Riku's baths

Like a lot of newborns, Riku didn't particularly like baths, especially having his hair washed- here he is showing his displeasure:

He soon grew to absolutely love baths though- I would say it is his favourite time of the day. Even though it's not strictly necessary to bath a baby his age every day, especially in this season, he enjoys it so much that I don't want to deprive him of it, so he gets a bath every day unless we get home after or too close to his bed time after being out for the day.

Before Riku was born I bought him an inflatable bath tub. Since we don't have a huge amount of space, I thought this would be the best type of bath to have as we could easily store it until the next baby (possibly!) comes along. He used this in the kitchen sink for his first two months.

About 10 days old

Once we moved to our current house it took me a while to find the bath and blow it up again so in the mean time he had baths with his papa, which he also enjoyed, and then once his bed time got earlier in the bathroom sink. By about 5 months he was pretty much outgrowing the sink though and was learning to splash, so in order to contain the floods of water he liked to create I finally found the inflatable tub again and started using it next to the big bath tub.

About 6 months old

Recently when we went to Thailand I thought at first I would take the tub with us and deflated it but decided at the last minute it was a bit bulky and left it behind. In Thailand we tried him in the shower at first, but for Riku shower=torture so even though the bathroom sink was only deep enough to cover him up to the hips I bathed him in that the rest of the time we were there.

When we got back I blew up the green tub again but after Riku had been in the bath a couple of minutes it had collapsed about halfway already and the water was pouring out the sides. Tried again the next day- same result, so there was obviously a hole in it somewhere. I had a fairly good look over it and couldn't find out where it was leaking from, so decided since he is getting to be quite a big boy now Riku could try the big bath! Well, Riku does not like the big bath, even if I get in it with him. He likes his little bath much better.

To be honest as well as Riku not liking it, it is quite tricky to bathe him in the big tub from outside it because it is extremely deep even by Japanese tub standards and the bottom of it is well below the level of the shower floor, where I have to sit if I don't get in with him. Getting in with him has some logistical difficulties as Toru needs to be there so I can pass Riku out- this won't be possible every night with Toru back at work from tomorrow.

So on Friday we ordered a new inflatable bath for him, and it arrived today. It says on the label that it is suitable for babies up to about 6 months, but Riku doesn't care about that, he's perfectly happy in it!

10 months and 9 days old