Carriers

This weekend some of our friends that have recently become parents came to visit so we could talk about carriers; this got me thinking that I should blog about the various carriers we have used over the last year and a bit.

Before starting I want to throw this questions out to you - have you used a carrier or are still using a carrier if so what is your carrier of choice?

I have been a baby wearing mother from the time Christophe was about 1 month old, we tried wearing him before then but he always seemed to have a hard time breathing every time we placed him in a sling. Needless to say that this freaked us out at the beginning and delayed our baby wearing until his weird behavior stopped.

We tried 6 different carriers with him and still have 5 of them today which 4 of them we use regularly.

Heart 2 Heart lightly padded sling:
This is still one of favorite carriers, Christophe lived in it until he was about 5 months old. We did the laundry together, grocery shopped, took long walks, cleaned the house and so on... Now the sling is stored in the bottom of the stroller as Chrstophe has grown I find it not as ideal for long carries; instead I use it to help deviate some of the weight when Christophe no longer wants to sit in his stroller of just needs some love. It is also great to help hold him up when he needs to be rocked to sleep on though nights.

Just recently my sling broke, I contacted the manufacturer and they were devastated and understood the severity in this. Due to there great immediate response to the fact that one of my rings on the sling gave I still trust the manufacturer and would use the heart 2 heart again with Christophe and our future kids.

Rolz & Sassy Ring Sling:
We bought this one before the heart 2 heart and I used it all the time for 2 weeks then I found a heart 2 heart that I liked the print ( I forgot to mention earlier that the patterns for the heart 2 heart are not always the most stylish ) The Rolz & Sassy became my back up sling, this was the one I took out when the other was dirty; I also kept one sling on each floor so the heart 2 heart was on our main floor and the Rolz & Sassy was on the top floor that way we always had a sling handy. The Rolz & Sassy have some amazing prints; with that said I have selected to wear our Rolz & Sassy on special occasions because it looks so much nicer then the heart 2 hearts. Would I buy another Rolz and Sassy probably not, am I going to use my Rolz & Sassy with our future children yes. Just because it's not my favorite sling it does not mean I hate, I just prefer the Heart 2 Heart.

Ellaroo Mei Tai:
This is the only carrier we have parted with. Before we parted with it I have to say I loved it and used it on the go often it truly aloud me to be hands free. The slings let you be hands free but I find you have limited rang of motion with the arm that your sling is resting on. So you ask me why did we part whit it? For a few reasons, Christophe was outgrowing the height of the carrier and was starting to arch his way out of it (this can be dangerous); the color was white and with the long tails that Mei Tai's have it was always dragging on the floor and was extra hard to keep clean; the last reason we invested in a new carrier that replaced the Mei Tai, so we wanted to sell our Mei Tai to get a bit of money to put towards the new carrier. Would I recommend a Mei Tai to someone, yes but make sure to stay away from white.

Olives and Applesauce:
This is our number one carrier these days. When Christophe started being to heavy for me to comfortably carry him in my sling I wanted a soft structured carrier; these are similiar to a Mei Tai but has bucckles so they go one and off a lot faster. I knew I liked Mei Tai's so I figured I would also liek this style of carrier. After doing some research I found Olives and Applesauce, they offer a todler carrier with a larger body that your typical structured carrier, I was sold and wanted one. We have had our for about 4 or 5 months now and I love it; I can do a front acrry for about 3 hours before I need a breack and a back carry - well Christophe needs a break befor I do. The only draw back for me is I have yet to master being able to put Christophe on my back on my own. Many days when we go out we bring our Olives and Aplesauce instead of the stroller. Also they have some of the nicer prints I have seen, we get comments all the time on how beautifull our carrier is.

Lascal M1 Carrier:
I can't say much about this one other then I never liked it; it always felt like my baby was velcrowed to my chest. To me babywearing should feel more intamint then that. This was the carrier Geoff like a lot at the begining.

Moby Wrap:
I always found that Christophe felt so nice and snug in the wrap. This is a good one to get at the begingin for skin to skin; wraps can really cover you up. The draw back of the Moby is that it is a streachy wrap that means when your baby hits about 20 lbs it gets harder and harder to use; many people prefer rigid wraps for this reason. Geoff was a big fan of the wrap and used it frequently; I used it here and there but because I have 2 other styles of carriers that I was alreay used to I never gave it a fare shot. Would I recomend it to others, based on Geoff experiance - yes.

In case any of you are wondering Christophe is now 14 months and weighs about 26 lbs.

first week on my own with my son

First of all thank you to everyone that has stayed with us over the past 2 months it was great having all the help.

So i survived the first week at home carring for Christophe on my own. I was able to go for walk every day, keep the house tidy, do laundry and play with Christophe while he was awake. This is all thanks to baby waring. Basically when Christophe is not awake he is attached to me in one of our slings; we have a carrier but i don't really like and neither does he.

The slings and carriers we currently own:

Rolz & Sassy ring sling in Grey Lace - I love the lenght of this sling, lots of extra fabric so it will grow with him. Very fashionable fabric also; I think i get comments on it every time I wear it in public. No padding on the rails so for very vigorous work around the house I prefer the heart to heart it holds baby Christophe head better; stops it from jostling about. Price wise not for mommies on tight budgets it retails for about$115.00 CAD.

Heart2heart ring sling in unbleached cotton - Not quite as long as the Rolz & Sassy so he will probably outgrow this one first. Great padded shoulder and rails makes it extremely comfortable for long periods of time. I also find the padded rails helps hold his little neck straight since he does not have full head control yet. Fabric choices are not as glamorous. Much more reasonable in cost; retails for about $70.00 CAD.

We also received from relatives a carrier from Evenflo. I could not find our model on the website because it is older; however it does not differ much from their current carrier. Personally I don't like it and neither does Christophe so far. I find it does not offer enough back support and he does not seem to like the fact that he is nit squished against me. I think he is just used to the slings. Geoff plans on giving it a shot to see what he think.