ISR: Kate Learns to Float and Swim

Kate started Infant Swim Resource (ISR) lessons last week. These are not your typical learn to blow bubbles, get familiar with the water lessons. These survival lessons teach Kate how to swim, float to rest and then continue swimming to an exit. She is learning to grab the wall to pull her head out of the water and swim to the steps to get out of the pool. She attends lessons 5 days a week for 10 minutes and will do so for about four to six weeks, depending on when Kate perfects the swim, float, swim sequence. As much as I want to record or photograph this momentous occasion, I will not pull out such devices until I feel Kate will not be bothered by the distraction.

The Good: In just 6 days of lessons, I can already see results...

• By the end of day one, Kate was grabbing at the wall, kicking her feet and pulling her head out of the water by herself.
• By the end of day 2, Kate was already putting her head in the water and literally swimming to the instructor and across the pool.
• By the end of the first week, Kate was swimming to the steps, kicking her feet, putting her head under water and then grabbing the steps and standing. Right now, this is her favorite part of the lesson. Despite the fact that she cries through the whole lesson, she immediately asks for "more" or to do it "again" once she reaches the steps.
• While Kate (like almost all babies and toddlers going through the program) cries through the duration of the 10-minute lesson, she instantly stops crying and puts her head into the water when her instructor says, "ready, set go..." It's the funniest thing I think I've ever seen.
• Today Kate walked to the pool with her instructor. A big improvement over prying her off my shoulder to hand her to the instructor!
• When tired, Kate immediately turns to a back float position. Today she floated all by herself . Granted, the instructor is right there, but in just a few short lessons, Kate has demonstrated that she is a fast study and one smart cookie. I'm so proud of her!

The Bad: Watching Kate cry for 10 minutes straight is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

When Kate was a little baby last year, I worked tirelessly on the no-cry sleep method and followed the "Baby Whisperer's" advice religiously. As we know, the sleeping beauty is a fantastic sleeper and this dedication paid off. However, because I followed this method, I can only remember a couple of times when Kate cried (and I mean hollered) for longer than a couple of minutes. One time was when she was sick with a fever and the other time sick with constipation. We've let her "cry" to sleep where she whines and fusses and such, but not full out crying like this.

As ill prepared as I was to watch my 17-month old toddler scream for me and cry, I'm amazed at how calmly I can watch her. How I can clap and smile and not show any sense of the anxiety I feel on the inside while she is in the pool. I find comfort and a sense of pride in watching her learn and am amazed at how she pushes through the lesson, despite her fears. I know this is just the first of many times I will have to sit back and watch her struggle and learn on her own. Oh, the journey ahead is long, but I know I've earned stripes and found inner strength that I will dig into in the future.

The Ugly: Watching your baby throw up is heart wrenching

I have to follow some strict protocols with Kate's diet: No dairy within in two hours of the lesson (and I'm finding this is really more like three hours prior to the lesson), no food within an hour (I think more like two hours) and no apples, peaches or spinach during the duration of her training (apparently very gaseous foods that are difficult to digest).

The reason for such strict protocol is to be sure Kate has an empty stomach during her lesson as she swallows a ton of air from all the crying and quite a bit of water. With the lesson at 9:30 a.m., these restrictions in diet are extremely hard to follow. But what I have learned in my six days of lessons is that the mixture of food (especially dairy), excess air and water results in vomiting. Ick. In six days of lessons, Kate has thrown up three times--that's 50% of the time! Each time I feel like I've failed Kate, not to mention disappointed my instructor. Of course, our instructor shows no signs of disappointment, is always encouraging and never reprimands me (probably senses I'm beating myself up enough, already).

The first experience was minor and after the lesson, but the piece of egg I saw that was barely digested convinced me to only feed her toast for the duration of the lesson (okay, so egg was a bad idea...). The second was the worst with a fountain of breakfast shooting from Kate's mouth while she squirmed and wiggled during a floating exercise (no more bananas or cream cheese on that toast!) . The third, today, was definitely better, but also during her lesson and quite disturbing for me to watch (no more milk, not even an ounce!). Kate will be stuck with eating Cheerios or dry toast and water prior to 7:30 a.m. from now on. Hopefully this will eliminate the ugly from happening again. Oh, how I hope so.

For more details about the ISR program, visit them at www.infantswim.com.