Sunday, January 29, 2012

How to Bathe Multiples FAST!

This is the first installment in an awesome series that's I'm going to call, "How do they do it?" We have had so many people ask how we do the basics with quadruplets like bathing, feeding, bedtime, etc. Lots of blogs have tutorials, so in similar fashion, here is our Bathing Quadruplets FAST Tutorial!

You know, in case you ever find yourself completely outnumbered by babies on a regular basis. :)

speed up bathtime

First of all, figure out a way to corral all of the kids. Before they started crawling, we could just throw a bunch of blankets down on the floor of our room for them to lie on. Now that they are mobile, we use the Superyard XT Gate to keep them contained. Much easier than pulling them out of the closet, or dragging them back out from under our bed. Both are kind of dusty and someday I need to get around to cleaning them.
superyard gate perfect for multiples


Throw some blankets down inside the play yard along with a few toys to keep them entertained.
circle gate for kids


Line up all of their clothes along the edge of the bed. I always put them in birth order to make it easy to keep track of who wears what.
quadruplets clothes


Add the correct size diaper on top of the clothes. Our kids wear different sizes and we don't want to accidentally put too small of a diaper on a kid. Leaks are no good if they've just had a bath (okay, are leaks ever good??)
bathtime for multiples

And then their towel and washcloth go on top. So now each kid has their stack in the order in which they will use the items: wash cloth in bath tub, towel dry off, diaper on, then socks, and finally clothes. No digging around while you have a bare butt crawling away from you.

This is also the point where I realized that I didn't have the correct setting on the camera flash. :)
four towels


Set up a diaper changing/lotioning station. Notice that this station is right next to their clothes. Keep it simple!
preparations for a fast bathtime


Put some water in your tub with some toys. I figured out that while squirty water toys are fun, they get very slippery. The kids are happier if the toys have rings that they can hold onto. Bath time goes quicker if you aren't chasing toys AND trying to wash kids.
how to keep from sliding in a bathtub


Strip the kids and put them in the play yard.
babies in the play yard


This is the part where tag-teaming really comes in handy! One person strips off diapers, brings them to the tub, and then dries them off, lotions them down, and dresses them. The other person sits in the tub and scrubs away. In our case, I wash them and Sean dresses them. Sitting in the tub works best since I can brace them with my legs and scrub them down quickly.

This is what it looks like:
1) Mommy is handed Abby. She starts washing her.
2) Then Daddy dries, diapers, lotions, and dresses Caleb who just finished his bath.
3) Caleb goes back in the play yard.
4) Daddy goes back to the tub to get Abby. Abby goes into the play yard sans diaper for a minute while Daddy strips the diaper off of Elijah. Mommy, meanwhile, has changed out the bath water and is ready when Daddy passes Elijah into the tub.
5) Then Mommy washes Elijah while Daddy dries, diapers, lotions, and dresses Abby.
6) Continue until all babies are clean.
babies in play yard

Clean Elijah



It's also important to take a few minutes to play with them as you go! Hehe! I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure this photo of Ellie is included in her wedding slideshow. :-)
clean Ellie


Tip: Make it easy on yourself and put a laundry basket right outside the bedroom door for wet towels as you finish with them. After baths are done, everything is easily carried to the washer.
hallway laundry basket


And this is the finished project! Clean, relaxed, tired babies! They always take great naps after baths!
Elijah



Daddy and Ellie


Caleb and Abby


Sean and I can give our quadruplets baths in 40 minutes by doing it this way. That includes set up, baths, and clean up which is pretty darn fast, in my opinion! We've tried baths in the baby bathtub, sink, with them in the big bathtub and us leaning over the edge, and showering. This is by far the easiest, quickest way to get through all of them.

By the way, this also works for a singleton, just without all of the repeats. :)

8 comments:

  1. With our 2, we also lay out the pjs or outfits and diapers ahead of time. We open the diapers so all we have to do is place the bottom in the zone and close it up, LOL. The pictures were awesome and funny--its so fun to read!! I look forward to the next in the series!

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  2. Love it! You guys are awesome! My only question is, why do you change out the bathwater between babies? Does it get too cold? I could see doing that if there was an accident, or if it got cold.

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    1. We move so quickly that the water really doesn't get a chance to get cold. I don't normally drain all of it, but I try to get some of it out because those kids get pretty yucky even though we don't go anywhere.

      When I fill up the bathtub, I only put a couple of inches of water in it...just enough to get them wet. Even though we wash four of them like this, I'm probably still not even using a full tub of water.

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  3. Awesome! This is my process with twins too! Where did you find the connecting pieces for your flooring? And where did you get the gated play area?

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    Replies
    1. The floor tiles/puzzle pieces are from Babies R' Us. I went to their website, but can't seem to find the ones we bought anymore. I shopped around quite a bit and ended up going with Babies R' Us because they shipped to the store and I could save money that way. Amazon carries puzzle mats as well. Just do a search on either of those websites and you will see TONS of options!

      The SuperYard XT was a Christmas gift. I believe it came from Amazon, but you can also find it on Babies R Us. Here is the link to the Amazon listing: http://www.amazon.com/North-States-Superyard-Play-Classic/dp/B00020L78M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328027737&sr=8-1

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    2. Thanks so much!!!
      I was letting my older two look at your pictures... and they both said, "awww mom... we want FOUR babies too!" twins are enough for this mommy... you are a super mommy!

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  4. Hey! I haven't commented in a while, but I've been checking in. This is so funny; I had a thought when I saw all the undressed babies in the "corral:" Maybe come summer, you can put it outside on the grass, and turn the hose on just a little? (he, he!) But seriously, it is so wonderful and amazing to see all the normal day-to-day happenings. Seems like just earlier today there were so many of us praying for their safe arrival in the world. Time does fly! Thanks for sharing all this!
    Lee Ann

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    Replies
    1. We'd love to do that, and that's another reason why I wanted to get the corral! They probably won't know what to think when I turn the hose on them. Lol! Sounds like some fun, cheap entertainment though! Definitely a camera opportunity!

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