So last week was our 2nd week of taking Anniston to ISR training... On Friday, Anniston learned how to float all by herself!!!... No floaties- NOTHING! The link to the YouTube video is at the end of this post because I haven't quite learned how to add it directly on my blog yet...
In the video, you'll see her ISR instructor, Maury, take her hands off and Anniston floats by herself! Maury waves her hand in the water underneath Anniston's back to create a current so she knows someone is still close by...
She's made AMAZING progress since her first week! She still doesn't like being away from me & in the water so she still whines a little, but up until the last few lessons she would kick & scream in the water & the first few lessons we were just trying to get Anniston used to having her head & ears in the water & trying to calm her down to get her legs still so she could float... I thought getting her legs to be still was going to be a BIG undertaking because she is CONSTANTLY kicking & wiggling her legs!... She kicks when she's mad, happy, changing her diaper, playing- she's constantly kicking! :) So when she started keeping them still in the water I was amazed!!! I knew going into ISR, what an amazing program this is, but after just 2 weeks I couldn't believe my little 9 month old baby girl was floating all by herself!!! {I can't even float! ;) }
The next step after floating that we will be working on is rolling over in the water (you'll see at the end of the video, Maury started doing that a little)... The point of teaching her to roll over in the water is because if she were to fall in, she needs to know how to navigate in the water to find her air supply and get on her back to float...
The next step, once she's mastered rolling over, is putting her in the pool fully-clothed so we know she's able to rollover & float with all that weight... pretty neat huh?!
I'm not gonna lie, it can get a little difficult watching your baby cry in the water at first because the first week she was so upset when we put her in, but I have to constantly remind myself we are doing this so she knows how to survive in the water if we were ever to have an accident! {God forbid!}... In my research about this program, I read that most people, when they are put in a survival situation, instinctively go back to the first thing they were taught in that situation... Like riding a bike... most of us learned how to ride a bike with the brakes on the pedals... Years later, when we are on a bike that has brakes on the handlebars, when you go to brake suddenly in a "survival situation", your first instinct reaction is to reverse on the pedals to apply the brakes like when you initially learned how to ride... Well it's the same concept with teaching babies ISR... If Anniston were ever put in a survival situation in the water, her instincts should resort to the skills she learned in this program!
I was able to watch a little girl last week who was done with her lessons who swam after us who was testing out... by the end of it all, my eyes were full of tears because I was just amazed by all she could do- and it wasn't even my baby!!... {Can you tell how big of an advocate I am about this! :) }
Anyhoo... here's the link to the video of my sweet baby girl floating in the water... I can't wait to post more as we get further in her lessons! :0)
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