Swimming continued
Late November, Magnus is 4,5 months old

Turns out it was so exciting to participate in baby swimming that I have been going every time so far except once when I couldn't get off work. Mostly Magnus comes with me in the locker room, it has become a joyful exercise. From the minute we get into the small locker room Magnus seems to know what is coming and he is just all smiles and happy.

The second time in the water, mama Muna had her first, and she tended to look worried. I kept reminding her to smile to Magnus to encourage him so he didn't get worried. This time the instructor borrowed Magnus to show something to everybody, and we got a good laugh from Magnus' energy; he was just swimming and swimming, which was kind of funny when she was trying to show what to do if the baby was overly passive. So she ended up holding Magnus under his feet only and lifted him well clear of the water - he was just standing in her hands! Amazing, wouldn't have guessed it was possible.

So as the weeks go we practice new things, Magnus now comfortably swim on both chest and back, with the support of a hand under him, he has now learned to swim around on his own without support, using a floating device, and he has tried to dive under water.The diving was a nervous event for us parents, but it turned out quite ok. However, there was never as much crying in the pool as that day... not all the babies liked it. The trick is to first blow in his face to make him "close all hatches" (trigger the diving reflex) and then get under the water, and then up again. Sometimes he coughs a bit when he comes up, and it's important to smile and applaude him and make him feel like everything is as it should and, eventhough we might be scared. Because the baby will look to the parents to find out when to be worried. If the parents do not show worry, the baby will more likely do well and not be worried also. But largely, Magnus would just look like he had been working out and nothing out of the ordinary. He just took a dive, so what? I am so proud of him.

About the sleeping, however, Magnus is still not following the recepy; the other mothers say that their babies typically sleep many hours or until next morning after swimming, but Magnus falls asleep in the car on the way home, and can sleep heavily, too, but once we get home it is business as usual, playing around, eating and going to bed at the usual time. I think he has an incredible reservoir of energy somewhere.

Only once did we experience that he was too tired in the pool... Then he started crying with a tiny strange sound I hadn't heard before while swimming. It was totally unexpected, but probably because he didn't sleep enough earlier in the day. So we had to take it easy that time, but even when he was so tired that he couldn't not cry, he still had enough energy to splash water on the other babies when we had the "closing ceremony" afterwards.