sentences swim!

[psocoptera]

We went to our first swimming lesson today! Juniper did not get ripped out of my hands by the current and vanish under the murky water, because a) we were in a nice clean swimming pool and b) this was not one of those postpartum nightmares that made me all anxious about water. In fact she seemed to be having a lot of fun and I felt pretty secure handling her in the water - I did accidentally let her face go partway in a couple of times, but she just coughed once or twice and wasn't upset. We're totally going to be ready for ponds and beaches this summer.

ETA: My attempt to embed this picture was unsuccessful, so please follow this link if you want to see it, thanks.

I do seem to have missed some sort of memo about appropriate swim attire for babies - I just put her in a swim diaper and nothing else, but every other baby was wearing trunks or a swimsuit over theirs. I don't really see the point - it's an indoor pool, it's not like she needs sun protection. (I'll want some kind of long-sleeved swim shirt for her this summer...) And she's too young for toplessness to be immodest. But this was clearly not the reasoning of everyone else there, so I'm not sure what I want to do - go buy her a swimsuit in the interest of conformity? Or just not worry about it?

I would also like to note that "swimming lessons" can be added to the list of things that do not tire my child out enough to induce her to take a morning nap. 8:20 am - 2 pm awake.

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

Does this work to embed?
<img src="http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs171.snc3/19873_1201463152295_1100051342_30479504_1012357_n.jpg">

[crystalpyramid]

Also — maybe take advantage of the fact that she's still young enough that not wearing what everyone else is wearing doesn't bother her?

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice, thanks.

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

as you know, I am a fairly big fan of conformity, but in this case I'm like, whatever. why buy a swimsuit that she doesn't need and will outgrow, like, instantly?

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

My only theory is that it's a gender labeling thing - babies in swim diapers don't present many obvious gender signals. I personally have no problem with everyone assuming she's a boy, though. (Which they do all the time anyways... I like blue.)

[glynhogen.livejournal.com]

There's probably some gender labeling. There's probably also a certain degree of "oh my god that's so cute!"

I don't do anything for purposes of gender labeling; Kaia is labeled or mislabeled depending on what I thought was cute in the morning. (Her Eagles onesie, more than any of her blue clothes, is most likely to make people leap to the incorrect conclusion.) Swimsuits are just another cute outfit: they're like people clothes, except tiny. (If we'd been able to find the extra small swim diapers, I totally would've bought her the little blue-and-white striped suit I saw at Target today, even though she'd only have the opportunity to use it this coming week.)

[rivka17.livejournal.com]

They don't make extra small disposable swim diapers, but cloth diapers are better for swim diapers anyhow, they keep the waste in better so are more sanitary. After some bad incidents with baby diseases some swim parks are now requiring cloth swim diapers. A lot of people like imse vimse.
http://www.momsmilkboutique.com/IMSwimDiaper.html
I have a swim diaper but have yet to take Lirael to the pool as she has exzema and I am afraid all the chlorine will make it worse.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

In fact the one I bought is an Imse Vimse, but she's only worn it the once and it hasn't had to contain anything, so no firsthand opinion here.

[rebeccapaul.livejournal.com]

Jonah wore only swimming diapers last summer - outdoors no less. There are gendered disposable swimming diapers (at least for his size). And Jonah wore the hand-me-down Ariel simming diapers some of the time.

[mst3kforall.livejournal.com]

My mom used to let us run around in just underpants (and, presumably, diapers, but I don't remember that early) until we were well into grammar school. I don't think it did us any harm;-)

Also, kudos for getting her used to the water. My mom had me in swimming lessons from before I can remember; and I have always thanked her for my confidence in water and in swimming.

[aryky.livejournal.com]

Cute swimming baby! Yay!

(I offer no helpful commentary.)

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Lucky! T was screamingly terrified when I took him as an infant, so I had to take him away again so that nobody would get upset. (Among other things, I didn't want him to make the happy babies unhappy.)

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Aw, poor T. Our class did have one little girl who eventually let her mom wade out into the pool while carrying her, but I don't think actually went as far as touching the water herself... I definitely feel lucky that Junie was pro-swim.

[prof-fran.livejournal.com]

I'm all for not buying more clothes that she will wear a handful of times before outgrowing them.
And she's terribly terribly cute.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks!

[allectofromlj]

I suspect it's purely for the cuteness factor. Like shoes for babies too young to walk -- it serves no real purpose, but it makes people say, "awwwww!"