Oh, those were the days...

Every time I call my mother and tell her how fussy Desmond's being, she always says one of two things:

"He just wants boobies."

"Give my baby a warmy bath.  He'll calm down...you'll see."

So, if he fusses, I offer him lunch and, just recently, a warm bath.  I've never in Desmond's life seen him this serene and happy.  Why had we never tried this before?  Well, Desmond used to dislike bath time.  Maybe being exposed to the cooler air in the bathroom or kitchen during bathtime made him uncomfortable.  He would tolerate it for a few minutes, but then freak out.  Bathtime became this sort of rushed thing: take clothes of Desmond, quickly take him into his bath hammock where I would start pouring warm water over him, rub foamy Johnson & Johnson natural bath soap all over his baby bits, flip him over onto his tummy, rub more soap all over, wash off, wash face and head last, lift him up and finagle him into his bath towel quickly, run to the changing table holding him closely so he doesn't get too cold, wait for his screaming to subside, put him on the changing table, finish drying him off, put his jammies on, and then pick him up, rocking him to soothe him.  Phew!  We did it.  No wonder we only do it twice a week, if that.

This is probably not the best picture, but it's one of the few where his entire baby junk isn't showing.  God forbid I attract some sort of internet troll looking for stuff like that.  I know what it's like...I watch Law and Order SVU...dun dun.  

Anyhow, Desmond got his vaccinations today (5 in all!) during his 2 month well-baby checkup.  He was such a good little guy and only cried a little bit.  Well, a lot but only for a little bit.  I bought some generic acetaminophen (TYLENOL has been recalled due to musty odor in some of their products) and gave him the required amount.  All day, he's been on and off fussy and I could just empathize with him, having known firsthand the pain in the ass that is getting a vaccine.  So, I decided that what would relax me the most would make Desmond relax, too: a nice, warm bath.  

Now, my mother has suggested a warm bath several times now, but I haven't wanted to do it.  First of all, sitting in my own dirtyish water kind of repulses me, especially after having labored in my tub for several hours and after having leaked tons of amniotic fluid into it (don't worry.  I clean my tub.  There is no residual preggo goop anywhere); second, I shower every morning, so taking a bath to get clean is kind of redundant; finally, I saw this episode on House about a woman suffering from post-partum depression and, as she was taking a bath with her infant, had a seizure and the baby drowned.  I'm terrified that something similar will happen to me.

Tonight I attended my first Zumba class.  I'm trying to get back in shape and have been taking some yoga classes and wanted to mix it up a bit with a zumba class.  Zumba is basically just a dance class where you dance to latin music.  It's a lot of fun, but 20 minutes into the class and I already thought about quitting.  There were women in their 50s in there who were dancing and keeping up better than me.  I used to be a great dancer and could dance on my toes several hours a day; now I can't even keep up in an aerobics class.  Anyway, so I get home soooo tired.  I've got blisters on the bottoms of my big toes and I can barely walk.  A warm bath sounded like heaven.  

So I ask Billy to grab Desmond, I grabbed the portable heater from our bedroom, and I filled up the tub.  I got in and leaned back.  Billy handed Desmond over to me and I gingerly placed him in the water.  At first, since it was such a new sensation, Desmond startled a bit and started crying, but as soon as I started pouring water down his back and held him against my tummy and chest, he relaxed.  And guess what.  He LOVES the water.  I hold his head, making sure not to get any water into his ears, while he leans back and floats.  We put some rubber duckies into the water and everything was just beautiful.

We have a really cool antique tub without the claw feet.  Pirate HATES getting wet, but he had never seen a sight like that before and was wondering what we were doing.

Strategically-placed rubber duckie...Desmond is really good at floating.

 Look at how happy he is!

He's making an "awww shucks" movement with his arm...or an "off to work we go" jab

As Desmond was enjoying his first real bath, Billy goes, "Do you think this is the first time he's felt like he was back inside?  Do you think he's thinking...'Oh, those were the days?'"

I have no idea, but I would suppose that's part of the reason he's so happy and content.  

Or maybe it's just because he peed in the water.