Features of 2 baby wearing coats - please help me decide.

[hasya]

Dear friends,

I have a Suse's Deluxe Kinder Coat and live in a very cold place (we're talking, -20 C is fairly common, but I don't take baby out when it is that cold (my upper limit of comfort is -10 C and then, with her completely hidden inside my coat) although I'd like to have the option if absolutely necessary. "What am I going to do if there's a fire alarm" kind of situations.

Coming back to coats, I am finding the kindercoat very heavy and my back and shoulders aren't holding up very well under the added weight. Also I find that zipping it up is difficult because it seems to involve more left wrist action than my tendonitis hit wrist finds comfortable.

I tried on the M coat yesterday and it is oh so light, very easy to zip up. Price is a consideration (I'd have to sell my kindercoat to buy the M coat), but not so much that I wouldn't invest in it. My only worry is that M coat doesn't come with a back carry option.

In favor of kindercoat apart from all features (front, back, hip carry) - it isn't fitted, so DH can wear it too with DD. Truth be told though, he almost never wears her; he prefers to just put her in her own snow suit and carry her with a shawl wrapped and tied around both of them, the shawl if we don't want even her face exposed. Don't ask me why.

In favor of M coat - oh so buttery light and ease of use.

My questions are:

1, Is it possible that by next year when DD will be 1.5 years by the time we'll be needing serious winter protection again, I can put her into her own snowsuit and put her on my back over my coat? I have a Beco Butterfly II. Or will tantrums against snowsuit be too much by then?

2. She's quite small. 9 months and only 16 lb right now. And 68 cm long (that's about 26-27 inches). Perhaps I can pull off another winter of front carrying?

3. Is it better to keep the kindercoat for possible next winter use (that's a whole year of storage. I'll get a better selling price now because I've only worn it about 10 times and it is one of the newest models.

We're planning to ttc in about 6-12 months and I don't plan to wear her during pg. I know many people do it, but I cannot. Would love to, but cannot.

Thanks for reading my loohohoong post! 

[peainthepod]

I love my M Coat! I love that I can wear it without the panel, or as a maternity coat, or as a babywearing coat. You're right that you can't wear it for back carrying, though, so that might be a dealbreaker. I don't really do back carries ever so it doesn't bother me. The coat is very well made and extremely warm. I can be outside in single digit temperatures with just a tee shirt under the coat, and DD and I stay toasty.

[ar2974]

I just got a Kindercoat.  I didn't have one with my first baby and really wish I had - not so much for the infant stage but for when she was bigger and I was carrying her on my back.  I used to put her in a snow suit and put her over my coat but it was incredibly cumbersome.  Try and see what it feels like to put the carrier on over your winter coat and then try to imagine a toddler in the carrier - if you don't think it will be too much, then sell the coat.  It's impossible to say if your daughter will fight the snowsuit - I can't remember what my daughter did, but she ended up wearing it so it couldn't have been too bad.