Babes in Arms – blogging about select baby carriers and slings from around the world

It’s been a cold, wet winter in Perth, which is great after years of drought but not fun being stuck indoors! When we get sunny days we head straight to the park. There is a great little spot about 15 minutes from us along the river where you can take your dogs. Our dog loves to get out and explore the area and the kids love to scoot along the path, spot ducks and throw pebbles into the water. It usually ends up being musical ERGObaby as Miki will go through a stage where she has to be carried, then she wants to walk and I carry Charlize, then back to Mikis turn again!

Our ERGObaby has also been for a trip down to the South-West of WA where we stayed at Nyamup, completing  trips out to Manjimup, Pemberton, Bunbury and everywhere in between. Most of it was off the paved tracks so was much easier to put Charlize in the ERGObaby than deal with a pram through bush and mud. My husband even climbed the Gloucester Tree! (72m high Karri tree). We are very lucky to have such a gorgeous area so close to Perth and we think it may have to become an annual trip as the girls enjoyed it so much.

We are now on the final countdown until Charlize’s first birthday! This last year has flown by and she is now a crawling and talking little girl. She never stops talking. Her vocabulary now includes: “dog”, “dad”, “bub”, “bye”, “nan” and more but she has only said “Mum” once! This doesn’t upset me at all as I know very soon it will be the word she says the most if she’s anything like her sisters.

The teething pads on my ERGObaby have come in very handy as teeth number 6 and 7 have come through! Very different from Miki who didn’t get one until after she turned 1 but still soldiering on with breastfeeding through the occasionally bite! I don’t think she will be walking by her first birthday but that’s okay as she might be our last baby so I want her to stay my bubba for as long as possible (or until I convince my husband for #4)

Next month I’ll let you know how the birthday party goes, then hopefully we won’t be to busy until it’s Christmas again!

This year is flying by, feels like we just had Christmas and Easter has just passed us by!

Charlize is now 8 months old and doing well. She started solids around 6 months old but has only in the last few weeks started liking them and eating more than a spoonful. She’s loving baby led solids and doing it herself. Dinner is usually steamed carrot sticks, corn, beans and grated cheese which she loves spreading over her highchair (and mostly the floor!). She also loves grapes so I’ll be sad when the grapes disappear off the shelves as the weather is getting cooler.

Charlize isn’t on the move yet except a bit of commando crawling. If she wants something her sisters bring it to her so she obviously feels that she doesn’t need to move yet. This is much easier for me as she generally stays where I put her although I’m usually not allowed out of sight or the waterworks start!

Our ERGObaby carrier has been getting more of a workout than usual as my nearly 2 year old Mikayla has decided she doesn’t want to be in the pram and wants me to carry her. Not a problem with the ERGObaby as she feels light and loves being on the front or back. I think she has been in it more this month than Charlize!

The weather in Perth has finally cooled down into the 20′s so we have been going back to the zoo for our weekly trips. I don’t need to take the pram anymore as Miki and Jayde walk and Charlize goes in the ERGObaby carrier which has been much easier to get through the doorways.

One of my friends is due with her bub in a couple of months and I have lent her my Heart 2 Heart insert as I insist to her it is the best thing with a little one. I hope her baby enjoys it as much as Charlize has!

Over the Easter long weekend, we headed to the South West of WA where we got back to nature at the National Parks and the Valley of the Giants to do the treetop walk where the ERGObaby came in handy  with a  less than friendly pathway for prams.

Hope you all had a lovely Easter – and for you mums, a lovely Mother’s Day!

Caprice, Matt, Jaydey cakes, Miki Moo and Charli girl

What a month January was! I think I need a holiday after the holiday season! Charlize had a lot of firsts in the last month.

It all started just before Christmas with Charlize’s first trip to the family farm. I remember the Ballidu Christmas Tree as one of my first memories as we would wait for Santa to turn up on the fire truck and hand out presents to us all and I’m so glad my girls all got to do it this past Christmas, out of all the presents the hit of the night were the candlestick lights that changed colours that came in the lolly bags. Then came the trip home….. We planned it for sleep time so headed off for the 2 1/2 hour drive. All 3 girls and my husband fell asleep straight away so I got to listen to my music instead of the Wiggles for once and thought this is great!

Then at the half way mark Jayde wakes up saying she needs to wee. Then Charlize wakes up and starts crying. And then Mikayla wakes up too so I said we would stop at the next town. We pull up at the Bindoon Bakery and I go into the back to grab Jayde and see Mikayla has been sick so my husband deals with that while I run Jayde into the toilet, come back to pick up Charlize and go grab some food and drinks then realise Charlize has done a number 3 and its on my top too! So back to the toilet with a change of clothes and lots of wipes for the 2 of us. Have never been so glad to see my house as I was that day!

Charlize’s first Christmas was a lovely day spent with family. The girls all got spoilt and for Charlize we mostly got personalised items so her older sisters couldn’t claim them as theirs. We spent the morning with Matt’s side of the family then lunch with mine so it was nice to have the afternoon to ourselves and relax with a swim in the pool and a BBQ dinner.

Less than 2 weeks after Christmas and we were off to the Gold Coast! More firsts to come including Charlize’s first plane trip, first holiday, first wedding and first theme park ride!!! All 3 girls did really well on the flight over, Jayde was happy playing games on the Ipad, Miki was happy as long as she had food and Charlize was happy as long as she had me. Our apartment was wonderful with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms near the beach and opposite the Q1 building, we spent a lot of time in the pool in between trips to Seaworld and Movieworld. The ERGObaby got a good workout over there as we walked everywhere and much easier to use in the school holiday crowds unlike my poor husband pushing the elder 2 in the twin pram.

My brothers wedding was beautiful. Just a bit of drizzle around that day which made for great photos. The bride was stunning, the church very cute and the reception magnificent in the Q1 building on the 78th floor! We had a late flight home and the poor people sitting near me must’ve thought they had lucked out in the seat allocation as Charlize was inconsolable at takeoff but once we were in the air, a quick feed and she slept the rest of the way home.

Charlize has changed so much in this last month. She’s rolling everywhere (and getting stuck in the cot bars!), blowing raspberries, laughing and lots of smiles especially for her sisters who love to entertain her. Have tried to put her in the pram when out but she doesn’t like lying flat looking at the ceiling and would rather be upright in the Ergo looking around. She’s a bit bigger now so the straps don’t get in her way. Only a few more weeks and she will be 6 months old!

Caprice, Matt, Jaydey cakes, Miki Moo and Charli girl

(psst…you can check out Caprice’s blog here)

The silly season is pretty much over for another year. I hope everyone stayed safe and had a lovely holiday filled with good food, family and laughter. Ours was pretty uneventful, with my family living overseas and half of Matt’s family are shift workers (and they all worked Christmas Day AND New Years). We still managed to get together for a late lunch and Tahnee enjoyed herself immensely with all the pretty wrapping paper to play with!

Besides that, it has just been HOT. Our car is in desperate need of an air con re-gas, but of course being the holidays, we can’t get it in til later this month. Unfortunately, it means we have a bad case of cabin fever unless we go out and about early in the morning before it starts getting too hot. We’ve still gone to the beach where Tahnee still loves the water, her little legs go nuts! We’ve also gone to the pools, and the children’s play centre, and BBQ’s at friends houses in the evenings when it starts cooling down. The Ergobaby follows us wherever we go, like a security blanket.

Tahnee has gotten pretty terrible with her sleeping again. We’ve not been to the Chiropractor for almost 2 weeks due to being shut over Christmas and I believe that it’s because of this that she’s gone all out of whack again. She will flat out refuse to sleep when we are out unless she is in the ERGObaby. No matter how hard I try to rock her, feed her, walk with her – she must be in her ERGObaby to go to sleep. She will literally zonk out within minutes of being in the carrier.

In other Tahnee news, she has finally cracked her two top teeth! They have been sitting right under the gums for weeks now and they are finally through(and I thought it would make her sleep better, but she’s only gotten worse!). She is also almost crawling now – rocking on her hands and knees, but she has already discovered how to climb and now climbs up the step to our sunken lounge room! She is also trying to get to sitting by herself, she is almost there. We can put her down in a sitting position and she will sit for ages, so the balance is there. Waaaah! Who said my baby could grow up??!

It’s been challenging getting out of the house with 5 kids home. I try to travel light (especially lately as we tend to walk a fair bit due to the car not having air conditioning). The little ERGObaby front pouch is awesome for quick trips. I can fit in there: My bank card, money, car keys, my iPhone, a nappy each for Tahnee and Jye, a ziplock bag with baby wipes in it, a spare pair of jocks for Owen, a dummy and Tahnee’s snuggle toy. It’s so handy to just attach to the front and away we go. I don’t need to worry about lugging around my handbag, it’s huge and I tend to fill it to the brim because of its size. It means I can truly be hands free to wrangle my kids wherever they are and I don’t have to worry about forgetting my bag (which I have a tendency to do – a lot).

So this month is going to be a busy one with the lead up to school going back. My third child will be in his first year of school(kindy) and he cannot wait to go to school with his big brothers! I’ll have to brave the shops to get all the back to school items(hopefully with just Tahnee and of course the ErgoBaby!). In the meantime, we’ve got activities galore planned to keep the boredom away. We’ll be visiting the botanical gardens, the museum, SciTech, swimming lessons, karate goes back on the 17^th, play dates with friends, an Uncle’s 70^th birthday party…Let’s hope Miss Tahnee allows me enough sleep to keep up with them all!

Since my last post we have been on the countdown in our house. No, it wasn’t for Christmas. It was for THE WIGGLES CONCERT!!! Many months ago, I was refreshing the Ticketek webpage, so I would be first on at 9 am when the tickets went on sale. I managed to get us 6 rows from the front. I don’t know who was more excited, the girls or I!

Mindful of our carpark experience at last years concert,  we headed off early and got a good spot. You can’t take prams in, so (of course) Charlize went in the ERGObaby and Jayde and Miki held onto Dad’s hands. The day was great with Jayde waving like mad at Anthony, Jeff, Sam and Murray and Miki bopping along. Charlize stayed true to form and slept through the whole thing except the first 5 minutes. We spotted a whole heap of mums and dads babywearing including a few ERGOs. It was a great day with all the favourite songs and funny moments. Next time I better remember to bring Dorothy roses or Wags a bone!

The weather has been gorgeous in Perth. After a hot Spring, we have started Summer mildly which means lots of park trips and walks around the neighbourhood. This week we did dinner and bathtime a little early so we could get the girls in their PJs and go for a walk around our local neighbourhood to see the Christmas lights. They had a great time running around peoples lit up gardens and spotting Santa on rooftops trying to get down chimneys. Charlize actually stayed awake in the ERGObaby during this adventure, maybe because it was different from our usual routine?

This month I also got to try out the ERGObaby Teething Pads. Charlize is going through the bubble blowing, dribbling stage so they have been great for her to suck on or wipe her chin on even when they aren’t on the ERGO. I even use them on her capsule straps to prevent them getting wet too!

We have a huge month ahead with both Charlize and Miki heading in for vaccinations, the final weeks of playgroup and Gymbaroo followed by Christmas. In the  New Year then we are heading to the Gold Coast for my younger brothers wedding! I’m exhausted just thinking about it all! Will let you know how it goes next month.

Tahnee has had a few little adventures this month as she is finally over her illnesses. She is a happy go lucky girl again and even more so since she has been visiting our chiropractor. I’ve never thought to have any of my babies checked out by the chiro, but many of my friends have taken their babies for colic issues and reflux. So off we went with Tahnee in her ERGObaby carrier and the chiropractor gave me a bit of a look. I knew he was thinking about the crotch dangling type of carriers. Since he already knew Matt (they were buddies in Primary School), he asked me if he could have a closer look and I told him about all the benefits of the ERGObaby. He was impressed and said it was the perfect thing to be using to carry her. It was a big thumbs up from him.

Tahnee’s pelvis and neck were out quite badly and since then we have seen a few changes in her. She no longer vomits (YAY!!!), she is no longer waking hourly at night and instead is only waking twice a night. She has always refused the right breast and now she will happily feed from both sides. Then within a few days she started commando crawling! Could be a coincidence, but I reckon she felt a lot better after being adjusted.

It was my turn after her and it was pretty embarrassing how bad my neck and back were. My chiropractor mentioned that it was a good thing I was using the ERGObaby because the damage could have been so much worse!

Tahnee has also had fun socialising with other babies lately. We attended a Blessingway for a dear friend who was expecting her second baby. A good friend of mine also attended with her daughter who is only a month younger than Tahnee, also in their ERGObaby carrier. The two babies loved peeking out at each other and smiling and laughing. It was as though they were talking to each other – probably about how much the love to be in their ERGObaby! We put them down on the floor together. The other baby is sitting already and I had Tahnee propped up between my legs and they would just touch each other and share toys. It got a bit too much for Tahnee though and she started to cry, so she went back into the ERGObaby and fell asleep.

It was really good to see this Mama as we went through all this with our last babies (and it was with them that we were both introduced to the ERGObaby that changed our lives!). It was so fun to share our babywearing stories.

Now with christmas around the corner, we are as busy as ever. Matt is working long hours and school is winding up. Jye’s second birthday is coming up right before Christmas too and we are finding it hard to focus on Christmas when his birthday comes first! Tahnee has no idea what’s going on but she does love to look at all the decorations at the shops. She is starting to point at the things that she is looking at and calls everything ‘Dada dada’, I can’t wait for her to learn some new words!

Even though it’s the Christmas season, it doesn’t mean I’m on holidays though. Being a work at home mum is great but this time of year is really busy! I have orders rolling in and some days Tahnee just does not want to be put down. Thankfully we have figured out a way to make it possible to work and babywear otherwise I’d never get anything done. She will sleep on my back for much longer than when she is in her bed and I think the noise of the sewing machine soothes her too.

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and Tahnee and I will see you in the new year!

We haven’t had so many outdoor adventures lately. As much as we love to spend lots of time in the great outdoors it just hasn’t been possible. Little Tahnee recovered from her cold pretty quickly – thanks to her wonderful antibodies she got from my breast milk. It meant we could plan play dates and outings to fill our days and then…Jye got sick. It’s started with a temperature and then 2 days later some red blister like spots appeared around his mouth. Then his hands. Then his feet. He has Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Another 2 days later and Owen flared up with a temperature, no doubt the blisters will soon appear. So unfortunately we’ve had to cancel ALL our plans to try and contain the germs to just our house, which means not so much adventuring for us! It’s half my luck that Matt happens to be on day shift so I can’t even duck out for bread and milk without toting all the kids along with me.

Tahnee is still rolling everywhere, she really likes it when I’ve taken the ERGObaby off and she can roll over to it and plays with the hood or part of the buckle. She has this look of concentration on her face as if she is trying to work out how it goes together to make her safe little cocoon that she has grown to love.

Her newest favourite game is to laugh at people. She has giggled a handful of times from when she was about 4 months old but now she does great big belly laughs that surprise you because she has such a loud voice for such a little person! She loves to look at her brothers and will go into fits of laughter at them pulling funny faces. Sometimes I just have to look at her and she’ll laugh.

As you probably saw (and I was hoping to get away with no-one noticing but it was just a bit too obvious) in my last post , Tahnee was giving my hair a tug when I was wearing her on my back. Well that is still a favourite game, she will grab it by the fist full and tug as hard as she can to get it in her mouth. She particularly likes mens beards as her Poppy has found out the hard way.

Anyway, as we were on lock down in our house – no you don’t want to even imagine what it’s like to have 5 kids stuck indoors, 2 of them who want to be cuddled because they are still sick and a baby who just wants her usual cuddles and doesn’t understand why her brothers are clambering all over the two of us for a spot on my lap – I tried out something new with the ERGObaby that I haven’t done before. The hip carry. I have heard that it’s comfy and a lot of people prefer it to the front carry, but in all honestly, I find the front carry comfy and never gave the hip carry a second thought.

All that changed when Jye got sick. He had such a high temperature and just wouldn’t walk anywhere. I mean, he wouldn’t even walk from the couch across the rug on the lounge room floor to pick up a toy he wanted. I had to do something, especially when it came to tea time as Matt doesn’t get home til well after dinner and bath time. I was desperate, so I whipped out my ERGObaby instruction booklet and tried the hip carry. Wow. I always thought it was complicated with unclipping all the straps and crossing them over, but it was simple. I cannot believe I never tried this before! It allows me to carry Tahnee on one hip as I go about doing things and then when Jye happens to need a cuddle, I can pick him up onto my other hip and take him to where he wants to go. It stops him from digging his knees into her when she’s in the front carry and it’s just all round more comfortable for ALL of us.

Remember how I said that I don’t like to cook whilst babywearing? Well I did cook with Tahnee in the ERGObaby, she was in the hip carry, so I stood side on to the stove with her on the hip farthest away. Not exactly the most ideal way to cook, but definitely the safest if you are going to babywear and cook.

All in all, the hip carry is a huge hit and I am kicking myself now for not trying it out sooner! I can’t wait to get out and about wearing Tahnee that way, she loves to watch people and she will be able to see them even better now (no more peeking out from under the straps!).

I urge all you ERGObaby owners to give the hip carry a try if you haven’t already, it really is more comfortable than it looks and your baby will love having a different view of the world around them!

Charlize hit the 3 month mark on the 11th of November. We went to the community health clinic to weigh Charlize for her record book. She is now 6.4kgs, right up at the top of the charts! Obviously my milk is doing its job. She still feels as light as a newborn in the ERGObaby carrier and we will soon have to stop using my sling for quick trips as I can feel the weight on my shoulder.

I’m usually a pretty go with the flow person (read: not organised) but this Christmas I’m on it! I’ve got every presents wrapped and tagged in a huge bag in our room and yesterday we ventured out to get the Santa pictures taken. I decided to take the girls into the city for a day out and visit Santa. I’ve never visited the Myer Santaland before and wow the older girls had a ball. They got given tickets that were stamped before they went on Santas train for 4 laps, then played on the slide and watched Christmas movies on the big screen. Charlize slept through it all in the ERGObaby. Then it was time to see Santa…

Last year was interesting: Mikayla was only 6 months so wasn’t fazed by the big man but Jayde wouldn’t have a bar of him. I tried all types of bribery without success. As uch, we tool to just waving at him each time we went shopping. After some time we  eventually we got her in a picture….. on my lap!

So back to our Myer adventure. We walked along the hallway and Santas helpers got Miki to knock on the door. We heard Santa say ‘come in’. Miki ran on in, patted the sleeping Rudolph in front of the fireplace and hopped on Santas lap. I’m surprised she didn’t try and tug his beard or something. Jayde on the other hand was still hiding behind the door! We finally got her in the picture by letting her hold a xylophone. Charlize woke up for the photo then back to sleep in the ERGObaby. The photo turned out well though no smiles from anyone.

Charlize is doing really well now. She’s awake more during the day smiling, giggling and blowing raspberries. I got a night out with friends this month too! With Charlize sleeping so well at night I headed out to the movies and didn’t get home until midnight! With my usual bed time being around 9.30pm these days it was a shock to the system. It was nice to watch a whole movie from start to finish with no interuptions, not have to share my popcorn and conversing with adults (though we just talked about our kids!). Luckily no dramas at home in that time.

Big month ahead with lots of Christmas parties and end of year catchups. I’m finally going to try and start losing some baby weight so will be pushing the 2 elder girls in the pram while I have Charlize in the ERGObaby. I will let you know next month if I make it up the first hill…

After a solid week of voting (over 250 individual votes) a verdict has been reached.  The 2010 Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week People’s Choice Award goes to ……*drum roll please*…….

Gemma Ferdinands and Cathy Trutsch made “I heart Babywearing” cupcakes and recruited babywearing fans, both new and old, to a beachside picnic followed by a babywearing walk along Frankston’s foreshore boardwalk.

Their nominated community group, charity or project was the Freeway Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST) which supports local families in the Chelsea area (Victoria).  As the People’s Choice winners, “Babywearing Fun at the Beach” will receive a $500 donation to help COAST in their endeavours and both Gemma and Cathy will receive an ERGObaby Performance Carrier (valued at $199.00).

As a special “runners up” prize,  hosts (Tania Bird of Darwin Shops to Shore and Laura Innes ofb Healesville Babywearing Picnic and Play) will both be receiving their very own ERGObaby Performance Carriers for their stella efforts during Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week.

Updated by Tracey

With this warm weather, there is no denying that spring is well and truly here! It’s been great getting out and about with all the kids and spend time outdoors as a family. As usual, the trusty ERGObaby carrier was put to work! It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to go out on an impulse without having to be back at a certain time to open the business (and Matt loves the fact that he actually gets days off!). We took off one sunny afternoon to a place that has native animals and a bunch of mazes. Matt and I had been there once before in our pre-babywearing days and it just didn’t work. The stroller got bogged in the middle of one of the mazes and we ended up skipping a few of them to avoid this happening again. It was fantastic this time, Matt wore Jye and I wore Tahnee and we had a great time finding our way through the different mazes. We didn’t even need to slow down as I just fed her as we tried to find our way out. Then we all enjoyed an ice cream and played chess on the giant sized board (the older boys were excited because it was just like in Harry Potter!) and lapped up the beautiful day.

Tahnee experienced the lake for the first time too. We ate fish and chips, the younger kids made a beeline for the water and we went for a stroll. Tahnee was a bit unsure when we dipped her feet into the water at first as it was so cold, but then she was all smiles. She really liked wriggling her toes in the sand too. I wasn’t quick enough, when one of the boys distracted me and she managed to get a fistful to her mouth. She wasn’t too impressed by the taste of that! The sounds of the water put her to sleep while she was snuggled in close to me. Let me tell you, it’s one of the places I missed the most when we were out bush and I can’t wait to spend more summer days by the water!

Speaking of firsts, Tahnee has had a lot of ‘firsts’ this month. She likes to get mobile to get things that she wants to try chewing on. As soon as we put her on the floor she is off and rolling. We’ve had to rescue her from under the couch or coffee table many times now. The boys think it’s fantastic and they will roll about with her. This makes her laugh and squeal in delight, which then makes THEM laugh because she is laughing at them! I’ve heard people say that if you carry/wear your baby too much, then they won’t learn how to roll, sit or crawl as soon as other babies would, but this just proves that it’s not true (and I don’t believe that you can hold a baby too much. In fact I think you should hold a baby as much as possible before they get too mobile that they won’t cuddle with you for very long before wanting to go play!).

She has also discovered that food is fun to explore. We follow the baby-led weaning principles and she has started to join in our family meals. It all started with her slyly swiping a bit of broccoli from my dinner plate and she chewed it until there was only the stalk left. Since then she has tried steak, baby corn, apple, avocado and carrot. Nothing is safe now, not even when she is in the ERGObaby – her little hands manage to wriggle out the side and grab at food off the counter. It’s so exciting to see her growing up and discovering new things but at the same time it makes me sad to know she won’t be a little baby for much longer.

Another first, which isn’t very pleasant compared to the others, is that she had caught her first cold. It’s not surprising that I have caught it too and I feel as though I have been hit by a bus. Tahnee has been so much more clingy and if she is not crying, she is sleeping or feeding. She is snuffly and you can see in her eyes that she is downright miserable, but she just cannot resist beaming at me when I talk to her. She smiles so big that her little eyes just about disappear. The ERGObaby has saved my life this last week that we have been ill and it’s saved me from having arms so sore that they feel as though they’re going to fall off. I’ve been able to have her close to me (Daddy is apparently not good enough when she is not feeling 100%) and take care of the other kids, I’m not sure what I would have done without it. I hated the sounds she was making while she was asleep with her stuffy nose. I have worn her on my back during nap times so that I could mop the floors and know that she’s not struggling to breath. I guess that’s another advantage of babywearing there too, being able to let them sleep upright when they are sick.

Before I sign off, I thought it would be worth reminding everyone to remember to take any valuables OUT of your car, even when you are at home! Our car was broken into a week ago. My father in law, who lives next door, woke me at 5.30am as he was pulling out for work and noticed our car doors wide open. I nearly had heart failure when I remembered I had left my ERGO in the car and it’s the first thing I checked for when I went to see what was missing(thank goo