Water baby

This week marked another successful session with the Turtle Tots team and Leo just seems to be going from strength to strength. I don't know if it is just him or if every baby makes a huge progression when they hit a year old but my (not so baby anymore) baby seems to have come along so much recently.
When Lee-lee was about ten months old I was worried. I worried that he wasn't crawling yet and we had just seen an eye expert as even our health visitor had her concerns for his sight, so safe to say as a new mum I was riddled with 'what's wrong', 'did I do something bad', 'how can I help him'. The only bit of advice that I can give anybody else going through those same monologues in their head is just to relax. No Leo didn't crawl until ten months but by a year he is almost walking, he is a little man that once he puts his mind to it he bloody well gets it done and that's the way with almost everything that he does. As for his sight, no amount of doctors can explain why he had such a hard time to begin with but one thing is for sure, he now has amazing 20/20 vision. The pressure that you can put on yourself as new parents and even the pressure onto your baby is just unnecessary worry that you really don't need in your first year with a newborn.
So, as I said Leo is now a year old and stands by himself, talks (so much!), is the proud owner of six teeth and loves his new swimming classes. I have to admit I am really enjoying them too and every week I will be looking forward to what new thing we will learn in the water. To explain what the classes are like for a baby Leo's age isn't easy as each week can be different. However, every week there are little rhymes and songs to sing along to, floating toys and things to sit on. There is one exercise when we hold the babies on their fronts so they are floating along in the water and are encouraged to blow bubbles. This is so that swimming becomes more fun and they get used to it but Leo seems to take the opportunity to drink half of the swimming pool! This week we also enjoyed some underwater bobbing, more fun for him than me as the idiot that I am didn't wear waterproof mascara so emerged from the pool looking like the loch-ness-panda! Some splash play and the best bit by far when they sit on the pools edge and wriggle their way to jump in, a particular favourite of my baby bears.
This week to go swimming I put Leo in his Turtle Tots neo-nappy and I cannot say enough good things about it. They are £10 and can be purchased, along with loads of other bits and pieces from the Turtle Tots website www.turtletots.co.uk. When we have taken Leo in the past I have used the little wet suits usually from Sports Direct and they have been good while he was smaller but now that he is so mobile in the water I worry so much about little spillages that his disposable nappy might not save! Many pools have a strict 'double nappy' policy and for good reason, I can't think of anything worse than swimming along to find the angelic baby beside you turning the water yellow...or worse. But this neo nappy that I layer over Leo's disposable swim nappy (huggies little swimmers!) is great as it's roomy on his bum but has snug fitting leg holes to keep everything in!

And finally I thought it would be a help to say what I pack in Leo's swimming bag each week incase you were new to the world of baby swim too! I pack all of his things along with my swimsuit in his normal SkipHop changer as its huge and fits absolutely everything that I need!

Leo's swim bag:

*4 Huggies little swimmers nappies size 5

*Neo Nappy

*Baby wipes

*Toy car to keep Leo entertained in the changing room

*Snack-he's loving Ella's kitchen carrot snacks

*2xbottles of water (swimming is thirsty work)

*Formula just in case

*Change of clothing for after

*Baby hooded towel

*4 Nappies

*Sudocrem/bepanthen

*Sunblock for after swimming

*My towel

*Swimsuit

*Change for the gym lockers

*Flipflops for pool side