People who know about slings

Following on from loobyg's post...I am thinking about investing in a sling but have no idea where to start. N likes to be held and cuddled a lot which means we struggle to do anything much around the house. He is only 2 weeks old at the moment and I'd want to use it both inside and outside the house.

Does anyone have any recommendations please?

TIA

smarties x

I love my Kari-Me sling. Moby's are similar and both are lovely for new borns.

Thanks VG, I shall have a poke about on the t'internet now

Virgin Goddess:

I love my Kari-Me sling. Moby's are similar and both are lovely for new borns.

WSS. My Kari-me has been the sanity saver for me. I'm using it with no.2 now. Neither of them went into a pushchair until after 4 months as the sling was much easier.

Ethan lived in the Moby as a baby.  And because it's a wrap its nice & snug for outside too

Are the wraps easy to use? I am always slightly nervous that I won't do it right and the baby will fall off me, or it will be really fiddly and I'll end up not bothering.

Also, how easy is it to bf in a sling? Is it doable?

I want to bf when out and about to allow us to have longer trips out of the house but am unsure how to go about it - by which I mean I currently have lots of cushions piled up for each feed at home, so how do you manage to keep the baby in the right place when feeding elsewhere? Would a sling help with that?

Another recommendation for a stretchy wrap, we had a Kari-Me but Moby is very similar.  I wouldn't be without it for a newborn if we had another one.  We didn't get it until Z was 4 weeks and I wish we'd had it earlier.

I've bought a close baby carrier for when this one arrives (well work bought it for me). I wanted a stretchy wrap which would be suitable for lying the baby down in the early days, but one that I'd be able to sit the baby up in later on. The close apparently can be put on like a T-shirt, although I haven't tried it yet, so can't say how easy it is to get on but it looks simple enough and there isn't as much tying as with other stretchy wraps, which was scaring me to begin with.

Would definitely recommend a moby, we love ours and always get loads of comments about how lovely and snuggly Jude looks in it.  When they're tiny you can just froggy them up on your chest and it's so nice.

You can't bf in it (think you can but it's v tricky) but I actually found he was a lot more settled in it out and about and wasn't rooting as much as he was comforted by being next to me. 

When it comes to feeding I just support his weight on my arm and now he's older his body dangles down, it's ok when they're little and light!

Oh and the tying is fine, once you've done it once or twice you just get the knack of it, just make sure it's not too loose

Learning to tie a stretchy wrap is like learning to tie shoelaces - seemingly baffling before you have a go, but very quickly becomes second nature. This video is a good one for showing the technique very simply. You want the sling to be quite tight ("bandage tight" is sometimes used to describe it) so the baby is high enough up to kiss.

Breastfeeding when out and about can be tricky if you're used to thousands of pillows - I used to put my feet up on a footrest on a nearby chair and support the baby on my arm which I then rested on my leg. Once you can ditch the cushions you'll find it soooo much easier to get out and about - ring a BFC and ask for advice if you're finding it tough to feed au natural (IYKWIM!)

I had a moby D which I loved.  We now use a babyhawk as she was getting a bit big for the moby.

Dr Doo.Little:

I've bought a close baby carrier for when this one arrives (well work bought it for me). I wanted a stretchy wrap which would be suitable for lying the baby down in the early days, but one that I'd be able to sit the baby up in later on. The close apparently can be put on like a T-shirt, although I haven't tried it yet, so can't say how easy it is to get on but it looks simple enough and there isn't as much tying as with other stretchy wraps, which was scaring me to begin with.

I've got this one - as DDL says you put it over your head as you would a t-shirt, you dont need to tie it just tighten the material through the loops - it's really easy to use and gorgeous jersy material. I love it! x

Thanks again ladies, that's all really helpful.

Mint Spies - it was my BFC who started me off with the pillows, and she is due to get back in touch when N is 3 weeks old so I shall definitely ask her about how to manage without support. I'm worried that I'll be so unused to it I won't be able to support his weight for the full length of a feed so I do need to try it all out I think.

Thanks again girls x

You've had good advice here.

JTA that BFing in a sling, particularly stretch wrap is possible but not recommended for safety reasons.  I have however used it to help support baby whilst feeding although only when sat and not in a way you could be hands free.

If you'd like to try a Moby before you buy or benefit from a 10% discount drop me an email!