water babies

While I was pregnant, I fantasized about taking my baby swimming. We would have matching cover-ups and lounge around on a mother-daughter raft while singing sweet summer lullabies. Realistically, the internet is abound with information about infants and swimming. Did you know that babies who swim have more advanced motor development, social skills, and intelligence? And OMG - in England early swimming has been found to helps babies to talk earlier (er... would this really be a good thing?)! Also, babies who swim regularly tend to sleep more soundly, and they are less likely than other babies to suffer from colds, sniffles, and even asthma? Shut UP!!

On the other hand there's the contaminated water, increase in ear infections not to mention hyponatremia and other arbitrary hypo-ailments.  The internet is also ripe with stories of parents who, after beginning swimming early, become actually less vigilant around the pool because they mistakenly believe their young child can swim. The latest concern is, get this, the apparent possible erosion of tooth enamel from the acidity of the pool water. Sheesh. My baby just got some teeth and now they could erode away? Sometimes I wonder if parenting might have been somewhat easier back in the day of my parents' age. Sure, they didn't have all the cool gadgets and mechanical accoutrement that we have, but they also weren't bombarded from all directions by an overabundance of superfluous information and unsolicited advice.

While any potential beneficial effects are all well and good, my considerations when beginning an infant swim "class" were the following: will she enjoy it and will I enjoy it? I did not enroll expecting KK to become an Olympic swimmer by age one. I did so because I love the water and spent my childhood poolside, and hope that my daughter will someday share that interest. Also, Water Babies is yet another activity to get us out of the Shack to meet new moms and babies, and Kaellyn has some really cute swimwear (including cover-ups). Besides, she seemed to enjoy the pool at the beach during the summer, if not particularly the water at least the social aspect of it. Heck, she spent nearly 10 months floating around in the womb, so why not?

From my experience so far, these "classes" are more like a playgroup in the water. We sing songs.  We do the Hokey Pokey in the water.  We kick and splash. The wheels on the bus go round and round. The class also mixes up the day a bit and takes up a big chunk of the "witching hours" between 4-7pm when nothing seems to sooth a cranky baby. As an added bonus, the entire ordeal really tires Kaellyn out, so she usually sleeps nicely through the night afterward.

Taking a baby swimming alone is really difficult. I learned this the hard way on the first night of class. The class in Arlington county is offered only on the weekends and evenings so it is enormously popular and the damp, musty locker rooms are full of frantic parents with wet, pruned children invariably underfoot. I did not have a working strategy for transporting The Baby, struggling to get myself and said baby undressed and dressed, all while using one arm and holding the squirming baby in the other.  Being dripping wet, cold and barely clothed, finagling a naked baby - not so easy. Thus Water Babies is no longer a mommy and me event but instead... a Family Event!

Yes, I just posted a picture of myself wearing a bathing suit (a mom bathing suit, no less) on the internet, and I don't care. Another sign of adulthood, I reckon.

Doing the worm:

Swim to the duck: