I was a little shy to tell you the whole "No Ba" story yesterday, but I'm feeling braver today, and punchy to boot.

So here I go. (If you are lost, go and read the previous post.)

When Hannah stopped wanting to take baths a few weeks ago, Dad was the bath giver and approached the problem the way Dads often do. Pick her up, put her into the tub and let her scream. In a sense, it worked. She got clean. However, her fear of the bath did not get better. In fact, one could possibly argue it got worse. Not that I would argue such a thing.

This week I ever so gently suggested that we might want to try a new approach. How about letting her decide whether and when she was ready to go in. Dad suggested that I was free to give it a try if I wanted to take over. So we tried it for a few days. I became the bath giver. Rachel got in and played. Hannah didn't want to get in. She wanted to sit on the potty instead. So she sat, and she sat. Every time I asked her if she wanted to get in she would tell me about "poo-poo" in the bath. Finally I washed her with a washcloth while she stood by the tub. She did not go in.

This routine was repeated for a few days. After I wiped her down each night, she would always want to sit on the potty with a towel wrapped around her. Up until that point she had never peed or pooped in the potty. She just liked to sit. Over these few days that I let her sit the bath out I started to remember that when Rachel was Hannah's age she had gone through a similar fear of baths and I, pregnant at the time, got in with her occasionally to coax her in.

This was about the last time I had bathed with either of my children. I was desperate now, though. Should I try it? As I headed into the bathtub to start our sitting-on-the-toilet-with-a-towel-on-routine, I announced "Hannah is going to take a bath with me in my bathtub (which is a much larger bath). Everyone was excited. Rachel was going to take a shower (I thought) as we bathed. I started the bath. Before I had time to think about it, the plan changed. Rachel wanted to join us. She ran to get some new bath toys that some good friends had given the girls. I got in and pulled Hannah in with me. Rachel got in.

Immediately Hannah started crying and screaming, "Noooooooooooooooo. Pooooooooo-poooooooooooo," and clamoring wildly to get out. I sat in the tub furiously wiping her down and grabbing her slippery body until I finally called Dad and asked him (with no irritation in my voice I assure you) to grab her. He took her. She started crying out to sit on the potty. He put her on. Then she started crying out for the towel. From the bathtub I was shouting instructions. "She wants the towel wrapped around her while she's sitting on the potty!" With no irritation in his voice (he assures you), he told me that he didn't need any further input.

So I shut up. And looked around me. I was sitting in the bathtub with bath toys floating about. Rachel was across from me playing and smiling at me. Then she said, "I like your breasts, Mom. Do you like mine?"

I stared at her blankly and said, "Uh-huh. I'm getting out now."

As I was drying myself off with the towel I heard her say, "How come no one is in the bath with me? Dad? Are you getting in?"


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Hannah actually peed on the potty today for the first time. I don't think she quite knew what had happened or why I was clapping and shouting.


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Something sweet to end with:

When Rachel heard Hannah on the monitor this morning she said, "I hear my friend, Hannah, on the thermonitor. She is waking up."

"my friend" *sniff-sniff*

For the record, when her Dad corrected her pronunciation she said, "Well, I say thermonitor. What do YOU call it again?"

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