Before I had kids, I was always hearing new moms talk about what a privilege it is to be able to take a good shower. Others would say they hoped their baby would let them take one. I never understood this.
Three newborns later, I now understand. Sure, there were days when I voluntarily didn’t shower. But on those days when I woke up in a pool of my own night sweat or realized that the awful stench was actually me, I was set on getting in that tub. Of course, sometimes it meant sacrificing a meal or a nap or not actually getting that shower until 9 p.m. But I was determined to make it happen.
For anyone who is skeptical about just how difficult it can be for a mom of a newborn to take a shower, let me elaborate.
After carefully calculating the date of your last shower, you realize it’s time. Today is the day. Your little bundle of joy is sound asleep in your arms. Easy, just place the baby in the crib and head for the bathroom. Not so fast. As soon as the baby hits the crib, he wants to get right back up. It’s still early, you think — there is still plenty of time for a shower.
The next time the baby is settled, you make your way to the shower, only to step in a questionable substance on your floor that you come to identify as your pet’s vomit. Once that’s all cleaned up, the baby is ready for some mommy time again.
OK, you think, even though the baby is awake, you can just put him in a bouncy seat in the bathroom while you shower. You read that tip on a thread on Facebook about how to take a shower (somewhere in the 42 comments). As you go to place the baby down, you notice something wet. The baby has pooped. And not just a diaper-change poop. It’s a bathe-the-baby, outfit-change blowout. Once you have cleaned up that disaster, the baby is hungry again.
Eventually, you get to the point where your newborn is settled and you’re ready to try again. As soon as you step in the tub, you swear you hear your baby crying. You jump out of the shower, dripping wet, only to discover your baby is still soundly sleeping. You get back into the shower and try to remember if you already rinsed your hair. For good measure, you give it an extra rinse.
You then realize that, yes, you had, in fact, already rinsed your hair. But as you go to turn off the water, you realize what you actually forgot was to wash your body. Isn’t that the entire point of a shower?
So you scrub up, wondering how you can actually forget to shower while in the shower. The baby’s phantom cries then become real, just as you are turning off the water. So you quickly wrap yourself in your towel, hair dripping wet, to tend to the baby. By the time all the baby’s needs are met, you look in the mirror to find that your hair has dried in an entanglement of knots.
So you see, it really is “easy” to shower as a new mom. No reason to pass on it another day.
