We have a swimming pool in our town, and today Emma turned 7 months old, so I decided to take her swimming. This was very stressful, for a number of reasons: will she like it, will the water be too cold, will I be able to wash her afterwards given that there was no change table anywhere, the logistics of changing her on top of the car seat, what to do with all the stuff including the clothes, the shoes, the car seat and the towels. Yes, our swimming pool has parent and tots programs, but no change tables, and no place to store one's car seat. People simply bring everything inside with them, and once I have figured that one out, that's exactly what I plan on doing.
I took MrH along for an extra pair of hands, and it was very helpful, despite him not being able to find a pair of swimming trunks and hence having to watch us from the side. He enjoyed seeing Emma's face as she started to loosen up. She was scared a bit at first, as the leisure pool is quite noisy and colourful and there were lots of older kids splashing about, but then she saw another little girl, 7 months old as well, and started reaching towards her, so we went to make friends. They tried to touch each other's faces (and for all I know attempted to poke each other's eyes out), and got along quite well for a few minutes, after which we explored floating on the back, jumping up and down, and riding a giant fish made of foam. She enjoyed it in a somewhat reserved and cautious manner, but I can see great potential for fun in the next couple of visits. I plan on getting a punch card and taking her every weekend. Not because I am a good parent, but because she slept like a log after the swim and I had the evening off to blog and chill (grin).
PS. Oh yeah, we skipped the washing entirely, I just dried her, dried myself, and off to the car wrapped in clothes and blankets we went. By the time we got home, she was too tired to wash, so we'll just have our usual morning shower I guess. I will let you guys know if our skin falls off or something.
We took Luke at 8 weeks only because it was summer and we were on vacation with easy access to a pool. Honestly, it was more work than it was worth, he wasn't especially impressed with it yet, I was paranoid about sunburn and chlorine on his almost-newborn skin, so yeah. I'm glad Emma liked swimming though! It's good to know it wore her out...we may have to try that!
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to hear that Emma’s first experience at a swimming pool went that well! It’s definitely a good thing to expose babies to swimming pools at a young age, so that it develops their ease with water. The fun that can be had from enjoying a swimming pool is unique, so to bring a baby to a swimming pool at a young age opens them up to that unparalleled joy much sooner.
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