Mum/Me

A hands-free kit for a baby

This week I went to the Toy Fair in London. It was my second visit to the Toy Fair and I went in my capacity as writer for top toy news website, ToyTalk. I had a great time.

Due to childcare issues (I could write a separate blog post or maybe even a novel about Childcare Issues at the moment) (although it would mostly say 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!') I had to take Eilidh with me. I couldn't face the thought of taking a pushchair on the train, so I decided to carry her or 'wear' her as the trendy hippie mamas would call it. I normally 'wear' her in a moby wrap, as pictured below. This wrap, by the way, was a gift from my hilarious and wonderful best friend Meg who makes clever things at Made by Mum and designs and illustrates professionally at MeganSayers.com. I've taken a series of photos about how to wrap it, but I'll post that another time.

Eilidh is getting too big to carry for long comfortably like this, though, (you can see she's a  lot younger in this photo) and I decided I would prefer to carry her on my back. You can put them on your back in the Moby but it's not particularly safe, and certainly not something I'd attempt whilst in a public place.

I don't have a back carrier at the moment so my lovely friend Pip kindly lent me her beautiful Rose & Rebellion carrier to take. Back carrying is surprisingly comfortable. You really don't feel the weight of the baby at all. I am short and fairly small-framed so I actually found the R&R slightly big for me, because if I stood up straight Eilidh leaned out backwards a little. This was fine at the time but the next day I had slightly sore shoulders.

You can put the carrier on your front, and in this case you just do it the same way as a structured carrier like a baby bjorn, and cross the straps across your back. Eilidh slept in it like this on the way to and from the Toy Fair. Getting them onto your back is a little more fun. I've taken a series of photos to illustrate how it's done, as I think I would have found this helpful when I was learning. It really isn't difficult at all. I think the number one tip is to have faith in yourself; you're very unlikely to drop your own baby. Practise over the sofa a few times to start with though, just in case.

Step 1: Attach the carrier around your waist

Step 2: With your child facing you, cross your arms. One palm should face downwards and one should face upwards. Grip your child's shoulders on each side, one from above and one from below. Please grip shoulders not arms; little shoulders dislocate very easily and you would never forgive yourself. I think I look a bit like a ninja in this photo.

 

Step 3: LIft your baby up and swing them over your shoulder and onto your back, uncrossing your arms as you go. This is called a 'superman toss' or a 'santa toss'. When you've got them onto your upper back, lean forward so that they are balancing on you. Keep hold of them in some way. I like to hold Eilidh's arms over my shoulders for a second till she settles (as pictured at the top of the page) and then put one arm around and hold onto her bum.

 

Step 4: Make sure you pull the baby's legs foward so that they are round your sides and don't get caught up in the straps.

 

Step 5: Keeping hold of the baby with one hand. slide your arm into one of the straps, like a rucksack. Keep leaning forward. Change hands so that you're holding onto the baby with the other hand while you slide your second arm into the other strap. You can't see, but I'm holding onto Eilidh with my left hand in this pic. Don't do what I did on Tuesday and forget to fasten the straps beforehand so that when you go to put the straps on you find it unattached and have to start again, while your baby cries!

 

Step 6: When both arms are through the straps (and your baby definitely inside the fabric... ) stand up straight. Holding the straps, jump and jiggle till your baby is right down inside the fabric.

 

Step 7: For your baby's comfort and wellbeing, their seat should be deep inside the fabric, with their knees higher than their hips. The fabric should spread from knee pit to knee pit. I find it feels better with the baby's arms inside the straps (below yours) but nothing on earth will persuade Eilidh to keep her arms inside it, and they're perfectly safe out, it just feels more unsteady (and they can pull your hair!) 

 

Step 8: Clip the chest strap. Tighten the straps.

 

Step 9: Enjoy your hands-free baby!

 

Hello browser - who are you?

You - yes you. I'm talking to you.

I wrote a post recently on the Facebook cancer meme and I am now flooded with visitors to my blog via people googling to find out what it's all about.

I'm delighted about this, but I'm also eaten up with curiosity. I can see from my stats that almost 300 of you have visited today, about 250 of those straight to the breast cancer post via various search engines.

Most people click on the post and then disappear again, but some people are obviously interested enough that they start trawling through my blog, usually via the 'You might also like' linkwithin button. This is driving me crazy - in a nice way. I am generally quite nosy anyway and like to know things about everyone, but I'm absolutely desperate to know who you all are.

So, if you're reading this, please comment on the comments tab below this post. Who are you? Where are you from? Do you like the blog or think it's the biggest load of rubbish you've ever read in your life?

Thanks for visiting!

Parental advisory: explicit lyrics

It's always cute when your toddler walks around the house singing. I am musical and come from a musical family, too, so it pleases me to hear him taking enjoyment from music. I smile and say an inward 'awwwww' when he's pottering in the garden singing, 'I had a little turtle, his name was Tiny Tim...' or he's laying on his bed singing, 'The planets revolve around the sun hoorah, hoorah' or he's building a jigsaw singing, 'So I saved up all my cigarettes and I traded them in for a tool'.

Wait, what?!

Well, I have recently discovered that my sharp-eared little boy is picking up far more than I realised. I had already learned that I couldn't tell the television to 'shut up' if I didn't want to have that parroted back to me later by my three-year-old, and that no matter how sore it is, you really can't say those words that spring to mind when you touch a hot dish without oven gloves on.

What I didn't realise, however, is that the little pitcher is picking up the lyrics of the CDs I play in the car when we are out and about together too.

I knew he had favourite tracks, and I'm pleased that his interest in music extends beyond Raffi and Mr Boom. He particularly likes Animal by Neon Trees, or 'Uh oh' as he calls it, because the chorus goes 'Uh oh, I want some more'. He also likes Raise Your Glass, or 'Nebbily Nebbily' as he calls it, because the chorus goes 'We will never be never be... ' and his newest favourite is 'Cloos', which is actually 'Recluse' by Plan B.

This Plan B album is not my normal cup of tea, but I'm enjoying it at the moment and particularly like the way the songs all link together, to tell a story of a man sent to prison after being wrongfully accused of a crime, getting victimised in prison and eventually having to kill a man in self defence, and then being consumed with guilt for letting a life-server take the blame for him. However, given the subject matter, the lyrics are quite gritty, let's say, and not something that you particularly want your three-year-old coming out with. I just honestly didn't think he was really listening.  

Other inappropriate ditties we've been treated to recently include, 'Beecos the night belongs to lubbers' (loudly and repeatedly in the supermarket) and 'Lay your body down' (from Crossfire by Brendan Flowers).

So, the task from now on is to find songs that are more interesting than your basic 'Baa baa black sheep', but perhaps don't include references to sex, drugs or commiting murder in prison. Suggestions anyone?

525, 600 minutes...

525, 000 moments so dear

525, 600 minutes

How do you measure, measure a year?

This is the cheesy song Seasons of Love from Rent, but it's going around in my head a lot today because my baby girl is a year old. It was also nearly the soundtrack for the montage I made for her, but some of the lyrics weren't right, and I found something more perfect.

I know everybody says this and it's a total cliche, but I can't believe my baby is one year old. It's gone so fast. She also seems much younger at a year than Arran was, because she's tiny compared to him (she's 25th centile height like her mama and he's around the 85th like his dad!), plus she's not walking whereas he nearly was at a year. I secretly love that she's still little and babyish. It means that even though time is flying, I get to keep her a baby a little longer.

I've waxed lyrical about my darling little Mouse on here so often, so I'm going to try to keep it succinct today and just say that before she arrived, I didn't really think that my heart could be any more full, but it turns out that the capacity to love is not a limited thing, and my heart has swelled to fill with the overwhelmingly love I feel for my funny, sunny, passionate, exuberant little girl.

When I look at my children, I could just burst.

During Arran's first year, I made a montage by taking a photo every week, and I called it 'Project 52'. I found the perfect song to go with it, and it was a lovely record of the incredible growth of a child during that first year. I really wanted to do the same with Eilidh, but in the way of second children I didn't manage to get around to taking a photo every week with my nice camera, and so some of the pics on hers are blurry snaps from my camera phone.

It's no secret that the little spark that Eilidh started out as arrived with us shortly after an early pregnancy loss. I've always felt very strongly that everything happens for a reason, and that Eilidh is the baby I was meant to have, and I wouldn't change a thing. During the sad time when the previous pregnancy failed, I came across a beautiful song, and found it comforting as I always like to have an appropriate song for various situations in my life.

I've spent this past year umming about what song to use for Eilidh's montage video - I've been talking about it all year and have so many possibilities, like the Rent one, or the Bruno Mars 'Just the Way You Are' that was number one when she was born, or Aerosmith's Don't Want to Miss a Thing... or many others, but in the end, when I put the photos together tonight, I was again struck by this feeling of immense grattitude that I held out faith for the baby I was meant to have - and the song that I listened to back then just fit perfectly and made a meaningful tribute for my dear little girl.

Happy First Birthday, Eilidh Skye. You are so loved.