Bathtime

Baby used to love bathtime.  She would stand eagerly at the side of the tub as we filled it with water.  We would line her toys up on the ledge so she could toss them in and laugh at the splash they made.  Husband and I looked forward to bathtime because it was a good bonding time (and the person not giving the bath was able to clean the kitchen!). 

Then something changed.

I have no idea what it was.

All of a sudden Baby did not like bathtime anymore.  We would start the bath and she would run the other direction.  We would toss her toys in the water like we used to and she wanted nothing to do with them.  We would dangle her toes in and she would start to cry and do the sign for all done (it's so hard to ignore that!). 

When we would ignore her, she would start screaming at the top of her lungs.  Whoever was giving her the bath would move as quickly as they possible could to wash her off and get her out of there.  It was no longer a fun thing to do with Baby and Husband and I would attempt to negotiate with each other whenever it was our turn to give her a bath.  

In order to ease her fears (I read that babies start to develop irrational fears around this age, or attempt to assert their independence.  In this case, I think Baby developed an irrational fear.  Seriously.  You should have heard the way she was screaming), I started taking baths with her.  She would let me hold her in the bathtub and wash her down without any crying.  If I tried to get out, however, she wanted out with me. 

I even convinced Husband to put his swimsuit on and sit in the tub with her for bathtime.  Needless to say, I became the primary bath giver. 

Fast forward a month and a half later and Baby is happy in the bath again.  I slowly transitioned my way out of the bathtub with her to sitting next to the tub again.  She still runs away at the mention of bathtime, but at least she isn't screaming her lungs out anymore.  Why that happened, I'll never know.