June 4, 2015

Selah June is finishing up her second week of swim lessons with Miss Carrie.  We’re still fussing through the whole experience, but we’re also reaching all of our important milestones like a champ!  She’s really funny.  We get to Carrie’s every morning around 8:25.  She smiles as we walk up to the pool and she sees Carrie for the first time.  She enjoys the sunshine on her face as I strip her down and shove her little baby thighs into her tight reusable swim diaper.  It’s like any other normal, wonderful morning.

And then it happens.

I pick her up, hand Carrie her BUDS form, and pass SJ over.  She sees the crystal blue waters of the big above-ground swimming pool, and she begins to yell.  Everything about her verbal and nonverbal communication screams “I don’t want to be in this water!  I want to get out of here!  I hate doing this!  Why are you torturing the baby??!!”

For several minutes, Carrie patiently practices her float.  “Less kicking…. Little cries… Airplane arms….  There you go!  Yes, Selah June!  That’s it!  Beautiful, baby…”

Today she got her face wet for the first time — intentionally, that is.  Carrie looked into her eyes and waited till just the right second when she had just taken a breath and then – dunk – she was under and back before she knew what had happened.  We have to practice the sensation of water touching her eyes.  It’s very uncomfortable and disorienting for babies, and it’s one of the things she has to get used to happening when she ends up in a pool.

By the end of the lesson, she had won Carrie over with her beautiful floats.

Carrie lifted her up and over the side of the pool and rested her on her left side to help all the air bubbles in her tummy come out as burps.

And this is Selah June after swim lessons.

She immediately stops fussing, but she is a worn out little punkin’.

We bring a bottle as a treat for post-swimming R&R.