On Thursday we took Ethan swimming for the very first time! It was AWESOME. We had the most fun as a family; Adam, Ethan and I.
I tried to capture his first swimming experience on camera but got mostly told off by a lifeguard for taking photographs. I tried to explain that I was just trying to capture my Sons first time swimming, not take photos of random kids -- but no, I got in trouble ha ha. And to be fair, I can see why - I just didn't really think about it, but then I wouldn't really would I? I try not to think about things like that. And anyway, I was too excited for Ethan. Though, one friendly lifeguard did let me take a quick snap whilst the lifeguard who eventually told me off was making his way around the pool and here it is:
Ethan doesn't look particularly impressed, but honestly, he LOVED it. He thought it was the best thing ever!
And what surprised us the most was that he was such a natural in the water, he kicked is legs repeatedly in a swimming motion - I couldn't believe it - He is a better swimmer than I am. Though, in truth, I'm not much of a swimmer at all so that isn't particularly hard.
Access to the pool cost us around £7.50 in total for 2 adults and Ethan, so it wasn't bad nd there were lots of child friendly areas which was really nice to see.
There were a few baby changing rooms but they were all taken so we ended up having to use a normal sized changing room to get into our swimming gear, this would have been an issue but luckily we had our Huggies Hygiene mat with us. Which meant that we didn't have to put Ethan down directly on to the floor or on the side board.
We laid him down on the mat which is non-slip and cushioned and I just felt that it was a LOT more hygienic.
To be honest, it was a bit of a life saver, I wouldn't have been happy to lay him down on to the floor/board. Its use was just fantastic and I'd totally recommend having one for those intending to go swimming.
It's also worth mentioning that the hygiene mat took up hardly any space in our bag which is exactly what we needed as we were already lugging around our big towels etc. It's the perfect baby swimming must-have item.
£4.66 found HEREI thought that we would have needed to invest in more to be able to take him swimming.. things like arm bands and inflatables crossed my mind, but no, we were fine. The only thing that we took as extra was the hygiene mat and then Huggies Little Swimmers swim pants, which worked out great for us as Ethans nappy!
£6 for 2 x packs of 12 Honestly, if you are pondering over whether or not to take your little one swimming, do it! It was THE BEST! Obviously after they've had all of their jabs.
I would like to just say a big thank you to the team at Huggies for very kindly sending over some swimming products for us to try out which totally spurred us on to go!
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