WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: Showering with Baby in a Sling

I wore Little M in the shower today. Now, if you’ve ever taken a shower with your baby, you know that wet babies are slipperier than your grandpa on a slip and slide. There was no way I was holding his slick little self in my hands. That's just an accident waiting to happen. One of my friends recently tweeted about babywearing in the shower, and I figured I need to try it.

After all, I’m supposed to be the babywearing expert in Wilmington, I teach babywearing classes, and I have never worn baby in the shower? That had to change.

When I first put Little M in the solarveil ring sling and turned the water on, I had second thoughts. Cold feet and all that. I have a lot of hair. It was getting caught in the back of the sling. It’s hard to put your hands above your head with a ring sling. And I had to wash my hair. With baking soda. And vinegar. (I’m trying the “no poo” method of washing your hair). I didn’t want any of that to get in Little M’s eyes.


But I’m also taking shorter showers for the Change the World Wednesday challenge from Reduce Footprints, so I figured this would be quick and went for it.

During the first two minutes, I thought: "I'm never doing this again." During the last two, as Little M was falling asleep in the ring sling, I thought: "This is much better than showering while he's sleeping and constantly being paranoid that I'm hearing piercing baby screams."

And then there was the whole getting out and drying off thing. Which was a challenge, partly because I was running around the house with a dripping wet ring sling, trying to find the camera.

But I pulled it off and I would do it again. Of course, when Big T got home, he saw the ring sling drying next to my towel and said, "Uh, did you wear Little M in the shower today?" He looked at me a little funny, but it's nothing compared to my natural deodorant renting space in the fridge. 

Here are some tips for how to shower with your baby in a ring sling:

1. Both of you need to get undressed. Put baby in the ring sling. **You should use a sling designed for water, like a water wrap or a solarveil sling. Heavy woven fabric can stretch and lose its shape in the water and could be unsafe. 
2. With the "no poo" method, you need to start with dry hair anyway, so I shampooed up before I even started the shower. I had to do it with one hand, because Little M was struggling to get out of the sling. If you don't feel like baby is secure in the ring sling, keep a hand on him at all times. Depending on what type of sling you use, it could stretch a little in the shower.
3. I started the shower and got in. Little M blinked a little and snuggled into me.
4. I rinsed off, and then I turned the shower off while I used the apple cider vinegar rinse. I didn't get it in Little M's eyes. 
5. I turned the shower on again and rinsed my hair and washed my face. 
6. Now it was time to wash my body. Um, it's hard to reach your armpits when you're wearing baby in a ring sling. I managed, but it was precarious. 
7. Getting out was... wet. Even if I wasn't running around the house, the ring sling was dripping. I guess I would have toweled us both off as best I could, then taken off the ring sling and gone to the bedroom, where I could finish drying us both off. 

The best part were the adorable pictures I got to take of Little M after the shower. What a happy kid! And check out the wet hair spike in the second picture.

This Wordless Wednesday post is linked up at: