Sophia's First Swimming Lesson

First of all, I very strongly apologize that all these pictures show me in a bathing suit.  That pretty much makes me want to barf, so it probably will make you want to barf too...I just hope you won't stop reading my blog if I made you barf!! 
Last week we were able to sign Sophia up at the last minute for a tot swim lesson at the YMCA near our house.  My parents have a pool at their house and we will be spending a lot of time over there this summer so it's very important that we take enough lessons so Sophia can, at the very least, get her head out of the water and float on her back, should she ever fall in.  Which I am very scared might happen.  She is not a very cautious baby.  For example, Cooper, my nephew, never really got close enough that any of us ever though he might fall in the pool.  He is just a more cautious kid by nature.  Sophia, not so much.  I can already picture her walking right up to the side and not even stopping.  So we shall take as many lessons as we need until I feel comfortable that she at least won't drown if she happens to fall in. And after her first lesson, we might be taking quite a few. 
Our first lesson was Saturday morning at 10.  Soph usually sleeps until 9:30, so we had to wake her up, but she seemed pretty excited about swim lessons.  Although, she sort of was excited because she thought she was going to see her cousin there.  (It wasn't going to happen...his swimming lessons were happening in Alabama....she didn't quite understand)  We got her there on time and changed her into her bathing suit.  The pool was supposed to be heated.  I guess it was, but I thought it was a little chilly...and so did Sophia.  She started shivering as soon as I got her in!  It was loud, I guess there were other swim classes going on.  So she was pretty distracted and it made it hard to hear the teacher.  She did like seeing the other babies in class.  I would say there was about 8 total kids, she was probably third youngest. 

This sort of sums up the whole class....she was pretty clingy, not very smiley, not sure what was going on!!  And we hadn't even started class yet!

Trying to practice with the kickboard.  She really didn't like the kickboards.  She would hold on for like two seconds and then let go.  No kicking happened.  She was keeping an eye on the other kids though. 

You can sort of see a little red object on the far right of the picture...it's a block.  I was supposed to throw it ahead and she was supposed to kind of 'swim' out to get it.  Um, no.  She couldn't have cared less about getting the block.  Mostly I would walk over and kind of force her to grab it cause she had me in some sort of death grip. 

There's the block again....she's not even looking at it, I don't think.  I'd swim her over and swim her right into it and she still wouldn't grab it. 

And now, finally, we are doing a skill that she is good at.  Floating on her back.  She has practiced this one a few times with Daddy in the bathtub, so now after some failed kickboarding and block retrieving she can really show off. 

Yup, just kicking back and relaxing.  She barely even needs me.  Michael should've gotten a wide shot of all the other babies struggling and not wanting to lay back and float, just for comparison. 

Mmm, hmm, we can do this all day.  Too bad this isn't the whole class.  Then we'd be pro swimmers.  Unfortunately, even though I did just show three floating on her back pictures, this was only about 5 minutes or so of the class, haha.  Hey, I wanted to spotlight what she was good at!! 

Back to things we didn't want to do.  Next, there was this pancake roll thing.  Basically, we had to flip the baby from the front to the back.  Yeah.  From her facial expression, you can guess that Sophia did not want to do that.  From her death grip, I knew that she definitely did not want to be flipped.  Also her whining was a clue.  The baby next to me was straight up crying about it. 

Sophia watching the baby next to us doing the flip thing.  She is still holding on to me like I am going to drown her or something (not that she even knows what that is).  But she is semi-interested in the praise that the teacher is giving the other baby.  Hey, whatever works. 

And we get her to flip over.  While I've got the momentum I flip her a few more times for good measure and she whines about it and tries to cling (but we're both wet and she's lost her death grip on the first flip) but it turns out I am stronger than her.  Next we move over to the side for more fun. 

Ah, Sophia.  Anyone wondering why my girl is all alone on the side all by herself?  Cause everyone else already flopped right back in the pool.  I guess she got comfy sitting on the side or something.  I might've dragged her in. 

So then we tried the stand up version.  And she is still all alone on the side.  Again, everyone else jumped right in to their parent.  She just seemed skeptical.  And also she was shivering like crazy, it was hard to do JUMP! when it was just so cold.  The teacher came over then and said she was too cold and had to stop the lesson.  Her lips were getting kinda purple-ish and her hands and feet were losing color too....she said those were signs of the body losing heat and that it was time to stop and get her out and warm her up.  We were the third of the group to get bounced, two little girls actually got tossed from the lesson before us for the same reason.  There was still about 7 minutes or so of the lesson so we missed the part where you dunk your baby under the water but that's about it.  I'm sure Soph saw that part coming and planned her exit strategy in advance!! 

Hopefully next lesson she feels more comfortable and wants to participate a little bit more.  I think next week Daddy is going to swim with her and I am going to take the pictures.  I hope that I won't be a distraction on the sidelines for her.  At least we know she will do ok with the floating on her back part!  I had a fun time with my sweet little miss for her very first ever swim lesson...although I do know we have a lot to work on, swim wise!!