her dried and dressed in the bathroom.  Then she goes in her bouncy and stays in there till DS is done.  We add more water to the bath then bathe DS as usual.  DH actually did this the first time and showed me...I always bathed them separately.  It works great if they both need baths! 

roundtheworldgirl

I forgot to mention what I do when I need to put DD2 down earlier than DD1, and I'm on my own.  I still bathe them together at 7 ish.  Then we go into the nursery, and I dress them, but let DD1 play on the floor for awhile while I nurse and rock DD2.  Once DD2 is down, depending on what time it is and how tired DD1 is, we'll either go play elsewhere for a bit, or I'll start putting her down.

NavyPilotWife

This is my response from another thread: 

 Bath:  I fill up tub (just a few inches) and then I put water in the baby tub,which I put in the big tub.  I put DD1 in the tub with her toys, while undressing #2 in the bathroom.  I wash #2 quickly and then dry her off, put on some lotion, and get her dressed (all done in the bathroom).  At that point #1 has had plenty of time to play, so I wash her quickly.  Then I take both girls to #1's room to finish getting her ready.  If I'm extra tired at the end of the day, I will bathe them in the morning.  Both girls have sensitive skin, so I only wash them every other day.

Mr.&MrsS

I have bathed the boys together since DS2 was about 3 months old. I have been flamed for this on here before...but we put DS2 in the Bumbo in the tub. Sure, that is not the intended use but I was right there at all times. It wasnt like I was leaving him unattended, I didnt worry about his safety.

We do baths every night, usually around 6:30-7ish. They both love bath time, so they get in the tub, play for a while then I wash up one, then the other. When getting out I usually took out DS2 first and dried him off. (When they were younger I would bring diapers and pjs into the bathroom and just dress them there. I would dress DS2 while DS1 played in the tub...that way he wouldnt get cold while waiting.)

howleyshell

We did the same - put the baby tub inside the regular tub.

When we took the baby out to dry him off we'd take out the baby tub too.

Then while drying and dressing the baby we let the toddler stay in the tub and play.

So - dry happy baby tucked into a bouncy while getting the toddler out and drying him off.

Worked well for us!

We never did a bath seat - just let him sit up in the infant tub inside the regular tub until he was ready to sit up in the regular tub.