Womb to Bloom - Maternity & Beyond

Just a few weeks ago, I was clipping one of my twin girl’s fingernails and took a huge chunk out of her fingertip. Her finger started bleeding, she started screaming, and I felt like the worst mother in the history of the universe. I talked to my friend about it, and she admitted that she always seems to clip her baby’s fingertips along with her fingernails.

She told me not to worry about it because if you don’t clip her fingernails, they’ll just get so long that she’ll scratch herself and start crying then. So pretty much you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. That is the case with a lot of baby grooming. They hate it, and you hate seeing them miserable, yet it has to get done.  

If there is one exception to the rule that babies hate grooming, it is usually the bath. Most babies love or at least are neutral about their baths. My twin girls usually act a little shocked when they get in like they weren’t expecting to be wet but then settle down and sit there calmly while they get washed. Before the twins were born, my husband had never given a baby a bath before. So I taught him to give them baths the way my mom taught me.

You fill up the baby bath about a third of the way with tepid water. To test the water, dip your elbow in the tub. It should feel neither hot nor cold. When you sit the baby in the bath, the water should cover her legs and come up to about her waist. Once you get the baby in the water, put some soap on a wash rag and then gently wash the baby from top to bottom.

After you have the soaped the baby, rinse her, take her out, and then wrap her up in a towel. Voila! You are done. All of this may seem like common sense and really that is all that is needed to give a baby a bath. Just be sure you support the baby’s neck when she is a newborn.

I already mentioned some of the pain of clipping fingernails. It can be hard to hold the little fingers straight so that you can clip fingernails and only fingernails. There are different clippers that can help steady you. We have some with an oval plastic grip at the end of the clippers.

They seem to help steady my hands- I got them shortly after I clipped her fingertip and haven’t had any problems with that since. That is something to remember when buying baby grooming products. Some might be more helpful than others, and you might have to buy a few before you get something that works for you.

While clipping fingernails is bad, I think the prize for worst part of baby grooming goes to cleaning noses. My girls just scream bloody murder whenever we come at them with the saline drops and the nose plunger. Because they seemed to have been born with runny noses, though, it is something we have to address frequently. If we forget, their noses get all clogged up, and they don’t sleep well.

We get the baby saline drops, dip their heads back, drip some of the solution into their noses, and then use a nose plunger to get everything out. In this case, the equipment really seems to make a difference. We have used a bunch of different nose plungers and have found that the best ones have a round ball at one end with a long, thin spout on the other.

You put the spout in the baby’s nose, press the round ball with your thumb, and then slowly let up your thumb. All the nasty stuff in her nose will get sucked out. And yes, the baby cries (ok screams) the entire time. Once again, the trick to this is using your common sense and having the perseverance to stick it out through the baby’s cries.

A lot of baby grooming tasks require you to do something through the baby’s tears. No matter how much you hate seeing the baby cry, this is one case where it might hurt her more than it hurts you. However, it really is for the baby’s benefit. You wouldn’t want her to go around unwashed with claw-like fingernails and a crusty nose. Just remember to use common sense as to what is safe and what is not, and you’ll be fine.