Piggy Back Rides

This is the sequel to the stroller post – our neo-hippie attachment parenting gear. The Baby Bjorn was a major timesaver when she was younger. Although we did use the stroller to take her from the car to our destination and around said location if she was asleep in her carseat when we arrived, this almost never happened. Our baby, adorable and brilliant as she is, is allergic to sleep. Apparently something about not being awake to experience every last moment inspires in her deep anxiety and panic. But I digress once again . . . so we used the stroller occasionally at stores, we brought it on vacation and trips to haul around her carseat that we traveled with, and we went on long walks to the park and the zoo and around the neighborhood in it. But just as often, or really, more so I admit, we used our Baby Bjorn carrier. Again, there are lots of carriers out there, but why save money when you can blow part of her college fund on the accessories of her infancy and toddler years? And as an added bonus, it really is one of the best reviewed carriers on the market.

So we have nothing really extraordinary to say about the Bjorn really. It is small and we left it primarily in the car so we would have it anywhere. It fit in the bottom basket of the stroller and that was convenient too. And more importantly, our baby loved it - no matter where we went or how disgruntled she was with the car ride (this is before the "Brain Rot" blog about the car DVD system), the instant she was snapped into the Bjorn, there was peace on Earth as far as she was concerned. She loved being at adult height, she loved being held, she loved being able to freely kick her legs and wave her arms. It was a beautiful thing. But apparently we may have used it slightly beyond what is customary. We realized this when she was 16 months and two things happened: (1) strangers kept staring and pointing when they saw her in the Bjorn (and very helpfully, one woman said pointed to her partner "see, you can still use it when they are much, much bigger") and (2) I caught sight of the two of us in the mirror when she was in the Bjorn and realized how ridiculous we looked as she was half my height. She's always been a lean child, so strapping her in wasn't a problem, but I did notice we had to, uh, push a bit and pull a bit to get her in when the weather became cooler. Okay, so on to the new and currently preferred carrying system (that is, when she allows us to carry her and doesn't insist on running everywhere herself, or isn't permanently perched on my hip). The back pack carrier . . .

For once, I didn't do a ton of research in finding and purchasing this. It was more of an impulse buy as I was stocking up at the local Babies 'R Us. I remembered those amused looks from strangers about the Bjorn (she was 16 months old by then) and decided to add one of the back pack carriers in the adjacent aisle to our cart. It's a Chicco and although this is entirely superfluous, matched the deep red of our stroller (this somehow reassured me that it was the right one, despite the fact that we would never have both the stroller and the carrier out at the same time).

And I have to admit, it's worked out pretty well on the one long vacation that we brought it on. It folds relatively flat for travel, but is too tall and bulky to be given any extra points for portability. It has nice padding everywhere, although anything would be an improvement over the spine crushing weight the Bjorn was starting to confer on longer trips (hefting an extra 25 pounds from your shoulders for hours is not a minor discomfort). It has a five-point harness which I like, and more importantly, has a very large canopy which is a great advantage over the Bjorn (I would often carry a big floppy hat to hold over our hat-a-phobe baby's head). Two main disadvantages to the back pack carrier over the Bjorn surfaced quickly however.

Getting the baby carrier on is, shall we say, difficult. The baby is strapped in while the carrier is in a stable open position on the ground. No problem, as any mobile parent has used five-point harnesses on strollers and carseats hundreds of times by the point their child is 18 months old. But then you have to somehow magically transport said baby strapped in carrier on the ground, onto your shoulders and stand up. This feat is worthy of Cirque Du Soliel. First, I would sit cross-legged on the ground with my back to the carrier, then carefully wind my arms through the straps, behind my back (like an incredibly heavy and badly tailored, narrow jacket). Then I would strap the waist band around my waist, and here comes the fun part, slowly rock forwards shifting my weight to my hands as I moved my legs out from under me until I looked like a more vertical cat on her hands and knees. Then ever so carefully, and minding the fact that my now alarmed child is clutching my hair painfully and firmly, I would plant my feet and slowly lift from the legs to standing. Years of latent ballet skills came in quite useful here. Luckily, we figured out that a large, sturdy table made a far better location for insertion and removal of baby.

Also, you don't fully appreciate the larger foot print you and your carrier make until you enter a store, or a crowded area, and realize that you have become a minor King Kong in your ability to destroy store displays and knock people down at will or whim. The Bjorn is a very trim package. It is easy to maneuver any crowded area with your baby securely tucked under your chin, which is one of the reasons we used it so often. Not so the back pack carrier . . . I think there may still be entire tourist areas throughout the Caribbean that we visited that have banned us from their port. Ah well. At least our baby didn't run off in the crowds to join a motorcycle gang and her translucent, fair English skin didn't burn to a crisp within seconds of being outside. Oh, and once her deep and real fear of being dropped receded, she quite enjoyed being transported around all of those lovely areas that we visited (which is good, because we may not be allowed back).

But in the end, stroller, Bjorn, back pack carrier . . . the preferred mode of transportation for our baby is still balanced on one hip with a firm arm around her waist and her tiny arm around my shoulder. Not the easiest way to get things done, but for now, it's still incredibly sweet, and she will be too heavy one day soon for this half-hug transport system.