Saturday, May 22, 2010

Water Baby

Yesterday Ben was 3 weeks old, and we had a great trip to the doctor. He has put on almost two pounds since birth! And has grown nearly an inch. Way to go, Baby Ben!

I was also happy because I was afraid the doctor was going to say I should try giving up dairy, because Ben has been having some gas discomfort/issues--but instead she recommended trying some baby gas drops. Whew.

The other really exciting thing to come out of the appointment was that we got the go-ahead to take him into our pool or hot tub whenever we want. The doctor said that actually, the sooner the better, because he will still remember floating around in the womb, and he'll be very comfortable in the water if we do it now. (She didn't recommend doing it in a public pool, though.) I asked her about safety and she said just make sure we don't get drunk and forget to pay attention to the baby. Um, ok! I think we can handle that! She also said we should really always have two adults present, just in case. Also very do-able. She also suggested checking out teach-your-baby-to-swim sites online.

You might be surprised that we were eager to try this, given Ben's history with baths. What can I say; we like to live dangerously. (Plus, we had a pretty good swim diaper for him.) And wow, how much fun it was! He absolutely loved it. I got in first and Bob handed him to me; Bob stayed out in case he hated it and wanted to get out right away. We needn't have worried about that. I put his little tootsies in first, then his legs, and still no complaints, so then I held him close to me and put him in up to his waist. He was loving it.

I remember hearing something about how babies can be taught to float on their backs, so I put both hands under him and lowered him into the water on his back, being very attentive of course in case he started to squirm. But he didn't squirm; he totally relaxed. And got his little bath-time half-smile on. I had one hand under his head/neck, and he seemed to be floating so well that I actually took the other hand away, so I was just holding him up with the one hand, and he kept floating, beautifully! And calmly, and happily. It was kind of amazing. I was surprised that he was that buoyant. Bob and I took turns holding him that way, sharing his blissful relaxation.

At one point we decided to try letting go of his head to see if he could float without any assistance at all. He couldn't. He sank down right away. Of course we pulled him right back up! Such a calm little guy; he didn't even cry. He looked surprised but not freaked out. So we went back to the one-handed float.

We didn't stay in too terribly long; we didn't want him to get overheated or anything. And what a cooperative boy: he waited until the moment I got him out of there to fill his diaper! I would not have minded if he had waited until I had dried him off and gotten him out of his swim diaper and into a regular one, but hey, I'm *not* complaining. It was mighty sporting of him to wait as long as he did:-)

Later I did a quick search on YouTube and found out that what we were doing was actually pretty much the right way to teach a baby to float. Here's a very cool video of a young baby floating.

In any case, I think this all bodes very well for a summer of family swim time!

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