We began slinging Abby very early on.... probably two weeks old. I was very hesitant at first
Advantages of slings:
- Bonding - Abby is on one of us anytime we were out of the house. (we do use the shopping carts now, too. She had to get a lot better at balancing to get to that point!)
- Poeple think it's cute. Okay, maybe just when a daddy is doing it, but it made me feel like a hero.
- People don't touch your baby. We have had stangers get WAY too close to our baby when she's in her stroller. People seem to respect another adult's personal space than that of a baby. Yeah, she's the one that does not have a fully developed immune system yet!
- I'm sure there are others, and am confident that either Sarahlynn, Natalie or Steph will comment below!
There are many types of slings, but we really love the two we use.
We got a Ring Sling from Sarahlynn. When Abby was too little to hold her head up, we could hold her. When she could hold her head up, we could hold her. Now that she's gotten taller and heavier, we can still hold her! They say that you can use it for as long as you can hold them. I don't know that I'll have her on my hip at 40 pounds, though!
We also have a BabyBjörn . This has done us great service over the last few months. It has more limitations, but seems to be more prevalent. Abby could not be in it until she could hold her head up, and is now on the upper limit of the height and weight limits. Okay - I'm not sure that they have a height limit, but my brother put it best when he said "I will not carry a baby like that when they are learning to walk." I'll be a little more blunt, it's more of an issue for men than women.
I can not imagine that we would have done without our sling(s). One great thing about slingers is that they tend to be easy to talk to. If you have a question, you can always ask! (We know, because we stopped a woman in Babie R Us a couple of weeks back for a few pointers!)
3 comments:
Good points on the advantages to slings. Our top two were:
1. You get your hands back! Especially in the early days when the Critter was so fussy, he needed us to hold him all the time. The sling gave me my hands back so I could actually do a few things around the house while still holding him.
2. Sleep, blessed sleep. Again, in the early days, he would wake up any time we laid him down. The sling gave him some precious sleep, and gave us some sanity! It must have felt very safe and warm and secure to be wrapped up in the sling, up against one of us. Ahhhh.
We loved the ring sling too. On the days that I went into the office to help out when Chase was little I would wear her around in it and she would snooze while I got some stuff done. My boss would tell everyone who came in how awesome it was and how he'd never heard of or seen such a thing before.
Later we graduated to the Ergo for its back carrying capabilities. Once in the parking lot at Costco I was getting Chase up on my back when a women asked specifically if she could help me with my Ergo so you're right on about the approachability factor... it's like a little club.
I agree with everything you, Natalie, and Stephanie said about the sling.
One other great benefit is its flexibility. Theoretically, it can be several different types of carrier, for various sizes of kids. Once, we found ourselves running through an airport, then waiting in long lines, trapped without a stroller. Our then-three-year-old decided that she was all done walking/standing. So I handed 4-month-old Ada to her daddy and put Ellie on my hip in the sling (which I'd brought for Ada's use). Having the sling helped spread around some of the burden of holding a 35 pound child, and it gave me a free hand for holding tickets, passports, etc.
Paul really loved the Bjorn for a long time with Ellie, especially since she was such a late walker. She was very long, though, so I think he did sustain a few of the injuries you reference so subtly.
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