One of the biggest surprise challenges of being a mom to an infant is figuring out how in the world to take a shower. Ideally, you take a shower while dad watches the baby right?
Well, what about if the baby’s father isn’t around? What if you’re a single mother? Or what if the father works a lot?
For one reason or another, this is a common complaint with new moms.
For me, I simply had to make my showers really quick. Shaving wasn’t always an option. I could have had my husband watch the baby every time I took a shower, but I’d generally have so much to do before he left for work that I didn’t get around to showering until mid-morning. So, I used one of those new bouncy seats. And I left the curtain partly open, so I could pretend like I was putting on a fabulously entertaining show for my daughter.
I know there has to have been a better way.
I suppose showering at night is an option, but I don’t function as well if my shower isn’t early in the day.
I know, I’m picky… and retrospectively whining.
This post isn’t about whining. It’s about opening up a discussion so we can brainstorm tips for new moms, so that perhaps, they will have an easier time figuring out what to do than we did.
How did you take a shower? Did you wait until the baby was a sleep? Or did you save that time for something else like working from home, doing chores, or that ever elusive “sleeping while the baby sleeps” technique I always hear so much about?
For me I tried a few things so I could shower and feel fresh in the morning. The bouncy seat was always a good one. Or I would bring the stationary walker and put it right outside of the door (it never fit IN the bathroom). You can always try setting up the pack and play when they are older and more mobile. When my son finally falls asleep in the morning for his nap, I will try and sneak in a quick shower then as well! I’ve tried almost everything I could possibly think of. I have even taken a shower with my son. But he screamed as soon as the water came out. So we haven’t tried that one again! Good luck to everyone with showering. Stinky moms are not exactly the happiest moms. 🙂
I bought a clear shower curtain and put the baby just outside the door so he wasn’t in the humid air in the bathroom and watched him as I showered. Other times, I put him in the shower with me in his bath tub seat. He is 1 now, and I have to put him in the shower with me if he is awake. Yep, the legs do go without shaving! We are having our second very soon, and I do not know what we are going to do with 2 of them. Thankfully my 1-year-old sleeps well. I will have to try to shower while he sleeps.
It is a challenge that you really don’t think about until it happens, but you find some way to work it out.
Mostly I do as you said – put on a little show and sing while having a shower and continuously peeking through the 1/4 open shower curtain. Luckily my little one likes the bouncy seat and likes my horrible singing! Quick showers are a given and the legs really only get attended to when daddy is home.
I always preferred a bath. I would put her in a bouncy seat or walker either just next to the tub in our very small bathroom, in the door or just outside. She pretty much lived in her bouncy seat anyway. It was one of the few places she wasn’t crying! After we moved and she was walking, I just blocked off the living room and our bedroom leaving only her room and the bathroom accessible. She just runs in and out now.
I generally shower at night, a habit I got into when I used to get up at 4 am to go to work. Shaving is fire special occasions lol.
I have a bouncer and a clear shower curtain because my husband works 70+ hours a week. I prop my iPad up on the toilet seat and put Sesame Street on Netflix; at 2 1/2 months, my little one is entertained between my singing and his Sesame Street. I shower right after my son wakes up from a nap and eats so he’s happy to sit for a while – and there’s time to shave, but don’t tell my husband… that’s my excuse when I don’t feel like it.
Holy smokes. A clear curtain is brilliant!!!
So, this is going to sound a tad nuts, but it really saves me time, and I get my looooong shower (blissful, silent, alone time), as well as the fresh, perky, just washed hair and face in the morning.
Shower at night after the kids are asleep. Take my time. Go to bed with wet hair.
Wake up. Re-wet head, blow dry, wash face, brush teeth. Voila, clean and fresh.
Is it the most ideal method? Probably not, but it works for me, and takes less than 10 minutes in the morning.
I put my baby in the bassinet and had that in the bathroom. It had wheels so it traveled across the hall nicely. Then graduated to the laying down bouncer, and then the sitting up bouncer. During those times that he’s in the bathroom with me, I usually take a bath. It’s not the same, but that way he can hear and see me. …Oh, and I get to relax some sore shoulder muscles during the bath, nice! 🙂
Now that he’s bigger, he’s in the walker or the sitting up bouncy seat while I shower and peek out and talk with him during the shower. Other times I just leave him in his crib for about 5-10 min with his mobile on (he LOVES his mobile) and take my shower then. I’m usually lucky enough for him to not even notice I’m gone. 🙂 Sometimes I shower during his nap, but that’s getting rare.
Today we tried our first shower together. He didn’t know what to think of it. I think he definitely would prefer his own bath, though. He can play then. 😉
I remember thining, “What is a shower?” After my two boys were born 18 months apart, I also showered after they went to bed if I could keep my eyes open. I showered with them if it was an emergency. I only ever had a problem catching one after I had my second. Having one is sooo easy. They always take naps. A few times I would just wash my hair in the bathtub. Desperate after my second, I even used the Little Mermaid as a sitter. Strap one in a bouncey seat, say a prayer the other wouldn’t take him out! LMBO. They would just stare at her entranced during the songs. It would buy me ten minutes. I know that I may get a few tomatoes thrown at me by some moms for that one, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I always left the door open so I could hear. It was either that or duct tape! 😉
Oh yeah, shaving is becoming a fantasy. But I’m getting tired of looking like a Sasquatch in a sexy nightie. LOL So I have found a semi-solution: leg & Brazilian waxing! Showers are quick & easy, PLUS my legs (and other areas LOL) are smooth & pretty. Believe me, its a definite mood booster & what mom couldn’t use that kind of boost?! 😉
I have tried it all, a travel swing in the bathroom, showering with her, a pack in play in the hall right outside of the bathroom door, showering after she went to sleep, showering during naps, showering when my hubby got home……I do the whatever works and is not harmful with just about every aspect of parenting!!!
I always seem to need a shower when Jenevive was not sleeping. I used a vibrating chair ALOT in the first 3 months. Peaking around the curtain till I got a clear shower curtain! Really , it helped so much!!!! Now at 6months I usually put her in this Bumbo chair Knock off that I can strap her in. it also has a few toys attached so she stays entertained. She cannot lift herself up fully on her own but I always strap her in.