The first baby carrier I purchased was a likely 10-foot long heap of fabric. It was portrayed in every ad I’d seen to be “the best,” and I believed it. That was until I tried it. After five minutes of attempting to get it situated and put my baby into it, I realized I needed something more convenient.
It was nice in theory. The endless wrapping myself up like a cocoon to hold my baby seemed comfortable initially. Though this was when my baby was still young and sleepy 99% of the time. What would happen when he was crying more as I spent those five minutes getting this wrap assembled? In some reality where I mastered the art and reduced it to a minute or two, spring would be here soon. Then summer. Did I want this multilayer baby wrap to suffocate in?
I would hate to not include how impossible it was to get it back into the bag. I rolled it up so neatly, with no luck whatsoever. The storage bag was too small for the wad of fabric I had attempted to roll and place into it. Three tries later and it fit…mostly. Though that was good enough for me.
The second carrier was a similar fabric to the first, but had a harness in the back. All you had to do was place your baby within the crisscross fabric, then tighten the straps. For the last step, there was an extra piece of fabric you tie around yourself and the baby toward the end that holds them more securely.
This option worked really well for me until the day I was holding my son and felt a warm rush of pee along my stomach. This was after he had a bath, freshly changed diaper and was put in warm jammies. I went to remove the additional strap, essential to undoing the rest of it, and by the time I was able to get it undone he was wide awake and not amused. We both needed a change of clothes and a nice bath.
I gave it one last shot and tried the Infantino baby carrier. It looks like it would be suffocating. A backpack rather than a sufficient baby-carrying option. Though, I needed to try it. After several attempts putting it on myself the wrong way, I finally figured it out. All you have to do is snap it around your waist, your back and then slide the baby’s legs in the front and secure them. If you leave the back snapped it’s very easy to slip on and off after use.
If my baby was agitated, it only took two snaps to open the front and get him out! He has yet to pee on me in this sling, but there’s a first time for everything.
