Since I had Sid, I kept looking at people with slings and carriers and thinking that they looked pretty cool- sort of cosmopolitan hippy-ish… I liked it- I wanted to be a cosmopolitan hippy. Early on in the newborn days, I decided to take the plunge and got a Close Caboo. On first viewing it was a good buy- not mega expensive, unlike some of the more structured rucksacky style carriers, easy to put on (just like a tshirt, then plonk the baby in the front) and was sort of handy. I even took Sid to the zoo at three weeks old in it. Well, I took him in the pram, but when he got grizzly, I plomped him in the caboo and he was a happy man. (Side note- I’m not mental for taking a three week old to the zoo- My sister had cheap tickets, and I love the zoo- its not that I particularly thought he’d enjoy it, but at that stage in his life, he was very much just coming along for the ride with me!)
Unfortunately for me, the caboo wasn’t the best in the early days because… well, Sid didn’t really like it that much- if you caught him at the right moment, brilliant, but on the whole, he quite liked being able to have a kick around and being snuggled in to me didn’t let him do that. So it got consigned to a shelf in the front room, until he was about three months old when, with his excellent head control I decided to give it another go. We used it for short trips, like if I just wanted a few bits in the supermarket, and even tried it once with him facing forward, when I popped round the corner to pick up a curry (that was a bit of a disaster- I don’t care what the manufacturers say, front facing isn’t good- it pulls your centre of gravity all off because babies, well, mine, at least, want to look down at the floor) and it was all going ok, until Sid got just that liiiittle bit too heavy. He’s still well within the weight limits, but a combo of the stretchy material and my ample hips meant that he was slipping down. If I left him to his own devices, he’d probably be down by my knees by the end of a trip, so instead we had to do a lot of readjusting and so I decided to look for something else.
Mainly because they were cheap (only twenty quid in Mothercare), I decided to get a Rockin baby pouch because as well as being cheap, they were sized, which I thought might combat the wide hip problem, and made of non-stretchy fabric, which I hoped would stop the wee man from slipping. Got home, decided the faffing about with zips was too much for me, returned to Mothercare and switched it for a Rockin baby sling instead. This one is a long piece of fabric which you loop through two rings to create a circle and wear over one shoulder with the baby tucked inside. I’m making it sound simple, and it was in a way, but there were no instructions included in the box and I ended up having to look for a video on youtube to work out how to thread it.
Again it’s only good for short journeys as it does pull on the old shoulders a bit, and unlike the caboo, where there are basically leg holes, the baby stays inside because his own weight is pulling the fabric taught, which although very secure once everything’s well adjusted, does feel a bit precarious. What’s cool though is it comes in some nice patterns, and there’s a pocket at the bottom of the fabric which I’ve been using to stash a muslin in for sickboy. I’m very much enjoying wearing him, but if I’m honest, there might be a better carrier out there for me yet!
Gem's World 