Baby Shark

Content warning: This post briefly discusses child death.

After hearing about a drowning at the local pond, my urgency to get baby in the water and teach her to swim increased drastically. I can’t begin to imagine how that must feel to watch your baby, no matter how old they are, go under and never come back up.

The day they found the body was the same day I first took my little girl to the pool to get her acquainted with the water.

I bought the swim diapers and a cute little bathing suit for her, but I forgot about how I would feel in a swimsuit my first time postpartum. Everyone has their body concerns, and even though people tell me my body has “bounced back” fairly quickly doesn’t mean I’m not self conscious about it. It has still changed from how it was before. I decided to embrace it anyway and remember that it birthed a new life just 3 short months ago, so I wore the two piece.

Little ones cute bathing suit!

Getting into the women's change room I started thinking “how am I going to do this?” I had only thought about how fun taking her swimming would be but I didn’t think about logistics. Now I have two people to get changed, where am I going to change her? I have to use the bathroom before I go into the pool and can’t just leave her outside the bathroom stall alone, I’m crossing my fingers that she doesn’t pee or poop through her diaper - which has happened before! So much to think about that may seem like a small thing now but at the time seemed bigger, especially since there was another mom in the changeroom and things just seemed more ‘natural’ for her. It took a little bit, but I figured it out. I changed her on the bench, and held her while I used the washroom myself (hello, moms who never get to use the washroom in private anymore). In hindsight, I should have gone into the family change room!

A couple minutes after we got in the water, a mom and her little girl, maybe about 5 years old, were walking by and the mom said “see, I wish I had done that with you when you were that little”. The girl replied “why?”, to which the mom said “because then you’d be able to swim”. She said this in a loving way to her daughter, not as a downfall of her daughter’s development.

I was so unsure of what I was doing with my daughter in the water that this lady and her comment helped me out, knowing that I am trying my best to do what is right for my baby.

Even though there were some hurdles to getting my girl in the pool, I am so glad I did it because she really seemed to enjoy herself! And thankfully she didn’t pee or poop in her swim diaper!

How old was your little one when you first got them in a pool? What was the experience like for you?

Remember, whether or not you have taken your little one swimming yet does not define you as a parent. You are doing what you think is best for your baby, and YOU are doing an AMAZING job!

P.S. You’re welcome for getting the song stuck in your head. :)