Shaky start to swimming

WE FINALLY WENT SWIMMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But let me tell you it has not been and was not easy! Phew. Let me explain as briefly as possible!

So I have wanted to take Emmeline swimming pretty much from the moment that she was born. I bought her a swimming costume when she was about 2 months old and everything, but there were a few problems. She was born in July, a pretty hot month, but not as hot as August! I was on my 6 week 'you can’t do anything' quarantine after having noodle, and so since I couldn’t swim, we didn’t go swimming in July or August. Xavi and I were then planning on a little holiday in September to go down the coast where we could swim with her on a nice almost deserted beach in a little protected bay. Well, work came in and the holiday went out. So by now it was too cold for a little beach swim. I decided that we would go to a swimming pool and have out first little adventure that way. I had joined a gym, but their pool wasn't equipped for young babies. So decided to take her to Barceloneta gym's pool as I used to go to that gym. But then I got sick, and then noodle got sick, then me, then her, then her, then her. So by now here we were in February! I had a baby, a swimming costume and a swimming hat, but still we had not managed to get to a damned pool! I phoned Barceloneta and got the times, and finally today was the day!

Well, it took me 2 HOURS to pack our bag! I had to be sure that I had everything - swimming towels, extra little towel just in case, costumes, hats, shoes, clothing, noodles change of clothing just in case, extra jersey just in case, shampoo, moisturiser, fold up bag just in case, changing mat, nappies, cream, wet wipes, emergency dummy, bottle of water for noodle, bottle of water for me and then the usual, wallet, keys, phones etc. We jump on the metro and then have the short walk to the gym, so 25 minutes after leaving and 2 hrs after deciding to go, we arrive.

Only to get a surprise. And no, not a pleasant one.

I get to the entrance desk of the gym and ask the lady how  much it is for me and Emmeline to enter. She tells me that it is 10.50euro for me and 3.80euro for Emmeline.

WHAT??????????

Well that is just bloody daylight robbery. I let that sink in for a minute and then slowly pull out a twenty to pay her; I have after all come all this way! She looks at me weirdly and I can tell that something has been lost in our little communication. She asks me which pool I want to go to. Sorry but isn't that a little bit obvious with a 7 month old baby strapped to my chest? Not exactly going to the outdoor pool in the middle of winter now am I. So I point to Emmeline and answer 'which ever one is prepared for her'. She pauses and then she hits me with 'Oh, it isn’t open'

WHAT??????????

'But I phoned and you are open Monday to Thursday, 13:00 - 14:00' (don’t even get me started on the fact that it is only open one lousy hour on these days). She shakes her head slowly, 'No, Monday AND Thursday'. My face drops and I start to shows signs of disbelief and serious irritation. Then she "helpfully" asks if I was thinking of going to the big pool. Oh, the 50meter x 25 meter pool that is around 2 meters deep where everyone is swimming laps?? The same pool that is not acclimatised for a 7 month old baby??? The same pool where I cannot even touch the floor??

WHAT???????????

Stupid, stupid girl.

I reply no and I leave. By now I am fuming. I have wasted my whole day preparing and travelling to get here only to not be able to even wet my big toe. Pissing pisser.

Emmeline meanwhile is totally oblivious. Having woken up while we were talking to dumb and dumber in the gym, she was currently doing her best to eat her way through the Baby Bjorn. Good luck with that sweetheart! I remember that there is another gym close by, and so off we go. When we arrive, there is a lady behind the information counter. I see one of the little 'take a number' machines but cannot actually believe that I would need to take a number, I am in a gym! So I go up to her, 'Hola, can I ask a question'. She tells me that I can. So I start to ask her if they have a baby pool. I managed to say 'do you have . . . ' before she told me no, she couldn’t answer right now, she was busy. But I just asked if I could ask you something and you said yes! Did you think that I was going to leave thinking 'great, if I have a question, I can ask her' or did you think that I had a 16:00 question and not a right now question? So I patiently wait while she taps away at her computer. Eventually she looks up, smiles and goes 'yes?' so I start to ask my question again, when along comes a man who works there to give her tokens or something. She immediately turns to this guy to help him leaving my question hanging there only half asked. She comes back, smile and goes 'sorry, yes??' so I do the whole thing again. The phone rings and she picks it up. By now I am wondering if the cosmos is having a laugh at my expense. Eventually I manage to ascertain that they do have a baby pool, it is open, although Emmeline doesn’t have the exact swimming costume they want, she does have one that has plastic lining, so we can go swim. For 11.50euros. Just take my money already and let me swim please.

We go to the change room and then there is the dilemma of getting myself dressed while Emmeline waits on the changing table. A few well meaning grannies kept telling me to be careful that she didn’t roll off the table. Obviously this is possible, but Emmeline tends to not roll that way, and if I have one hand on her the whole time, please can someone explain how I manage to get myself dressed, her dressed, all our clothing in the bag, and the bags, shoes jackets etc in the locker that is over there? I am not Inspector Gadget with my own personal set of go go gadget arms.

Eventually we get into the pool! Oh she loved it. She was quite silent at first, and then she started to laugh and screech in delight! We went swimming up and down and she really seemed to enjoy it! So much so that she decided to try to drink the pool water like a little puppy dog! I worked up the courage to dunk her under the water with me and she was a little shocked but I quickly blew into her face, she breathed in and smiled about it! That’s my girl! We got some toys and played with those, until she decided to try and eat them. No, we don't eat the toys in a swimming pool where who knows how many other mites have been chewing on them. So we swam some more and had another little dunk under the water. She didn’t like that and made little cry faces as she had managed to swallowed water. So we didn’t do that again. I did notice that when I picked her up she did hold onto me tighter and when I had her sitting on my legs submerged up to her chest she did hold onto my hands very tightly. Bless her! We got out after about 25 minutes and she just seemed so content at having her first swim!

Now came the hard part of trying to somehow shower her and me! It resulted in me more or less showering her and shampooing her and me just dunking my head and body under the water whilst Emmeline sat on my hip making huge smiley faces at the ladies showering and making all of the go 'aah'. Got us dressed somehow managing to keep a hand on her most of the time for the benefit of the grannies whilst she chewed the hell out of her chew toy and occasionally stopping to make gooey smiley faces at the ladies in the change room. Flirt.

I got her in the Baby Bjorn and my little noodle was out like a light before we had even got to the metro! We had a shaky start, but in the end we had a fabulous time swimming.