I have been meaning to write this blog over the last few weeks but with returning to shooting weddings, the studio and keeping up with Leo’s social life it has all been a little hectic.
Life is busy and fun I have started a few classes with Leo. We are doing Water Babies, baby sensory, Pilates (for me), and baby yoga. Leo seems to love them all but I was particularly excited for him to start water babies and couldn’t wait to see his reaction.
My cutie pie of a nephew joined Water Babies when he was just a few months old. Now at 2 1/2 years old he is so water confident and doesn’t flinch or worry about water on his face, in fact he dunks himself! He had and still has so much fun in the classes that the water babies lessons were top of my class list.
When Leo was born one of my clients, the lovely Lydia contacted me to see if I would like to join the classes and obviously my response was ‘yes, when can we start!’
We found a class and day to suit us and booked straight away. The booking and correspondence was great and it was lovely when we received our welcome pack in the post.
Leo started his lessons on his 8 week birthday, we did a feed, had a sleep beforehand and turned up to Breakspear school in Abbots Langley with our swimming bag all set to go. To go swimming for the first time Leo needed a waterproof nappy, a happy happy and a towel. The hydrotherapy pool Is a lovely 36 degrees and therefore he doesn’t need a wetsuit but I know some classes require this as the water is cooler. A happy nappy In case you were wondering is made out of what feels like wetsuit material (neoprene) with skin tight elasticated bands round the legs and tummy to stop any nasties escaping into the pool. So with Leo ready and Mummy quickly throwing on a swimming costume we entered the pool area. I have to say getting us both ready was pretty tricky the first time and still now takes some multi tasking!
Water Babies Lesson 1:
Our instructor, the lovely welcoming Michelle introduced herself to us, explained what will happen with our babies and we all entered the swimming pool. With each activity we do Michelle explains it, demonstrates it and then we all do it.
We began the lesson like we do now with a warm up. The warm up consists of a few activities and songs to introduce baby into the water, my favourite is Splish Splash. Walking round in a circle you swish your baby side to side singing ‘Splish, splash, Splish, splash, then ‘spin around in a circle’ and lift the babies ‘up in the air’.
We then did our first splash of water on little the ones faces. From the first lesson we were taught ‘name ready go’ when putting water on their face or taking them for an under water swim so they are prepared for what’s coming. Leo coped very well with both water on his face and taking his first ever under water swim, there are a number of reactions they can have when going under water and his was the blinking not phased kind. 🙂 The lesson ended with twinkle twinkle little star where we supported the babies on their backs. Leo really enjoyed his first lesson and slept super well that night, so did mummy !
Water Babies Lesson 2:
This lesson was very exciting as Daddy could make it! He had so much fun with Leo and Michelle was great in showing him and another dad what to do throughout the lesson. Leo did two more under water swims and reacted in the same way as before. They also did a safety activity called ‘name ready splash’, this is to help prepare the babies for falling in to water unexpectedly. The lesson went really well and Daddy had a huge smile on his face for hours!
Water Babies Lesson 3:
3rd lesson in and we are on top of getting ready quickly! We arrived at the lesson with 5 minutes to get ready as I was busy at the studio beforehand and we did it! This lesson was fun, we were able to do the previous activities much quicker so we had time to learn some new things. We did some zigzag swimming. Holding Leo on his front with my hands round his armpits/ shoulders I walked backwards and zigzagged him through the water. His eyes lit up as he looked at the water and watched the light bouncing off of it. My highlight from this lesson was bubble blowing. This is a noise Leo likes without water but in water it’s much more exciting. In the same position on his front and walking backwards I blew bubbles to him in the water to which he gave me his first swimming pool smile and he melted my heart all over again.
I’m looking forward to seeing what’s to come and look forward to sharing more with you soon, if you would like to get your baby in to swimming and a Water Babies please click here for more information.
Thank you,
Zoe xx