Amélie recovered from her post immunisation cold just in time for her 5th swimming lesson. I've also included a video from our first and second swimming lesson.
Waterbabies were assessing new instructors today, so we had a different swimming instructor. One of the first things you learn is not to get into the pool holding your baby. Today I handed Amélie over to the new instructor and slipped on the steps getting in, so was glad to be following this rule.
The main difference with the new instructor is that we worked more often doing widths of the pool and less moving in a big circle. We did all the usual moves, even the new head cradling move we learned last week. I still feel uncomfortable with that move, but Amélie seems to love it. In swim position she is lifting her head right up now, and she sometimes has a bit of a giggle. We are only talking 5 lessons but there has been a surprising amount of progress since then.
Before I continue I thought this would be a good place to put the video I cut together. It shows the swimming nappy and trunks and there is a bit at the end of her first underwater swim with me. Apologies for the unsubtle text effects, I was just experimenting and will tone them down in the future.
One of the other mothers told me she thought she could see Amélie understand the 'Amélie ... Ready ..Go', I don't think she does yet but I guess she wouldn't have mentioned it unless she thought so. One baby has started to obviously hold their breath during the '(baby's name) .. ready .. go', so I'm pretty hopeful she will start to understand soon.
The new parts this time were doing our stationary underwater swim all at once rather than singularly or in pairs. We also did a moving underwater swim without a cuddle at the end, just straight into zig zag moving swim position. The zig zag is supposed to encourage the babies to start swimming about, and they said again how nice that particular move feels to the baby.
The ready steady splash move where you sit them on the side then splash them into the water (landing on their chest) was extended. Instead of the move ending when they hit the water, you go straight into swim position for a width of swimming.
Amélie wasn't too comfortable after one of her underwater swims, I think she may have taken some water in, and she felt a little bit rattly so I took her to the side and sat her out of the activities for a few minutes. It was a bit embarrassing, I've seen other babies a little upset and they just carry on, but with Amélie having just recovered from a cold I wasn't taking any chances.
She slept in the car home, and slept on me for a good while when we got home, so it must have really tired her out.
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