swimming

I am trying to finally get out and do things with myself and my LO to help with not being so cooped up at home. We have a YMCA literally 2 minutes down the street so I thought I would start going swimming with LO. I'm going to read up and look into things more before I do but if you have taken your LO swimming, how did you go about it? Did you get them a little floaty that they could sit in and pull them around the pool? did you have them sit in the shallow end to get used to the water? DS LOVES bath times so I have a feeling that he would love the pool. I want to get him a little floaty thing to sit in at first. Any advice and tips?

I took my daughter swimming after noticing she loved the bath, I took her in one of those baby floatation rings first but I actually take her swimming lessons now aswell which I have found very good.
She really enjoys it, she gets to interact with other babies around the same age, it gets her used to having water on her face and also going under the water as well ad being on her front and back while in the water.
She is almost 9 months now and she has been going since she was almost 4 months, I'd say get them in the pool as early as possible.

For a baby? I liked to take dd in the kind that have a mesh net around them. That way the water comes up around them and they can splash it and put their face in it without it being too much water or having to lean over too far and tip.

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoTBrriVRLmwAVAWJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dmesh%2Bfloats%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D26&w=426&h=640&imgurl=farm3.staticflickr.com%2F2650%2F3780269434_a921584a94_z.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F41052299%40N02%2F3780269434%2F&size=184.7+KB&name=Baby+float+has+a+%3Cb%3Emesh+%3C%2Fb%3Eseat+and+a+detachable+sun+shade+to+help+protect+your+baby+in+the+pool.&p=mesh+floats&oid=0ed741204d4e1a2e893d409bbadcbc09&fr2=&fr=&tt=Baby%2Bfloat%2Bhas%2Ba%2B%253Cb%253Emesh%2B%253C%252Fb%253Eseat%2Band%2Ba%2Bdetachable%2Bsun%2Bshade%2Bto%2Bhelp%2Bprotect%2Byour%2Bbaby%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bpool.&b=0&ni=40&no=26&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11lq1cp3s&sigb=12cf81mna&sigi=11nfphnrc&.crumb=uK1nYH4gkPy

The yellow is mesh (I hope u can see that pic)