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.
About me: I’m in my mid-30s and have a 16 month-old son, Isaac. I learnt about sling use on a mum & baby internet forum while I was pregnant. The benefits sounded great, and I’m a scientist so the researched benefits of kangaroo care were really interesting, and other research that showed 40+% less crying gave me confidence that mothering a newborn would be a little less scary if I had a sling. Slings are now one of my passions in life – if I won Lotto I’d love to give every new mum a sling.
This challenge of a babywearing mum doing without her slings for a week sounded like a great idea, so I volunteered myself. I work 3 days a week so our days together start on a Friday. I pulled the buggy from the garage and checked it for lurking spiders.
Day One
Friday morning saw us drive into town to do some errands. It was raining slightly so I got the rain cover on the buggy – a bit fiddly while holding an umbrella; I felt strangely isolated from Isaac in his little bubble as I couldn’t really chat to him (with a sling I just pop the umbrella up and it covers us both).
First to the Post Office to collect a parcel. The collection office is upstairs… found space outside for the buggy, got my bag, unbuckled child and carried him up the stairs. The steps are quite, and I missed having both hands free to know I could grab both handrails if I tripped. There were a few people waiting so Isaac didn’t want to be put down – he’s not shy but he likes to be part of the conversation, and look out the window like we always do here. It was quite a wait, and my arms were aching from holding his 11kg weight. Parcel received, it was down the stairs (even scarier going down without free hands), to fix child into buggy, organise bag and parcel. Only then did a passing staff member tell me I could have buzzed the collection office to come down to me instead of going up. I didn’t know this, but with a slung baby I’ve never needed to use the service before.
Into a charity store to browse the books and toys. This was very revealing. When I was at the counter, talking to the staff member, Isaac was repeatedly asking “up, up, up”. When it didn’t happen, he started shouting and grizzling. Once I’d finished and we got moving again he was fine again. The same thing happened at the next store we were in, and then Boots, and the mum and baby shop. In a sling he’s used to being up at the height of everyone else, having plenty to look at, joining in on the eye contact, the conversation, the smiles. I felt a bit embarrassed to suddenly have a disruptive child making potentially unwelcome noise.
In Boots, every aisle I went to go up had someone in it, so that there wasn’t room for our buggy to pass. I had to wait until someone moved away. With a sling I can quickly breeze past anyone, squeezing by if I need to by holding his sometimes-wiggly legs. In the small mum and baby shop we could barely move for the buggies and a wee baby on the floor in a car seat… tried not to think about how different it could be if everyone knew about the wonders of slings, LOL.
On our walk home we called into a supermarket. He was grizzling again so I decided to give him some walking practice to keep him quiet… bad idea: he wanted to help hold the basket so I had to steer the buggy with one hand and with the other hand hold the basket while attempting to steer the attached wandering toddler. I think I saw some sympathetic looks from shoppers, but generally had my head down to ignore the irritated ones. At the checkout he wanted to charge off, so I held him, which started him grizzling again. I fought a strong urge to tell people apologetically that he’s usually in a sling – they wouldn’t see the relevance. In a sling he’s quiet and smiley, and even with a long wait in a checkout queue he’s content to people-watch or play a game of tickling.
This outing with the buggy showed me a different baby and one I’ve been thankful not having to cope with – a grizzly, whining, impatient baby. Today has helped me appreciate even more the benefits that slings have brought to our lives.
I usually do vacuuming on a Friday. Isaac isn’t very keen on the vacuum cleaner so I usually pop him on my back in my Connecta. Today – going sling-less – I decided to pass on this job as it wasn’t worth stressing him out, and leave it until Saturday when my husband would be around to entertain him.
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I have found the same to be true for my daughter. She is happy and content for extended periods of time while in her sling (wrap, ergo, etc – whatever we are using at the moment). Yet, in the stroller everything is WAY less fun and interesting – moving is okay, standing still is not. we even went bowling with her in a wrap once.
I found that my son will remain happy in a sling even if he is hungry – he seems to be content that food (breastmilk) is close by so there’s no need to worry. In such cases, when I take him out of the sling he makes it clear that if I don’t oblige quickly he’ll start shouting
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