After a bath, Max is furious. Furious. But once swaddled, he chills out and is at his alert-est for many hours. This is after his traditional 4th week alive washing. There are volumes written on how to properly wash a baby. There's even a bath show in the hospital on the 24/7 baby channel. We studied as well as we could and then basically threw him in some water and scrubbed what would stay still.