Which Baby Carrier is Right for Me?

Due to the million baby carriers I currently own, I thought I might do a little review on them! (Oh, by the way, I had a baby...I promise I will blog about that soon but I had a sudden urge to do this review post). I do want to precede this post by saying no one is paying me to do these reviews, I didn't get any of them as an incentive (sadly) and I bought all of them myself. But having a good review of these carriers would have been helpful for me in purchasing them before P was born, so thought this might be helpful for others! Each has benefits and drawbacks, as I've found out in the last 5 weeks and P's hatred for his carseat for walks has made carriers very important.

In this review:
Moby Wrap
Ergobaby
Baby Bjorn
Seven Slings

Moby Wrap: Best for the newborn. Best for use at home.


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GOOD


BAD


This is one of my two favorites. In fact, P is currently hanging out in this while I write this blog (cranky pants). This is the best one I've found for a newborn. It's easy to manipulate, it's really not complicated (really, even though it looks it), and it will hold P's head sideways against my chest when he falls asleep rather than flopping around--which he ALWAYS does in carriers. This allows you to keep baby's legs up in the fetal position (aka curled) and as baby gets older his legs can hang down as well. It's also much less bulky than the Ergo and there are a billion different holds. The major drawback in this carrier, in my opinion, is the complete lack of head support for an awake infant. When P is awake, pushing his head against my chest and trapping it there with the fabric will piss him off to no end. He has minimal head control as this point but when he's awake he likes to lean his head back to look at my face as we move around. There is nothing to hold the back of his head up in these instances, so I end up having to hold it up, which completely cancels out the use of the carrier since I don't have free hands that way. Since I'm not going to put him in the carrier to do stuff around the house if he's ALREADY asleep, I end up having to deal with this until he does fall asleep and then doing the things I need to do. It also seems like it will become uncomfortable pretty quickly once baby starts weighing more than an watermelon.

Ergobaby: Best for the infant with head control. Best for use out and about.


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This carrier is great for being out and about for long periods of time. P is comfy in it, it has support for the back of the head so he can look at me and I don't have to hold his head up, and it's VERY sturdy. I LOVE the "hood" on it, because we only go on walks when it's sunny and I don't like the sun hitting him in the face so as soon as he falls asleep I put the hood up (and this is easy to do by yourself) and immediately the sun is out of his face. Favorite. It took a few tries to get a hang of how to operate the Ergo, but it's now super easy. I love that it has a large weight capacity, and can be used on your back too when baby gets bigger. If you have a squirmy baby like mine, though, the infant insert can be a challenge because their butt is supposed to "sit" in the bottom of the insert. P does NOT take this lightly, so he often squirms out of the bottom of the insert and other than for head support I'm not actually sure it's making any difference for him at all. My major qualms with this carrier are few, but important. First, when P DOES fall asleep (which we've already established...he will), his head falls forward and headbutts me in the collar bone because he doesn't have enough head control to let it go slowly. He spends the entire time he's sleeping trying to get comfortable because it's hard for him to turn his head sideways enough to lay correctly on my chest, so he just keeps headbutting me. I hate this, because my chest is boney and it can't possibly feel good. It's also very bulky, so wearing it at home in order to get things done is pretty useless because you can't see what you're doing. Lastly, it's very hot. There are often warnings about infants in carriers overheating, "especially in canvas carriers" so...just be very careful with this is you live in a hot area. Which we are going to moving to in a month.

Baby Bjorn: Best for a quick fix. Best if carrier isn't used often.


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I don't use the baby bjorn. We have one, it was the first carrier I bought, but it doesn't do it for me. I find everything I need is really taken care of by the other two wraps, and this one this isn't that impressive. It's a lot lighter than the Ergo, though, which is a definite plus. It's also much simpler to use than either the Ergo or the Moby, and is much less constrictive. Some issues with this: it's NOT ergonomic. Recently I've read some articles about the dangers of keeping a baby in a carrier like this very often because it allows their legs to fall straight down rather than go around your waist, which is very bad for their hips. I do not have any background to support this, but I'm guessing if you don't use the carrier all day every day this won't make a difference, but if you live in the city and walk everywhere and use it all the time it can harm the baby. It also has the same issue as the Ergo with head support, where it has it for the back of their head but isn't very conducive to baby's forehead when it smacks into your chest. I don't even have a photo of me using it like the others because we simply don't use it. For something you aren't going to use often, which I wouldn't suggest with this, it retails for somewhere around $80 and is a little too expensive (I got mine second hand, never been used for $10 so I'm not that mad).

Seven Slings: Works if you have no boobs.


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I followed the sizing chart for this and picked the size they said I would fit into. I tried to use it when P was 3 weeks old, and was completely unsuccessful. Between the sling, him, and my boobs he was not going into it, and was even harder to get out (like squeezing into a dress that is really just too tight for you). I packaged it up and sent it to my sister in law (who I don't think has used it yet). This is the cheapest sling I've found--as long as you DO NOT pay for the sling!! There is always a coupon somewhere online for a free sling, just pay shipping, which I think is $11.95. Seriously. If you pay for this thing, just go ahead and punch yourself in the face. After I had issues putting it on I googled images of people using it and looked at their website and realized that every single woman was boobless. I...am not. No go. I would imagine this sling would be easy and convenient, though, for around the house especially--IF it fit you right.

Hope any of this helps. I have actual photos of us using the ergo and moby, but it seems P hates life right now so will have to fight will it later!

Never Coming

Although I'm 39 weeks now, I'm horrible at remembering to take photos.

So here is 38 weeks, the only picture I've taken since our 30 weeks maternity photos!



Early hope of a possible early delivery was squashed by 3 weeks of completely zero progress so...at this point I'm pretty positive this child is never coming.

So, see you at 48 weeks ;)

The Reality of Pregnancy

This pregnancy was planned (really, really hard). I read the "What to Expect BEFORE You're Expecting" book at the beginning of last year and followed every single piece of advice in the book. I stopped my birth control months before we wanted to get pregnant, changed my diet to be as fertility friendly as possible at about the same time, and started prenatal vitamins 3 months in advance. I didn't take any medication for anything. If the book said a food was fertility friendly, I ate it--no matter how much I despised it. If the book said something was good for B to do to help him, he did that too. With pressure :)

The first 6 weeks of my pregnancy were great. I was tired as hell, but other than that things were great. I kept my list of "things to eat daily during pregnancy" around and made sure I had 2 servings of this and 3 servings of that every day.

Then I puked. For the next 10 weeks straight. I lost 10lbs, and eventually just figured if I wasn't going to keep the food down anyway then there wasn't much point in me trying to eat "healthy" crap.

So I changed my focus to "MUST EAT ALL THINGS HEALTHY AND FABULOUS" to "MUST EAT ANYTHING THAT WON'T REAPPEAR." Things I found that USUALLY accomplished this were never healthy. Donuts, McDonald's chicken nuggets (just the nuggets...not the fries, and no ketchup), a plain roast beef sandwich from Arby's...nothing good for me.

But, I decided that feeding my child something, be it overly nutritious or not, was probably better than failing to actually get him anything.

And I never looked back.

The 6 week morning sickness plunge=a pregnancy reality check!

Almost 34 weeks now, hospital bag was JUST packed, and I at least found the instruction manual for the installation of the carseat. Maybe next weekend ;)

Maternity Photos!

A couple weeks ago we went "home" for a visit with family, and had some wonderful photos taken by the lovely BD Photography! They rocked, but I won't put 98239230 pictures up here--so here are a couple favorites!

Baby Boy's Nursery

I realize I haven't made a post on here in 4 months. Sorry! Been very busy around here...so, let's just pretend that's a viable excuse.

We found out back in October that we are having a BOY! I had horrible horrible morning sickness until about 15 weeks, when I started a new job. Now it's gone mostly, just normal pregnancy pains now as I'm well into the 3rd trimester. Heartburn is the biggest killer right now! And we won't talk about the bowl of cereal I just ate...at 10:30pm.

Since finding out we were having a boy I've been very busy in the nursery, as I decided I couldn't find a boy bedding set that I liked so I decided to make my own. Great thought...THOUGHT. It's all done now and, granted we are missing a few small things now (although less than we were when I took these pictures), it's pretty much completed. I'm really very happy with the result, even though I CURSED it the entire time I was making it.

Most of the things in the nursery were DIY projects, but some were bought. Some don't even go in the nursery, we were just too lazy to move them!

DIYs: Curtains, book bags, name sign, tent over crib, changing pad cover, pom poms over crib, octopus painting, ribbon on crib, blanket, and glider (we didn't build it, but I painted and reupholstered it!)
Crib: Walmart
Dressers: IKEA
Lamps:IKEA
Mirrors:IKEA
Lanterns: Party City

He now has a mattress and a lime green organic sheet for it, but I was too lazy to take another picture! Most of my personal projects were inspired by nurseries I found around the web that I no longer have links for, but were simply adorable. I think it turned out well!

Growing!

We, and apparently everyone else in the world right now, have a little announcement to make here in blogland!

We knew we wanted a spring baby, so we planned accordingly!

Baby Nemo (just keep swimming) will be making his/her appearance around March 28, 2013!

I should have made this official announcement quite a long time ago, but didn't. I'm 14 weeks now and SO happy to see the second trimester! I always thought I would be the kind of woman who enjoys being pregnant but, even though I'm excited for the arrival of little Nemo, pregnancy has NOT been glorious thus far. My morning sickness has been super rough and I've lost quite a bit of weight since becoming pregnant! I'm still fighting the remnants of it, and get sick occasionally, but I think I've stopped losing weight and am officially putting some back on--still not back up to pre-pregnancy weight, but at least I'm not losing!

But, because I've been losing weight everywhere else and gaining a human being, my bump has been out since 8 weeks! I always told myself when I got pregnant that I would take cutesy pictures and make a cutesy memory book. Mmm...so far my concern isn't great for that ha!

But, here's a random 9 week photo. Not cutesy, and too lazy to attempt it without just using the mirror (and excuse the color, because my phone went haywire!). 5 weeks ago...

And big sister Cleo is CLEARLY excited...

But we certainly are!

We WILL be finding out what we are having! Hopefully at the end of October :)

Yellowstone

A few weeks ago we took a trip up to Yellowstone. We've decided, basically, that this is travel time for us so we went to Vegas earlier this year (...did I blog about that? I probably didn't. I'll put that in the logs), Yellowstone in early July, and--although we didn't travel to this--went to Cheyenne Frontier Days last week. Don't worry, I took a billion pictures. ;D

Yellowstone was very nice. Everything in the park was booked so we stayed at a little place about 30 miles outside the park that was an RV park/Motel. It was actually nice, as we usually go camping with my family during the summer but are too far this year to do that, so staying at this place was a lot like staying in a campground but without a camper. Plus it was like half the price of staying in the park.

Yellowstone, if you haven't been there, is set up like a giant "8". The first day we did the bottom circle, the second day we did the top circle. We probably drove 500 miles between the two days. We were pretty exhausted, but saw some cool stuff.

Except we didn't see a Moose. Or a bear. We were both very disappointed.


We stopped in Thermopolis--home of the world's largest hot springs.

And in Cody for their 4th of July festivities. The orange cloud behind this flag is the smoke from the fire in the Teton.

Turned a corner and there was a buffalo in the road. One of about a billion that we saw. This is probably more impressive when you DON'T live right next to a buffalo farm.

Lower Falls

Elk

Old Faithful

Midway Crater Geyser

We went horseback riding on the last day and had a blast!

High Park Fire

Last Saturday a fire started in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, probably about 25ish miles from here. By Sunday morning it had burned 14,000 acres and was growing at 20-40ft per MINUTE. High winds (sustained at 25mph, with gusts to 40) were fueling the fire like crazy and causing the smoke cloud to go hundreds of miles away, all the way to Omaha, Nebraska.

This is what our city looked like on Sunday morning, and it got MUCH worse with every passing hour.



We were on a red flag warning all day and night Sunday which, according to the web, means "increased probability that a quickly spreading vegetation fire will occur within 24 hours." We decided to wait until Monday, and if nothing changed we would pack ourselves some emergency bags for when we were told to go.

By Monday morning the fire was at 36,000 acres and still 0% containment. BUT, in the morning the wind died down, the fire changed directions, and we officially declared ourselves out of danger.

Currently, as of today, the fire is at 50,000 acres, 10% containment, 2600 homes evacuated, over 100 structures have been destroyed, 1 life has been lost, and over 1200 people are working on containment (including 2 states national guards). Plumes today are reaching over 34,000 ft in the air. It's currently the second largest wildfire ever in Colorado.

This is what our city looked like yesterday morning, though, and it still smelled like smoke the instant you walked outside. The skies were FULL of smoke and ash and the orange in the distance is fire. This is a photo from the skycam.


(from CBS5)

Here are a few photos of the fire over the ridges and around the foothills.

(From 9news, credit Bryan Maltais)


(from 9news, credit Clint Hartley)

These are a couple cell phone pictures a friend sent me when they went fire-chasing.



On the Eastern side of the country, we didn't have these issues so this is our first wildfire experience. We occasionally get the frantic family call in the middle of the night because they just saw it on the news and want to make sure we're still alive. For our first fire it's been kind of exciting, albeit terrifying. Also, as if nature wasn't creating enough fun for us, for the second time this month there was a tornado 45 miles from us (same spot both times). But, the fire is now at 10% containment so cross your fingers that this number gets to 100 pretty soon!

Cafe Door to Mail Holder

The last couple days I've been working on a little project that is FINALLY done! Okay...actually I've been working on many projects the last two days...this just happens to be the only one that is complete. Clearly, this means I must share it with you!

A few weeks ago we had the "World's Largest Yard Sale" about an hour from here. Besides the fact that not only was this event NOT in a yard, I'm also pretty sure they couldn't possibly call it the world's largest. BUT, I did find that brand new set of packaged cafe doors for $15.

Michael's and I have been in an argument over Turquoise paint for months now. They've been out of the big bottle forever, but I still had some left from the little kitchen paintings I did last year and I got tired of waiting and just went for it. I ran out of paint with 7 slats left in my second coat. Had to buy two little bottles of it to finish. I screwed a couple D-hooks (25lb weight limit) to the back of the door and hung it on the wall!

Please excuse the mess in the kitchen. I did the painting on the table and everything is moved around right now to make room for a new refrigerator to come through later this week! (And don't you just LOVE where base housing decided the fire extinguisher would look best? In the middle of the wall is completely perfect. GREAT thinking. This is also why I only hung one of the doors.)

I know what you're thinking right now--what the crap is she going to use a cafe door on the wall for? Here, let me answer it for you with a picture...

MAIL. Our mail is consistently piling up on the kitchen table. I realize this is my fault because I'm too lazy to walk it back to the office and file it where it needs to go. But, still it's annoying. So, voila! A new place to pile the mail!

There is one small problem, though:

When the mail goes in long ways, if you aren't VERY careful about it...it just slides right through. But in order to fix this I would have to take it off the wall, put a perfectly cut piece of wood or cardboard or something behind it, glue it there, and replace it on the wall.

So, I'll just be VERY careful. Because...let's face it, that's a lot of effort.

I'm pretty excited about my new mail holder!

Military Spouse BlogHop!

It's Military Spouse Appreciation Day!

Let's face it...it's always nice to have some appreciation! :D

In honor of this glorious event, Household 6 Diva and Riding the Roller Coaster are hosting a BlogHop! I LOVE BlogHops! They hook you up with so many interesting people that you might otherwise never meet!

Join, won't you?



My name is Meg and I am in my second year of being an Air Force Wife. My husband, who is a security forces officer, and I moved to our first duty station in Dec 2010. We said "send us to Georgia!" and the Air Force said "here's the least populated state instead!" We are originally from Ohio, so the climate and the general demographic here is completely different than what we're used to, but we're pretty used to it by now.

I am an English teacher. I am not currently teaching, but I am a teacher. (Did you know it's also Teacher Appreciation Week? Because it is. I will take one apple, thank you.) Jobs here are hard to find, so I'm currently subbing in our district. I'm also a court appointed advocate for kids involved in neglect and abuse cases in the county, and my husband and I foster dogs on a regular basis.

You'll also find that, here on the blog, I do a LOT of baking and a LOT of DIY home decor. Since moving out here, my options for places to find specific things for my house that I want have slimmed to pretty much Walmart and Big Lots (more stores would require an actual population). Neither of these places is typically able to satisfy the image in my head, so I just end up doing it myself. Sometimes I come up with it on my own...sometimes (okay, most times) Pinterest advises me.

We don't have any kids (yet), but we do have an incredibly spoiled puppy. Cleo is a 9 month old Aussie Shepherd/Cattle Dog mix...we think. Whatever she is, it's a great mix and she's is a fantastic puppy--we couldn't ask for a better one!

I'm so pleased to meet ya!