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Diary Of A New Mum -
Week 25

Babies And Boats

This week we decided to buy a boat. Not a big boat. But a boat all the same. You might think we’re crazy – and I think you might be right. As adventures go, buying a boat with a five and half month old baby is pretty exciting! 

Naturally, as a responsible parent I checked out some Internet forums beforehand to see what the general consensus was on babies and boats. Comments like “Are you completely mad – talk about unnecessary risks!” did give me pause for thought. For a few seconds at least…

Paul and I aren’t strangers to boats – narrowboats in particular. When we met, he lived on one; as do many, many people – including moms with babies. A little more research showed me that lots of parents holiday with babies on boats. You can even buy baby life-jackets! 

Our floating heaven is a tiny barge called Andante. (This means slowly – very apt for a canal boat!) She is twenty-seven feet long and just under seven feet wide. She has a tiny kitchen, a tiny wet-room style bathroom, and sleeps three. Or two and a half. Jessica-Ann absolutely adores the boat. She has been on it four times now and each time she slept like – well, like a baby. 

Of course, the idea of getting a boat for high-days and holidays brought about a long and detailed conversation about safety for babies and toddlers, and whether it would be possible to take Jess away on the boat without just strapping her to the floor and leaving her there. What about when she starts to crawl? When she begins to toddle? Being surrounded by water was the least of our worries – there is the wood-burning stove to consider, the hazards of the galley kitchen, stowing objects so they don’t crash down on her delicate little head… 

But then it occurred to us that none of these hazards was so very different from those faced in the average home. Homes have fires and kitchens, objects on shelves, stairs, corners, sharp edges, curtains to be pulled down, beds to be rolled off, toys to be tripped over and doors to trap little hands in.  

A boat is no different – being smaller, maybe the environment will be easier to contain. Okay, a boat rocks a bit more than a house, I’ll give you that. And there is the whole water thing to contend with. Jessica-Ann will be having swimming lessons, of course - not that we intend to actually let her into the water! She will be strapped on tighter than a kid at a fairground. Paul pointed out, quite rightly, that babies can drown in two inches of bathwater if they are left alone for only a few seconds.  

So we are going ahead with Andante – slowly. A day out here, a weekend there to start off with, until we get our sea-legs again and get used to having a baby onboard. And Jessica-Ann? She’ll probably just sleep through the whole thing…

Diary Of A New Mum Week 26
High Chair Hell
In which I assemble - with much difficulty - Jessica-Ann's new high chair, and realise how far we have come in the last 6 months

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