When Evie is ten weeks old Grandpa “Lollipop” hops into the bath to see how she is progressing. They have a great time together and I think he is thrilled to see how much she enjoys the water as she exercises freely.
I observe carefully the way he handles her in the bath to see if I can get some tips. I notice that rather than support her by the back and neck he opts to let her lay freely on his lap. She seems to really enjoy this as she has the freedom to exercise vigorously.
I also notice that he sinks her down very low in the water. Perhaps it’s my motherly instincts to keep her a bit higher out of the water. She is really enjoying feeling her buoyancy so from now on I’ll try to sink her a bit lower.
While Evie exercises enthusiastically on her back she seems much more intent on simply floating while on her tummy. This tummy time must feel wonderful for her as she experiences weightlessness as the water envelops her body.
We also give Evie an opportunity to lay on Laurie’s chest. This is great to help her build strength which will enable her to master movement skills like rolling, sitting and crawling. This bath time tummy time may also help those babies who do not enjoy laying on their tummy on land.
When pouring the water we notice that eye is starting to close her eyes. This is a great achievement as she is on her way to mastering the conditioning process. At this stage I think she is closing her eye in response to us pouring the water rather that us using the trigger words.
I think we are making great progress during our bath time swimming lessons and the most important thing is that Evie is having fun.