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Saturdays are always busy and today was no different. First stop – Mathildas Market held at the Brisbane Racing Club at Ascot. The markets are a hive of activity offering beautiful handmade baby wear, toys and nursery decor.

I bought Baby a Li’l daks cloth nappy for her swimming class. The first thing that strikes you about Li’l daks is the funky range of fabrics. The design I chose for Baby was quite retro, featuring red apples, green pears, blue chickens and yellow flowers against a white background. Under this outer layer is a hidden waterproof layer and under that is a water resistant fleece which is soft against baby’s skin. The nappy fastens with cute red plastic snaps.

So after a morning of perusing Mathildas Market, it was back home for a nap and then to swimming lessons to test li’l daks in the pool. Our new purchase caught the eye of our swimming instructor Julia who complimented Baby on her daks as we made our way into the pool. This was the first time I was taking Baby for her swimming lesson and as expected on a Saturday, there was one other Mum and six proud Dads in the pool with their babies.

I now understand why it is recommended for the parent to wear a t-shirt during baby swimming lessons. While Baby’s confidence is improving in the pool, she still did grab onto my t-shirt for extra security. The lesson started with a song introducing the babies to each other. We were then practising floating and submerging. My favourite part was testing her palmar reflex. I held my index fingers under her palms and she instinctively grasped on, then after felling weightless in the water she started treading water – amazing!

I thoroughly recommend swimming lessons for babies and I think there are so many benefits of starting early. Baby received her first swimming progress report card today and she’s doing an ‘awesome job’, making progress on many of the benchmarks of the Starfish program. I must say I am very proud of her.

What about the Li’l daks? How did they perform in the pool? Not only did baby look comfortable and stylish in her Li’l daks they kept everything contained (not that there was much to contain). So they did an awesome job too! Li’l daks can be purchased online or from Mathildas Market which are run in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide.