alone in a sea of strollers - Page 3

[dharmama]

one woman said to another about me, 'she's got the right idea--her hand are free.' i smiled and said, 'well i didn't want to say anything, but....yeah i do!' we laffed but that's as far as it went unfortunately.

That's a start...you've planted the seed mama!!!

[mollyeilis]

I don't even own a stroller, having been the victim of stroller-achilles heel accidents one too many times.

Talk about a sea of strollers, though...outdoor festivals in the Seattle area are insane with strollers! We've done July 4th, Labor Day, and several hours at a local fair so far, and almost everyone else is pushing these bulky things. They can't even see their babes.

For short term things I use my hotsling (which I love b/c of the label that's right in front, so even in noisy places I can just point when people ask...helps that it's a gorgeous custom-made one with brocade and sage twill), but for festivals I do the wrap cross in my huge piece of cloth. Even Maya-slinging mamas give me looks with my orange and yellow batik cloth!

Now that I can walk quickly again (pregnancy, 96 hours of wondrous labor plus transition, and the icky c-section took their toll on my poor hips) I love just breezing by the women struggling with their strollers or baby-buckets.

For the record, both DH and I tried to carry the baby-bucket once. I couldn't even get it out of the car without jostling Eamon so much if he hadn't been strapped in he would have been on the seat, and my big strapping strong hubby complained about the weight of baby+carseat. Neither of us tried it again. I guess we're lucky b/c even if he's asleep, when we take him out and start walking he goes back to sleep quickly (in arms or in sling) unless he's hungry, and I don't want him to sleep through hunger so that's OK too.

I love slinging and wrapping.

[Brisen]

I'm getting a lot of use out of my sling with this baby -- with each one, I've learned more about how to carry. This is the first who hasn't been born in the winter, and I always take her out of her carseat when I'm going somewhere instead of carrying it in. So much hassle to carry in the carseat, but in the winter when it's chilly or blizzardy it's just too awkward for me to get a baby properly bundled to go out in the cold. If it were somewhere that I couldn't leave my carseat, like at a mall, I would unbundle and rebundle the baby, but at someone's home I would bring the baby in in the carseat. Or if I were going outside for a while, I would carry the baby. I was at a friend's home last week and came in carrying Miriam, she commented that I didn't have a carseat that day (meaning at all, in the car), I explained nope, I just carried her in and the seat was still in the car. That's one thing I worry about -- people assuming I don't have a carseat because I have such a young baby who I'm not carting around in one. I feel so badly for moms who don't know about slings, life must be so awkward. At church last week, there must have been 7 strollers in the aisle, and we're not a big congregation. However, our building is small, and two other congregations meet at overlapping times in our building, they really make the hall a nightmare to navigate. I think also that many of the women there feel foiled by the sling, because they never have an opportunity to offer to hold her. I was at a gathering last night, it was a dessert thing, and I showed up late. A friend (grandma aged) offered to hold Miriam so I could eat. I smiled and held up both hands, everyone laughed and said things about how organized I was and that I had my hands free. But very rarely do moms ask for advice, where I got the sling, etc. I offer to lend them my other slings, but most decline. Sigh. I can't do much more than that.