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A Grand Day Out – Babywearing Style

Claire — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:30:54 +0000

This babywearing story was sent to us by Dawn Brown, who shares her SnugBaby mei tai with her husband, and of course, her gorgeous daughter, Zara.

Today we went on one of our weekend days out. We try to do this every weekend and we try to pick places which will be of interest to a 7 month old baby. Today we went to look around Durham Botanical Gardens. As for most of our days out we packed out Snugbaby as sitting in a pushchair all day must be so boring for babies and where is the fun in viewing the world from knee height – you miss all the best bits.

I purchased my Snugbaby after being lucky enough to meet Claire at the NEC baby show where she let me try one of the carriers and I found it so comfy I just had to buy one. Since then we’ve had so much fun on our days out and Zara gets to experience the world from our level. No more bending down to talk to her in the pushchair, if she’s on my back she can chat away to daddy or me and in a front carry she really gets to see what we do.

Today we had a lovely day out exploring the gardens and greenhouses with Zara. Initially daddy was hogging the Snugbaby as he usually does and took Zara to see the greenhouses with her in a front carry.

She loves being carried like this as she gets to see everything up close and personal and Daddy loves showing her all the jungle plants and the rain from the sprinkler system.

She even got to get up close and personal with some bird eating tarantulas! Wow I couldn’t see that from my pushchair!

When Daddy eventually let Mummy have a turn at carrying Zara for a while we opted for the back carry position, this is probably the trickiest carry to master as it involves throwing baby over your shoulder but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually quite easy and worth persevering with as it’s my favourite carry position and Zara loves it too!

With Zara now seeing the world from my viewpoint we set off for a long walk around the gardens, we must have spent about an hour wandering around and my back felt absolutely fine and Zara was very happy in her position although I had to make sure she didn’t grap hold of too many plants on the way round.

At the end of a lovely walk we were both still smiling.

Babywearing Is Not Just For Mums…

Claire — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:03:26 +0000

… or even humans, for that matter!

When I came across this picture, I just had to share it with you.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

The Baby-wearing WAHM – Why You Should Think About Babywearing

Claire — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:30:38 +0000

We were lucky enough for Tasha, from “Wahm-Bam!” to send us her account of being a work at home babywearing mum! Thanks Tasha!

Our first baby, Rosemary, was adorable, beautiful, bright and needed lots of attention. It is, of course, quite probable that she needed lots of attention because she was given lots of attention. We hardly ever put her down. She frequently slept on our laps or in our arms. She was almost exclusively breast-fed to sleep and then put down, and put down, and put down… in her crib until she would settle. Often, we just left her in bed with us, as it was much easier to do so. We were never any good at putting her in her crib/cot to fall asleep of her own accord. One cry and we’d pick her up.

Eleanor, our second baby, is now four months old. She’s also adorable, beautiful and bright. She doesn’t need quite as much attention as her sister did; almost certainly because she has to get less attention due to having an older sister. As with her sister before her, we are still fairly rubbish at putting her down in her crib/cot to fall asleep. We can wait for a few shouts, or even a bit of crying, if we’re having to deal with Rosemary, but we still pick her up pretty quickly. Controlled crying (or things of the sort) is clearly not for us.

However, Eleanor falls asleep in a number of different ways, not just on the breast. She’ll fall asleep in her buggy, she’ll fall asleep sitting on someone’s lap, she’ll fall asleep in her bouncy chair, but most of all she’ll fall asleep in her sling.

Our main reason for getting a sling, apart from having heard wonderful things about them from many on-line friends, was for carrying Eleanor around while running after Rosemary. We were given a ring sling by a friend, which worked OK for a while, though I never really got the hang of it and would often get frustrated trying to find the right position. I sensed, though, that there was a lot of potential there, so read up on the different kinds of slings and also looked at and tried some at the local breast-feeding group.

I settled on a stretchy wrap style sling and went for a Kari-Me, though there are plenty of others available in this category. I decided to buy a new one, rather than getting one a bit cheaper off eBay, as we had been given money for Eleanor but had no real need for anything new, already having an atticful of girls’ clothes and boxes and bags of baby and toddler toys. This would be mine and Eleanor’s special treat. And my was it worth it! Whenever anyone asks me what my best baby buy was I answer, without any hesitation, the sling.

Here are some of the things the sling does for us:

It puts Eleanor to sleep. If she’s having any trouble getting to sleep (which occurs less and less as the months go by) we just need to stick her in the sling and march round the dining table for a few minutes, or even just sway in place, and she’ll go to sleep.
If she won’t settle in her crib, cot, buggy or anywhere, we can keep her in the sling and sit down and do some work (we both work from home).
We can take her on buses, trains and tubes without having to fold and unfold a buggy.
We can dash up to playgroup or along to nursery school with ease, and bring Eleanor in with us when dropping Rosemary off, instead of leaving her outside in the buggy. And it’s a lot easier to hold Rosemary’s hand when crossing roads, too.
We can walk through the snow, safely and easily carrying Eleanor, instead of struggling with a non-off-road buggy over the crunchy, icy drifts (something which came in very useful during the cold snap). We can walk along muddy, uneven footpaths and up and down grass- or rock-covered hills, which we certainly couldn’t do with the buggy.
Eleanor can sit facing out when she’s awake and then quickly and easily be swapped round to snuggle in when she’s ready for sleep.
Eleanor’s eyes can easily be shaded, and her head covered when out and about, rather than struggling with the, very unwieldy, raincover.
We can wander round the house tidying up, hoovering, and even emptying and filling the dishwasher, while she sleeps or watches (though I probably wouldn’t try cooking at the stove!)

We can walk up and down steps easily, instead of bump-bump-bumping with the buggy. I always use the sling when going to breast-feeding group and usually when taking Rosemary to ballet, as they both involve lots of stairs.
This particular sling is incredibly easy to put on and to learn how to use. I put it on twice, looking at the instructions and have not had to look at them since. Everyone else who has tried it (Chris uses it regularly and his mum has used it, too, when she was visiting) has found the same.

For two parents who work from home and struggle to find enough hours in the day to get everything done now that we’re a two-child family, having a sling has made a huge difference. And the biggest benefit of all, has been giving us another way of getting Eleanor to sleep, and a quick one at that.

We really wish we’d discovered them when Rosemary was a baby.

Find out more about: Kari-Me, Wrap

Snowy Babywearing

Claire — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:43:06 +0000

We hope you have been having fun in the snow, and making the most of the scenery, and the fresh (if very cold!) air. We’d love to see what you have been up to, especially if it involves baby carriers or slings.

We have built a SnowDaddy, with Baby (the snow wasn’t sticky enough to make it a SnowBaby, although that was the intention), but the children were impressed, nevertheless. What do you think?

Please go to our gallery to upload your babywearing in the snow photos!

How My Sling Saved Christmas

Claire — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:33:19 +0000

We’ve been sent this fantastic story from Helen, mum of three and owner of Cheeky Wipes, which demonstrates just how much of an essential a baby carrier can be! Thanks, Helen – it makes for fabulous reading.

On 3^rd November last year my gorgeous girl, Jennie, was born. Unlike her two big brothers Jennie was a VERY unsettled baby, who wouldn’t fall asleep during the day unless she was held (turns out she was hungry all the time, poor wee mite). In my wisdom, I’d thought that having all the in-laws to our house for Christmas would be easier than having to get 7 week old baby, one year old and four year old, plus necessary faff, transported round to theirs. The downside of course was that I was in charge of Christmas dinner for ten!

If it hadn’t been for my Kari-me it just wouldn’t have been possible, because I just couldn’t have set Jennie down to get anything done. As it was, Jennie and I were able to prepare and serve full Christmas dinner together, with her snuffling away against me (hopefully setting a girly precedent for future dinner preparing together!) I even got to finish all my dinner before I had to leave the table to feed her. Result. A proper life-saver.

If anyone else would like to share a Christmas babywearing story, please do send them to us – we love to read them, and publish them for others to enjoy!

Find out more about: Kari-Me, Wrap

Setting up a Sling Library

Claire — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:30:44 +0000

Following on from the article written by the Oxford Sling Meet Group about setting up a babywearing group, here is another guide, this time about setting up a Sling Library. Many thanks to the Oxford Group for sharing their experiences!

Sling libraries are fantastic! And very popular at meets; trying slings from the library is an important part of the meet. Parents have the chance to borrow a sling for a month; we charge £2 for each borrowing. When we started the library all the slings were donated to us by some very generous vendors and local parents – it’s great publicity for manufacturers/vendors, and we acknowledge the donor / maker and state the approximate price. One question which did vex us was deposits. We really wanted to make library hires as low cost as possible to provide everyone with a chance to try out babywearing. However we don’t want slings disappearing from the library with no way of replacing them; and even if we trust the borrower, it could be very awkward to ask them to pay for a sling which they have lost or damaged. The system we are using is to offer a choice; either the borrower pays a refundable deposit of £30 (cheques are not banked) or, if preferred, parents can become a member of Oxford Sling Meet which costs £5 per year (£2 concessionary rate); we issue membership cards and keep a record via the membership roll. The membership scheme has been very popular and has provided a useful source of income, which has given us a safety net in case of any lost or damaged slings and has also funded the expansion of the library stock.

It is helpful to have a catalogue of slings which can be browsed through. We keep ours in plastic folders, separated according to type of sling so that several parents can browse at once. The Librarian also has a separate catalogue in a ring binder, containing a plastic wallet for each sling/item with a description, photo, library code and manufacturers’ instructions; the instructions can be taken away by the borrower. In addition, the borrower receives a copy of our library Terms & Conditions which include some generic safety instructions and also cover washing and returning the sling. To borrow a sling, the parent has to fill in a borrowing form so the Librarian can keep track of individual slings and issue reminders for return, and the parent signs consent to the Terms & Conditions.

It was certainly a lot of work to set up our group, but it was also an exciting time seeing it all come together, and now everything is in place it is much more manageable to keep it running. We hope that this guide will not put you off running a sling meet or library – but rather make it easy for you to set up your own group in your local area! Please treat it as a checklist rather than a to-do list. It is immensely rewarding to be involved in setting up a new initiative and we really enjoy our group.

Setting up a Babywearing Group – Oxford Sling Meet

Claire — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:30:04 +0000

Sling meets can be totally informal. You can meet in the park and go for a walk carrying your babies! Coffee shops and soft-play centres are always popular venues for a sling meet. But if you find that there are several parents attending, or perhaps more to the point, several toddlers, you may prefer to hire a venue where you won’t disturb other customers.

Setting up a regular sling meet, open to anyone, at a hired venue could be a low-key affair. But we have found that there is quite a lot to think about to ensure the meet runs smoothly. So we at Oxford Sling Meet formed a committee and this guide is an attempt to share some of the thoughts we had through the process of setting up a new group.

We decided that we wanted each parent (or carer) who came to the meet welcomed, offered tea/coffee, and given the chance to ask questions about babywearing and take part in demonstrations. Babies needed a safe floor space with some suitable toys; toddlers needed a play area and toddler-friendly snacks. We also run Oxfordshire Sling Library where parents can try various slings and select one to borrow at home. This is the story of how we have tried to ensure that this takes place at our sling meets.

We experimented with different types of meet, some more formal or organized, some informal ‘roving meets’ in the park. We eventually settled on a large meet once a month including the library. The room you are using for your meet should ideally have plenty of space, tea and coffee facilities, a mirror, a teddy bear/doll for pregnant mums to practise with, and both baby and toddler zones. You’ll need loos and a change mat too. We hire a large church hall which has a toddler play area with lots of popular toys, a sofas-and-carpet area for parents with younger babies, space on tables to display our library stock and catalogues with a mirror for trying on slings and a demo doll, a separate table for the librarian to administer sling hires, a stage area which is used for group demonstrations of particular slings or carries, a kitchen for making hot drinks which can be closed off to inquisitive toddlers, and a toilet. The venue also includes an enclosed garden which is handy on warmer days or very busy meets when we need more space. This venue has been very successful for us and we are lucky to be able to hire it for a reasonable rate.

To help the meets run smoothly the committee members take on different roles. Our group’s Chair is the Welcomer, greeting attenders particularly parents who have come for the first time, and making a group announcement early during the meet to explain the running of the morning. The Sling Demonstrator helps parents try on slings and organises the group demonstrations, responding to any particular requests from attenders (sometimes these are organised in advance in response to requests on our Yahoo chatgroup). The Librarian organises library hires during the meet. Our Treasurer and Webmistress are involved in sling demonstrations and helping parents individually; the Treasurer also sets up the refreshments, and the Webmistress brings milk and snacks. Because our meets can get busy (we typically have between 20-35 parents attending each month) it really helps that there are five of us involved in running the group; it also helps when we have a core group of ‘regulars’ and more experienced babywearers attending the meets.

One aspect which has been central to the paperwork (and practice) of our group is liability. We live in a litigious age! We need to take reasonable care to ensure that attendees at a meet are safe. We have risk assessed our venue and activities, and have arranged insurance for our meets. In general even if you don’t purchase insurance it makes sense to think through the risks and make sure that you minimise them. One sticking point has been that so far we have not been able to arrange insurance for the sling library.

If you’re hiring a venue, how are you going to cover the rent, tea and biscuits? A ‘suggested donation’ per session, like a playgroup, keeps it fair. Keeping a record of who comes is a requirement for fire regulations – we have a sign-in sheet that includes a space for attenders to request to join our chatgroup, and a tickbox for attenders who wish not to be included in photographs we take for promotional purposes (e.g. publishing on our blog). This also allows us to maintain some statistics of how many parents and little ones are attending meets. Next to the sign-in sheet we have a pot for the donation. You may have some rules to set out, or information about the group, and this is a good opportunity to have a disclaimer clause, too. We display a ‘Welcome’ sheet with basic information about the group and how the meets work, and alongside this we display babywearing resources, flyers etc that parents can take away.

We have a Constitution which sets out the basics of the group – and is a pre-requisite for bank accounts, and grant applications. It is worth including

Is the meet open to all?
What is your policy on sales at meets – can vendors use the meet to advertise?
Who is responsible for what?
Responsibility for children at meets (this is a great opportunity for a disclaimer clause)
Money (what will happen to any profit?) – we decided to make our group non-profit-making, so that any proceeds are put back into running the group, and we explain this on our Welcome sheet. If you’re going to set up a bank account, you’ll need a business plan too. With setting up a bank account comes the need for accounts and a Treasurer. You might not want a bank account, but you will need one if you are going to apply for any grants, or run a library with hire fees.

In addition, there are Health and Safety matters to think about: Do you have an Accident Book, or can you use one provided by your venue? Are any of the committee First Aid trained – and where would you find a first aid box? How about Equal Opportunities and Child Protection? We have written basic policies covering these issues, with guidance from a local toddler group. We also have an arrangement with a local family centre that should any child protection issues ever arise we can discuss these with the centre manager. A very important aspect of Health and Safety at meets is the question of diffusion of risk – if a mum is trying a carry for the first time, she needs to have a ‘spotter’ to check the baby doesn’t fall; but the baby remains her responsibility, not the spotter’s. We are careful to avoid handling other parents’ babies during demonstrations (apart for example holding a baby at the parent’s request while the parent dons a sling). Anyone demonstrating a sling uses their own child or a doll. Have you done a risk assessment of the room you are meeting in? It is worth writing this down and keeping it in a file! You probably want to check the room each meet and be continually wary of the hot-drinks hazard.

Publicity for the group is key to ensuring that it is a success! You culd produce flyers or posters with your contact information – a publicity leaflet should state what the purpose of the meet is, where and when you meet, and maybe include group rules and a disclaimer of liability. We have found it helpful to be included in the local NCT information for new mothers. A website presence is also useful if you have someone with the skills to run it and keep it up to date. Which websites do you want to link to – and are you happy for your website to link to commercial websites? In addition to our website we run a Yahoo chatgroup which everyone is welcome to join and we use this to advertise meets and other events.

It was certainly a lot of work to set up our group, but it was also an exciting time seeing it all come together, and now everything is in place it is much more manageable to keep it running. We gained a lot from learning about other sling meets – notably, Manchester, Surrey and Preston – and also found valuable support on two UK babywearing forums (www.naturalmamas.co.uk and www.slingmeet.co.uk). We hope that this guide will not put you off running a sling meet – but rather make it easy for you to set up your own group in your local area! Please treat it as a checklist rather than a to-do list. It is immensely rewarding to be involved in setting up a new initiative and we really enjoy our group.

Thanks to the Oxford Sling Meet group for sharing their story of how they set up their group. We hope it may inspire some more babywearers out there to set up their own group.

“Sling Slut Does Buggy Diary” – The Conclusion

Claire — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:30:24 +0000

This week we are running a series of posts from one self-confessed “sling slut”, who rose to the challenge of managing without a baby carrier for a week! Here she tells us how she got on; what she found hard and what was easy.

I wanted to share my funniest babywearing story, which is from when Isaac was about 10 months old. We’d been staying on my sister’s farm for a few days and hadn’t seen many people. On our way home we stopped in a town. Walking down the High Street with Isaac on my hip in a Hotsling, he waved at everyone we passed, giving them huge smiles and laughs, and bouncing up and down in the sling. I’d not seen him do this before and I had to laugh too; I think everyone would have gone home with smiles on their faces. I guessed he was simply happy to see people again; I think using slings has encouraged him to be a very social baby.

And now, my conclusions from this challenge:

It really was a challenge for me not to use slings. It has become second nature to reach for one whenever I need to, whether at home or out and about.
There is nothing wrong with using a buggy (well, I knew this before) and I can see an opportunity to use it once a week. I’ll continue to avoid using it on shopping trips, where aisles become blocked, and errands, where it’s too much hassle compared to the speed of a sling.
I really appreciate slings for giving me the opportunity to share my world so intimately with my baby so that he may learn, to keep him close enough to chat to, and close enough to kiss.

We’d like to say a massive thank you to our very own “sling slut” for rising to the challenge of doing without her slings for a week. Even though she says she failed a couple of times, we think she did fabulously well, and the experiment certainly made some very interesting points. If you would like to submit ay of your babywearing stories or articles to be included on GYHB, please get in touch.

“Sling Slut Does Buggy” Diary – Day Four

Claire — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:30:23 +0000

Day Four

Monday – phew, the last day of my challenge (back to work on Tuesday). It was a Bank Holiday but my husband had to work so Isaac & I walked the 20 minutes to see the ducks, then another 10 minutes on to the playground. Walked home across the common, where he got out of the buggy to walk a little way then happily went back in the buggy for the ride home. I wouldn’t have chosen to do this trip out with a sling anyway, as I would have been quite knackered by the time we’d got home; however, it would have been easy in a sling when he was younger than about 9 months old.

We had a BBQ for dinner; naturally Isaac was very keen to help and it was difficult to isolate the BBQ area. For safety we decided to put him in a sling and my husband wore him while tending to the BBQ – it meant a ‘fail’ for Monday but it was the easiest way we knew to keep him safe and happy. We put on his ‘flames’ Babylegs for the occasion.

Check back tomorrow for the final part of this series – The Conclusion!

“Sling Slut Does Buggy” Diary – Day Three

Claire — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:30:13 +0000

Day Three

On Sunday I had to return to B&Q as I’d got the wrong product [sigh]. There was a long line for the returns desk – not a welcome sight with Isaac in the buggy. He was too low to look out the windows and he made it clear he didn’t appreciate having only the back of someone’s knees to look at (and mum, but it seems I was too boring). Giving him a box of raisins didn’t entertain him either. I decided to carry him on my hip but forgot to take my bag off the buggy handles first, so that tipped up; I caught it but still felt rather silly. Once he could see out the windows he was happy to entertain himself with people-watching.
We made it into the store and he happily leaned forward in the buggy, enjoying whizzing down the wide aisles with lots to look at. The lovely staff member on the checkout looked down and gave him a smile – it made his day and he smiled and chatted away to her; my happy boy was back!

Starting to cook the evening meal, Isaac wanted up to ‘help’ – he likes waving a wooden spoon in the direction of pots or pans on the hob from the safety of a ring sling (hip carry). Because it was a no-sling day and a weekend, I just asked my husband to take over the cooking – not a bad thing!