I *love* the lake. But, I am a weak swimmer. I do ok, but I do not really like deep water without a life jacket on. I love skiing and miss it dearly.
Before Kaylee was born, I was doing some research on infant swimming. Infants from birth to about 6 months have a reflex that literally allows them to hold their breath under water. After 6 months, they lose that. I wanted to get Kaylee in the water by 3 months so badly, but I could not find an instructor to teach before they were 2.
When Kaylee was a few months old, I was at a party. With a pool. And lots of unsupervised (meaning, there was only 1 adult actually in the pool and she was tending to her own kids) kids in said pool. None of the kids had any type of life jacket on. It made me a nervous wreck. But, there was nothing I could do or say because.. well.. I was a new parent. One of the kids went under - no one saw this happen and no one knows for sure how long he was under. It could have been only seconds, it could have been longer. When the mom noticed, she quickly got the boy out. Thank God he was ok. I'm not even religious anymore, but I was praying that day.
While in Halifax, my friend Jo show us an amazing video of survival swimming for infants.This is what we all witnessed. As heartbreaking as it was to see the baby being in the pool scared for 5+ minutes, it was amazing to see that he was perfectly ok. Some think this is cruel, but who knows how long it will be before you notice that your backdoor was left open? Training a child to float for an extended amount of time is important! Here's hoping Kaylee will never have to use this skill, but at least she'll have it.
That experience reaffirmed why I must get Kaylee in the water. That situation should have never happened and could have turned out so much worse. Kaylee has a life jacket now as of her birthday. We've tested it out at Lake Pflugerville. It only flips her on her back. She will probably only wear it on boats, but I'm glad I have it.
A few days ago, a friend posted some pictures of her 2 year old swimming under water. It was the neatest thing! I'm so proud of Tammy for getting her son in swim lessons so quickly. They do have a pool, so Wyatt has been a water baby for a while. She provided me information of her instructor and a facility that does IRS (infant swim resources).
Kaylee is now enrolled in Aqua-Tots. /squeal!
2 years ago
2 comments:
Great idea on swimming classes! Where is Aquatots and how much is it? I can't watch that video...I get to tense and weepy watching anything happening to a kid that's not good!!!
The video is great! It's absolutely amazing.. and they don't show him in there for 5 minutes.. they cut the waiting part out... This is not a bad video and I promise he ends with a huge smile on his face.
It's located at 79 and 35. Probably doable for ya'll. aqua-tots.com/tx-ih35-79.php There's a coupon on their site, as well as the available schedules.
Kaylee will be going on Mondays at 9-9:30am. it's $25 to register and $70 for a month (you go once a week). I'm hoping to put this in our permanent budget so she can go year-round. Indoor pool FTW! :)
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