Our new Tuesday morning routine

At the beginning of the month we decided to join the local YMCA so we could take the babies swimming & try to get ourselves back into a workout routine of some sort.  I'm home with the babies on Tuesdays & a few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to take them swimming. We hadn't joined the Y yet but we had a "try it" pass so I figured I'd use that and skip the sign up delay, especially since the therapy pool only has family swim from 11-12 and that is pushing it for me to get them all out of the house after the morning nap. The pass worked great, but did not include the free childcare program so I decided to wing it & take all three babies at once. I wheeled them all into the pool room in the wagon & changed them into swim diapers. Then I rolled the wagon right up to the edge of the pool & formulated a plan. I took one baby in the pool with me while the other two were strapped in the wagon eating snacks & watching everyone in the pool. I switched babies every three minutes or so to make sure nobody got too antsy. They were all so happy to be in the water when it was their turn that I guess it was worth waiting for (snacks helped too!). 

Last week, having officially joined, I thought I'd try the childwatch program and take one by swimming at a time. It may seem like that would be easier, but that day was logistically more challenging  than the first day. In order to switch babies I had to get the swimmer dressed and carry them back to childwatch while I was still wet and in my suit. Switching babies wasn't smooth either and the baby being left cried. So while each baby had fun in the pool, they didn't have as much fun because they were still recovering from being sad in childcare. 

So today I tried yet another option and brought all three into the pool area and actually into the pool. We have a mesh Baby Bjorn carrier that I've thought about using in the pool before but never actually tried. Well today I tried it and it worked great! I put one baby in the carrier, one in the float and held the other in my arms. It went great and they had a blast! I rotated them through the float and carrier and they were all happy as could be for almost 45 minutes in the pool.  I asked the lifeguard to take a quick picture so I could show Michelle and document our little adventure. 

I've been really enjoying our little Tuesday morning pool routine and am so happy that our babies love the water.  I think I will probably keep trying the same strategy as today for as long as it seems to be working. I'm also going to keep working on getting them comfortable in the childcare though because I'd like to feel good about taking all three of them in so Michelle and I can get some workouts in too. Today after swimming I took all three in to childwatch and we all just hung out in there for 15 minutes together. It might take a little time, but they'll get there and it will be so nice if Michelle and I can carve out some time to work out on a regular basis!