If he interrupted her now, would it make her jump and wreck what she was doing?
He waited, jiggling the baby as he’d seen her do, until her hands moved away, and then he knocked on the open door. ‘You said to come and get you when Tyler woke up and it was bath time.’
She looked up from her workbench, smiled, and put her tools down. ‘Sure.’
He caught a glimpse of the work on her bench; it looked like delicate silver filigree. Again, it wasn’t what he’d expected from her; he’d thought that she’d make in-your-face ethnic-style jewellery, or lots of clinking bangles.
‘All righty. We need a bottle of boiled cooled water from the fridge.’ She collected it on the way up to the bathroom.
‘What’s that for?’ he asked.
‘Washing his face—it’s how Ally did it. She has what she calls a “top and tail” bowl.’
‘A what?’
‘To give him a quick wash instead of a bath. But you still use it for his face when you give him a bath.’
‘Right.’
In the bathroom, she put the baby bath into the main bath. ‘It’s easier to use this than to put him in a big bath, because he can’t sit up all on his own yet.’
‘When will he do that?’
‘When he’s about six months old.’
Dylan looked at her, not sure whether to be impressed at her knowledge or annoyed by the one-upmanship. ‘How come you know so much about babies?’ Had she wanted a child of her own? he wondered. Were all women like Nadine, and just woke up one morning desperate for a baby?
‘My bedtime reading,’ she said lightly. ‘I’ll lend you the book, if you like—you’ll probably find it useful.’
She undressed the baby, though Dylan noticed that she left Tyler’s nappy on, and wrapped him in a towel. ‘This is just to keep him warm while we’re filling the bath. It needs to be lukewarm, and you need to put the cold water in first—it’s better for it to be too cool, and for you to add a bit more warm water, than the other way round.’ She demonstrated.
‘How do you know when it’s the right temperature?’
‘You check the temperature of the water with your elbow.’ She dipped her elbow into the water. ‘If it feels too warm, it’ll be too hot for the baby.’
‘Why don’t you use that thermometer thing?’ He gestured to the gadget on the side of the bath.
She laughed. ‘That was one of Pete’s ideas. You know how he loves gadgets.’ Her smile faded. ‘Loved,’ she corrected herself softly.
Awkwardly, Dylan patted her shoulder. ‘Yeah.’
She shook herself. ‘OK—now you pour the cooled water into the bowl, dip a cotton wool pad into it and squeeze it out, so it’s damp enough not to drag his skin but not so wet that water’s going to run into his eyes, then wipe his eyes. You need to use a separate one for each eye; apparently that’s to avoid infection.’
‘Right.’ He followed her instructions—which were surprisingly clear and focused—and then worried that he was being too clumsy, but the baby didn’t seem to mind.
‘Now you wash his face and the creases round his neck with a different cotton wool pad.’
When he’d finished doing that, she said, ‘And finally it’s bath time.’ She eyed his clothes. ‘Sorry, I should’ve told you. Tyler likes to splash his hands in the bath, so you might get a bit wet.’
Dylan shrugged. ‘It doesn’t matter. This stuff will wash.’
She gave him an approving smile. It should’ve annoyed him that she was taking a position of superiority, but instead it made him feel warm inside. Which was weird. Emmy shouldn’t make him feel warm inside. At all. He stuffed that into the box marked ‘do not open’ in his head, and concentrated on the task in hand.
‘What about his hair?’ he asked, looking at Tyler’s soft fluffy curls.
‘Do that before you put him in the bath,’ she said. ‘Keep him in the towel so he’s warm, support his head with your hand and support him with your forearm—then you can scoop a little bit of water onto his hair and do the baby shampoo.’
Dylan felt really nervous, holding the baby—what if he dropped Tyler?—but Emmy seemed to have confidence in him and encouraged him as he gave Tyler a hair-wash for the very first time.
‘Now you pat his hair dry. Be gentle and careful over the fontanelles.’
‘Fontanelles?’ he asked.
‘Soft spots. The bones in his skull haven’t completely fused, yet.’
That made Dylan feel even more nervous. Could he inadvertently hurt the baby? He knew he was making a bit of a mess of it, but she didn’t comment.
‘OK, now check the bath water again with your elbow.’
He dipped his elbow in. ‘It feels fine.’
‘Good. Now the nappy comes off, and he goes into the bath—support him like you did with the Humpty Dumpty thing.’
So far, so easy. Tyler seemed to enjoy the bath; as Emmy had warned him, there was a bit of splashing and chuckling.
Emmy stayed while he got the baby out of the bath and wrapped him in a towel with a hood to keep his head warm, then waited while Tyler did the nappy and dressed Dylan in a clean vest and Babygro.
She smiled at him. ‘See, you’re an expert now.’
Dylan didn’t feel like it; but he was starting to feel a lot more comfortable around Tyler, thanks to her. ‘I’m trying, anyway.’
‘I know you are—and that’s all Tyler would ask for,’ she said softly.
Dylan remembered how he’d thought she was trying in more than one sense; yet she wasn’t judging him that way. He felt a bit guilty. ‘I looked in the fridge. Is chicken stir-fry all right for dinner?’
‘That’d be lovely, thanks.’
‘Good. I’ll call you when it’s ready.’
‘Are you OK about feeding him?’ she asked. The doubts must have shown on his face, because she added, ‘Just put the bottle of milk in a jug of hot water for a couple of minutes to warm up, then test it on the inside of your wrist to make sure it’s warm but not hot.’
‘How do you mean, test it on the inside of my wrist?’
‘Just hold the bottle upside down and shake it over your wrist. A couple of drops will come out. If it feels hot then the milk’s too hot.’ She looked slightly anxious. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way—I’m not meaning to be patronising—but when you feed him you need to make sure the teat’s full of milk, or he’ll just suck in air.’
‘Right.’
‘And when you put him in his cot at bedtime, his feet need to be at the bottom of the cot so he doesn’t end up wriggling totally under the covers and getting too hot.’
‘OK,’ he said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.
‘Call me if you get stuck,’ she said.
Which would be a cop-out. He could do this. It wasn’t that hard to feed a baby, surely?