Thursday, September 20, 2007

persevering on a carrier

A month after Anjali was born, I managed to get a couple of hours out. The purpose was to get a stroller for Anjali. However, I saw at Mothercare a carrier - four position, front, facing you, front facing out, back and most importantly nursing. Expensive too (it was Mothercare, so what do you think?) Price was $140 and I bought it.


My dad was annoyed. Why spend so much on something you would harly use, he said. But to me, the nusring had cinched the deal. You see... I was breastfeeding Anjali, and a one month old baby spends more time nursing then anything else, and I spent more than half my day lying down next to her. If... if only I could put her in the carrier and walk around doing other things while nursing...



Well, I put her in the carrier. At one month, she was tiny, about 3 kilos. She looked exacly like a marsupial as her head (still fragile) poked out of the hole meant for the arms. She was half asleep when I put her in the carrier, and she fell asleep with her head out of the arm hole.





All of us were very dissappointed. "You cant put a baby in a carrier until her head stands" said my dad. $140 for something that looks like a military arrachment? Husband was supportive. "Well", he said, "considering that you didnt pay for it" (I had bought it with a set of vouchers the office had given), "its ok".


Over the next couple of months, I put her in the carrier once every couple of weeks to try her out. The result was not favorable. I was not confident with the carrier, she was too small. Mostly Anjali fell asleep in the carrier, but at other times she used to cry. Maybe she sensed that I was feeling insecure and everything... I knew it was safe (The manual said "from birth"), but she looked so tiny in that big thing... We decided to write the carrier off as a bad buy and at one point, I even tried to sell it on ebay.


After I began work, I researched baby wearing - at which point I realized that there were so many options for baby carriers. My favorite site was peppermint instructions. with lots of pictures on baby wearing. I began the process of learning. Soon I had learnt the hip carry and the hip cross carry. I didnt buy any more carriers - since the mother care one was so expensive, but choose to use my duppattas, getting husband to help me tie her to me. It was fun, we did a number of excursions, btu soon Anjali was too big for the duppattas (Maybe I got fatter, but lets not dwell on this).


When she was a bit over three months, her head started to get stable. So we tried the front facing carry. She liked that. Since she was facing out I didnt feel that she was too stuffed, and she could see everywhere. Husband likes even now, to carry her like that. When we take her out with the forward facing carrier, she tries to grab a lot of things, mostly glittery, colorful stuff in the shops.



Anjali likes her carrier's now, so much so that she gets all excited when one of us straps it on - she knows she is going out. Shows how much perseverance can reward you (though I never did use the nursing position). I certainly felt very satisfied when my father took her out on a walk in the carrier a couple of weeks ago.

As for me, I finally figures out the forward carry, all it requires is to put the lumbar support high up just under my chest so that she can rest her head on my breasts and relax and sleep. Infact we like the carrier better than the stroller and she definitely prefers cuddling into me on the carrier on those hard days when she has her shots.

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations on learning how to successfully wear your baby! She is precious. Thank you for entering the June babywearing photo contest!

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