Practice makes perfect

In anticipation [read trepidation for us] of her departure, Aunty wanted to instruct Louis and me with some of the basic care for Faith, which heretofore, have been done by her for the 1-month duration. Louis has "mastered" the technique for holding and feeding Faith with a bottle. The next challenge that these 2 fumbling parents will have to face is bathing a squirming little thing *GASP*!!!

Louis was the first to have to bath Faith as it was the last weekend that Aunty is around. As for me, I get to do it from Mon-Wed while Louis is at work. Hmmm... the experience was rather hilarious for us but according to Aunty, stressful and a wee bit frightening for Faith.

There's a methodical process to prepare the bathtub, undress Faith, bath her and dress her again that Aunty went through with us.

Firstly, the water temperature has got to be correct. Beforehand, we need to also set aside cottonballs (for wiping eyes), cottonpads (for wiping face) and showergel by the tub, alongside the washcloth that would be used to bath her. There's a whole ritual to undressing her (without spraining her limbs) and bundling her up in a towel before we head off for her bath, followed by another set of procedure to wipe her face, ears and neck, before we wash her head and body. A firm and steady hand is needed in holding Faith at all times to ensure that she doesn't slip in the tub or be traumatised by the entire experience. Finally, we need to quickly haul her from the tub into the waiting towel, wrap her up tightly and dress her again.

By the end of the entire ritual, Louis was perspiring from all the effort. Needless to say, Aunty commented that there were many areas for improvements not only in bathing Faith (which we thought was the most challenging portion) but also in preparing the bath (we eagerly went into the bathroom without bringing along the little washcloth) and undressing/dressing her. As for me, I'm faithfully memorising all the steps and little boo-boos that Louis made just so that I won't repeat them myself. Hahaha... it would be downright embarassing if the mom is even more inept than the dad ;)

That night, we convinced Aunty to go out for dinner together with Louis' family since we have both not gone out for the usual weekend family dinner since Faith's arrival. Dinner was at Silkroad at Amara Hotel, one of our favourite places which serves excellent handmade noodles.

I think Faith enjoys going out becos she behaved beautifully. She slept well from the time of the car trip to the early part of dinner before waking up around 7.30 pm for her feed. Thereafter, she was wide awake and enthralled the grandparents and cousins with her coos, as well as other not so elegant animal-like noises. Oh well... I'm sure all in the family will get use to it since its the start of more family dinners to come.