AIBU - The Baby Bath Incident

Blimey, what a bloody palaver!

Clean the sink
Rinse the sink
Place clean towel in bottom of sink
Fill sink with water
Add baby
Support baby's head and neck with hand
Gently wash baby with other hand
Remove baby
Dry baby

Job done
No bloody drama
Everyone happy

Hope that helps

Apparatus? Stop being so ridiculous and wash the baby in the sink ffs 😂

I’d leave it to your DP to deal with. Sounds he would be happy to go round and collect it. Seems a ridiculous thing for everyone to be getting het up about tbh.

She's being a dick. Maybe jealous you have the shiny new baby?

line the bathroom sink with a towel to stop slips and cradle baby in warm water. If not deep enough, use running warm water or even a warm wet towel you refresh to lay on his tummy. You could also maybe buy a washing up bowl or bucket?

good luck, colic is awful.

I presume she's sold the bath and thus, no longer has it to give to you.

The only behaviour you can control here is yours. It doesn’t matter whether your SiL has sold the bath or has planted petunias in it. Either you buy a bath or use a bucket/sink as suggested. You pad it with towels and use your arm to support the baby’s head.

@ExhaustedRaccoon Your SIL is very unkind. Have you tried a flannel wrung out in warm water? Lay it gently on baby’s bare tum. It was many years ago but it helped my DS when he had colic.

I’m sorry but I’m not washing my 8 week in a sink, where he will become slippery with the water and possibly aggravate any colic/reflux he has. I’d rather be safe and use the correct apparatus that are made for babies!

You're being ridiculous. You don't need special "apparatus" to wash a baby in a sink. If you can't hold the baby safely whilst washing him, I'd have to question your fitness to look after any baby.

I bought a spiffy bath for baby no. 1. It was a faff filling and emptying it, and really quite uncomfortable bending over it to wash him. I rather quickly discovered that the bathroom basin was way easier and at the ideal height for washing tiny babies, and stuck with that for nos. 2 and 3. Spiffy bath became a mini paddling pool in the garden.

Much ado about nothing.

You’re all being unreasonable.

YABU and precious about not washing your baby in the kitchen sink. It’s absolutely safe to do so and your partner’s OCD is irrelevant.

I suspect the bath has been sold .

“I’m sorry but I’m not washing my 8 week in a sink, where he will become slippery with the water and possibly aggravate any colic/reflux he has. I’d rather be safe and use the correct apparatus that are made for babies!”

for decades, probably longer, women have managed without specific shaped baby baths 😂😂😂

‘A slippery baby is not more likely to experience colic 😂😂

Or (crazy idea maybe to some)

SiL stops being a selfish cow and helps her tiny nephew, brother and his wife by giving the damn baby bath

It’s not a crazy idea to anyone. But how do you propose they make SIL cooperate exactly? They CANT force her to hand over the baby bath that she probably doesn’t even have, they CAN bath the baby in the sink. HTH.

A baby is no more slippery in the sink than the bath. It's really not hard to bath a baby of that age. Never bothered with baby baths or bath chairs for mine and they all survived.
Also bathing a baby in a sink is not going to affect their colic or reflux, why on earth would it? It's the same water as you'd use if it was a bath.
I appreciate you've not long had a baby but you sound like incredibly hard work.

Exactly !!
This is one of those threads where the first few posts are weirdly anti the op and then everyone else just overly agrees for no particular reason .

It is like this more and more on Mumsnet for no real reason .

If my SIL was in my country for two weeks and wanted to borrow a baby bath for her tiny baby I would lend it to her no question, and I would bath my sodding toddler in the sink or put them in the shower, before I let a new mum of two have a crappy fortnight.

Also the 'OCD is irrelevant' comments are very unhelpful. Op's husband is already out of his normal routine which could be making the OCD worse. Anything that can alleviate that is best.

I’m just amazed you’ve taken a newborn to Italy in August! Poor thing must be so uncomfortable

PS I also agree she’s being a dick, and may well already have sold it/lent it to someone. In which case, take the excellent advice here and do what mothers have done for generations and use a sink! I hope your baby feels better soon.

Yes poor thing must be the only baby in Italy right now 🙄

Your SIL is the one being ridiculous, and your MIL is being a total wet blanket.

It’s irrelevant whether people on MN think MIL shouldn’t have bought things for her own house for all the GC to share- she did, and the equipment should be there.

It’s irrelevant whether MNers bathed their own babies in the kitchen sink/ bathroom sink/ pond/ cattle trough/ dog bowl - the OP is perfectly reasonable to want to bath her baby in the baby bath which was bought for her children to use.

Why should everyone else be inconvenienced because SIL is throwing a possessive strop over something which isn’t hers and she doesn’t use?

I think babies do also come from Italy sometimes

I can understand if she uses it every night as part of her routine, though i would probably have let you use it for a few nights. If it helps, my dd loved bathtime but it just fired her up for another round of manic activity 😄. Definitely wasn't calming before bedtime.

@ExhaustedRaccoon get in the bath yourself and take the baby with you. He'll benefit both from the bath and the cuddle/skin to skin contact.

Try and do what you can to limit the impact of your anxiety and your DH's OCD on your children. They will pick up on this energy earlier than you think.

I found it hard. Glad I don’t have friends like you. I’m a very competent mother of 3, but I found bathing them tricky and they were so little and slippery.

"I appreciate you've not long had a baby but you sound like incredibly hard work"

When you typed that, did you feel really pleased with yourself ? Embarrassing.

When my second baby was 8 weeks old I was second guessing all my decisions and crying a lot. If I had been the OP of this thread I would not ever have used Mumsnet again !