Swimming Lessons

Nolan loves the water. A lot. This scares me a little, since he can't swim, and has absolutely no fear around the water.

I tried the toddler/parent swimming lessons with him, but we always had to pull out because of the chronic, never-ending ear infections. With his long term T-tubes in place, he's been free of ear infections for an incredible SIX months.

I logged on to the YMCA website and signed both boys up for swimming lessons, in the Pike program. There is also a "Pike with Parent" class option, which I did not choose. I learned long ago that if I am in the water with Matthew, he will cling to my neck and drown us both not learn anything.

I am a little worried about Nolan's hearing ability on the side of the pool. Nolan fares pretty well without his hearing aids in a quiet environment, but the pool is noisy and has very poor acoustics. Being hard-of-hearing is deceptive: he appears to hear decently, but then little things show that he really isn't catching it all. He was sitting right in front of the TV, watching Disney's Three Caballeros the other day. It was after bath, so his hearing aids were out. He declared, "I can hear the music, but I can't hear the talking!" In other words, he was able to hear the background score, but couldn't hear the characters talking. He can "hear," but he can't pick out the words.

We'll see how it goes. He does use some sign language for receptive situations, and we might need it in this situation. Then again, he might surprise us all and compensate with observation and lip reading. He's a pretty stellar lip reader.

He will be in the same class as his big brother, so that might help. Until, of course, Matthew does his classic freak-out routine at the sight of the pool-swim instructor combination. Lessons start on Wednesday. It should be interesting!



Also, as an update, several people have informed me that Ear Gear does offer a hearing aid clip which attaches to glasses. If anyone is in need of such protection, the clip can be found here.