I took Batman for his first swim today (2nd August, 2011). He is 8 weeks and 3 days old. We went to the new council Leisure Centre near my Mum’s house – Middleton Arena. We opted for the Aqua Tots time slot, so it was only mums & under 3’s in the baby pool. Sam LOVES the bath, but I wasn’t sure how he’d react to the pool.

First Swim Prep

We arrived a few minutes early and met up with my friend and her 18 week old son. We all went into the family changing area, which has large cubicles big enough for mums to change their children in privacy.

There are only 2 of these with baby tables, and as it’s the Summer holidays, these were taken. This wasn’t a problem – I just lay my towel on the remarkably clean and dry floor and changed him there.

I had put my costume on under my clothes so getting us into our swimming stuff was no problem. We all went out to the pool – which had large steps and rails going into the water. Not the ladders found in older pools. We put our towels and locker keys down on the side – it’s worth adding the lockers in the family bit are huge & easily hold a family of 4’s stuff.

Sam wore a normal nappy under a Huggies little swimmers nappy. He then wore his Snoopy swim suit on top of those. (The swim suit is from NEXT)!!

In The Water

Once in the water, I gently dipped Sam into it too. He was a little shocked at the temperature to begin with but was soon smiling and splashing around. I switched him between floating (and being pulled around) on his back, front and cuddled against me. He seemed to love the entire experience. The pool was really clean – they’ve definitely upgraded their pool cleaner! (When we bought one for our hot tub, we got a lot of useful information here).

The Big Pool

After a few minutes in the pool, a photographer came out wanting to take photos of the aqua tots class for the pool’s website… I was mortified when he asked if he could take some photos of me, my friend & our babies playing. My friend said he could so he directed us into a nice pose and took lots of photos of us from various angles. My hair was clipped to the top of my head, I’m covered in spots, had on no make up and my swimsuit was too big. Needless to say, I shall not be posting links to that site when it’s live hahaha!!

Sam loved the whole experience though, and after 35 minutes in the pool, he started looking cold so I took him out.

Post first swim

It took me about 20 minutes to get us both dry and dressed, and then I realised I’d left his coat in the car. WHOOPS! Lucky for me, one of the towels was still dry so I swaddled him up in that so he didn’t get cold on the way to the car.

All in all, we had a brilliant time & I’ll definitely be taking him again. I’d definitely recommend Aqua Tots sessions to all my friends.

Some of the parents took their kids in their prams/trollies and just left the pushchairs at the edge of the pool while they were in. I think I’ll do that next time, so I don’t have to carry Sam the entire time. That way, he can sit comfortably in his pram while I get ready.

We went to my Mum’s after swimming, and Sam was very tired! He had an epic nap!

Finally, if you’ve enjoyed this post on Sam’s first swim, why not check out more of my parenting blog posts.