One Year Update of Ronin's Secondary Drowning Incident + His First Day of Swim Lessons

I can't believe that it has already been a year since Ronin had his near drowning experience.  As I sit down to write this post I am flooded with emotions. But above all I am beyond thankful that my almost three year old little boy is still here with us today.

Out of my two boys, I would say that Ronin is the more independent and fearless one. He wants to do everything his brother is doing and more.  He watches Max swim around our pool and I see how badly he wants to follow suit and swim and play right along next to him.  I love his desire for independence but at the same time I need to make sure his safety around water is number one.  Pools and swimming should be fun but I have to honest, every time I leave the boys at either my parent's house or my in-law's house (they both have pools), there is always that gut wrenching fear of, "What if?"  It literally only takes seconds to slip in the pool and for no one to see and I just do not want to have to worry about that any more.

I tried putting Ronin into a swimming program last year and it just did not work.  He was too fearful of the water and had no desire.  The swim program was great and it did help Max learn how to swim, but because of the special nature of Ronin's case they did not want to push him and he ultimately was still not swim safe by the end of the course.  I decided to give Ronin a little time and in the meantime do my research as to what kind of program I felt was going to be the best for him.

I came to the conclusion early this year that I wasn't interested in putting Ronin into feel-good bubble blowing swim lessons, where it can take up to a year for kids to learn and even then there is no guarantee. I wanted him to be in a program that was aggressive and guaranteed after a short amount of time that he would be able to swim and self-rescue if he ever fell into a pool again.

After looking into Infant Aquatics and talking with the owner in great length I felt confident that this would be the best program for Ronin.  Infant Aquatics teaches the swimming technique, Swim Float Swim.  Swim Float Swim is an elite swimming program that teaches kids the ability to float and breath, regardless of the water's depth, for an indefinite amount of time.  Ronin is in the Swim Float Swim three week fast track program, where it is one-on-one, 20 minutes a day, four days a week for three weeks. So it's a major commitment but completely worth it.  Yesterday was Ronin's first class.  His teacher, Mrs. Kris told us to arrive 10 minutes early so we could watch the boy before us.  We watched as the little boy (11 months) kicked his legs and swam and then rolled over onto his back in order to rest and get air.  I was blown away!  At first, in good ole Ronin fashion he was NOT excited to do something that someone else was telling him to do but after a few minutes he was learning the basics of rolling over and floating on his back on his own. I couldn't believe it!  I am so happy with the progress so far and it's only been one day.  I will continue sharing Ronin's progress throughout the program as well as a video of how is doing at the very end.

Thank you for those who have shared his story in the past and for those of you who continue to spread awareness about secondary drowning presently. I can not thank you enough.