First day of ISR

ISR - Infant Swimming Resource. Basically, a program that teaches kids how to save their lives if they fall in a body of water whether that be a swimming pool, lake, etc. In a swimming pool, it teaches them to find the side of the pool and pull themselves out or hang on to the side. If you are in an open body of water, they fall to their backs and float. They do not learn "strokes" but just how to save themselves. Each lesson is 10 minutes long and we go each day for 6 weeks -- a committment for the parents as well since we have to drive to the back of The Woodlands everyday.

So, Chad's first lesson went something like this: We went over our paperwork with the teacher, we paid, and Chad screamed the entire time he was in the pool -- all 10 minutes. But, the teacher said that is typical for the first lesson. Chad went under water and was already holding his breath. She said that because I nursed him, he knew how to close off his throat from liquids getting down it and was a nose breather. She said this would be a good thing once he started knowing how much oxygen to take in for going under water. See, another benefit of nursing that I did not know about!!

He was also already finding the side of the pool and trying to pull himself up. I asked her if she thought he would be able to pull himself out and she thought he would. She said that he was a "ball of muscle" and he would be a water trickster in no time.

At the final few lessons, we take him fully clothed as most kids fall into the water fully clothed -- it is usually an accident. I am thinking about dressing him up in his Halloween costume or Santa suit for the final lesson.

Here are a few pictures from our first day.