My Mommy Must-Have

For my baby shower I received an Infantino 6-in-1 carrier. I thought it was great until Roger was actually born and I actually tried to use it. It was (pardon my asterisks) a complete piece of sh**. Getting him in it was like trying to solve a MENSA riddle and once he was successfully in place, well, let's just say he was neither happy nor did he look very cozy. It kind of felt like I was torturing him on some level, so after another hour (okay, I'm exaggerating) to get him out of the damn thing, I was a little disheartened. The baby carrier seems like such a great idea in theory. The babies in the pictures on the box looked so happy, but honestly, whoever designed this baby carrier must not have been thinking clearly. It's like those horrible footie pajamas that only have buttons down ONE leg. Whoever designed them did NOT have convenience in mind.

My sister-in-law has a Baby Bjorn carrier that she swears by. After our unpleasantries with the Infantino carrier, I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to try another carrier, especially one with the price tag that the Baby Bjorn has, but I'd seen this carrier in action with my sister-in-law and niece and I wanted THAT kind of carrier. So I forked out the dough and I'm so glad I did because my Baby Bjorn tops my list of my favorite baby "tools."

I use the carrier pretty frequently. I know there are downsides to using it all the time, so I do make a cognizant effort to limit Roger's time in it, but when I DO need it, I'm always glad to have it. When I'm out in public toting the little man around in his Baby Bjorn, I'm surprised by the amount of people who ask me if I'm worried he'll "fall out." Roger's by no means SMALL for a 2-month old. Sometimes I get raised eyebrows when I tell people he's only 2-months old, but even when he was born, he never would've been small enough to "fall out" of a baby carrier. He was quite an enormous baby compared to the others in the nursery... Regardless, it's not like I'm walking on my hands with him in the carrier which is just about the only feasible way I could see him falling out it. He'd have to lose a LOT of weight to slip through a leg hole. Not to mention baby carriers and slings have been around about as long as babies have been around: a long time (not to mention that anything that could cause harm to a baby is typically recalled in a hurry). I guess I just have more faith in the way these things were designed.

My favorite use for the baby carrier is the ease of transportation it's given me in public. One day Roger will be able to hold his head up and he'll be able to sit in the shopping cart or I can just prop him on my hip while I run into a store for an errand, but until that day, it is nothing short of a pain in the ass to lug him around in his car seat. If it's going to be a long trip (i.e. grocery shopping or a trip to the mall for Mommy), I'll use the stroller (or the shopping cart since most are compatible with car seats), but if I just need to run into, say, Subway to buy a sandwich, I feel a bit awkward going through the process of pulling the stroller out for such a short trip and even more awkward standing in line holding the car seat.

At home I use it for soothing purposes. When Roger cries inconsolably, carrying him is usually the solution. When he wants to be carried for prolonged periods of time... enter the Baby Bjorn. My favorite part of the carrier is that it's designed to enable a parent to remove a sleeping baby without waking him (not even a remote possibility with the Infantino carrier). So if he falls asleep during his carrier time (which he's been known to do), transferring him to a more suitable location for sleeping is a breeze. Thankfully he doesn't sleep TOO much in it. He seems to thoroughly enjoy checking the world out from the comfort of his carrier - I can't wait till I'm able to stick him in it face-out. I know he's going to love it.

The learning curve for becoming a parent has been a fun one (discovering things that work for you and your baby is a good feeling). Our next step is transferring Roger to his crib for night sleeping, BUT that's a post for another day!