Saturday 7 June 2008

Saturday adventure wearing the baby


Since VV was born, we've taken to going on a Saturday 'adventure'. Mostly, this has been to the shops, but today we went to the Finnish Museum of Natural History. I've wanted to go there for what seems like forever, but it has been under renovations for almost the entire time I've been visiting and then living here.

The museum was great, although the signage was only in Finnish and Swedish. Mind you, that's not so bad in my opinion - I'm always compelled to read everything out of some perverse sense of duty, so it was nice to be relieved of that. Best thing in the museum by far were the two stuffed moose. I've wanted to see a moose since I came to Finland and this is the nearest I've got to them yet. They are simply enormous and fabulously gangly (I have a fondness for gangly animals, giraffes also being high on my list of favourites).

One of the photos with this post is of me and the moose statue outside the museum. The bulge is not my stomach, but is in fact VV strapped to me with a wrap. I'm enormously pleased with the wrap, which is actually just 4.5 metres of fabric (75cm wide). It's the fourth carrier I've made (not that there is much making, except hemming, which is still to be done) and it's definitely the best. Before that I made three ring slings in progressively lighter weight fabrics. The final version does work well, but I find it makes my shoulder hurt and if VV isn't in quite the right position it's uncomfortable too. Wraps are the way forward.

Since I did extensive research for the baby carriers, let me share my favourite sources with you:

Jan Andrea at home on the web - I used the ring sling instructions from here to make mine. Easy to follow and very neat (in both senses of the word) pleated shoulder.

wearyourbaby.com - great information on all kinds of slings. I'm using the instructions on how to wear wraps from here. Some git seems to have attacked the site in the last day or so, but hopefully the site will be back up soon.

TheBabywearer.com - extensive site, with personal stories, advice on which carrier is best for you and lots more besides.

I totally recommend baby wearing, regardless of the semi-daft moniker. VV sleeps nearly all the time he's attached to me and I plan to try the wraps that you can supposedly breastfeed in while on the move. And I'll make a manly wrap for hubby, so it's not just me lugging the darling 6 kilo lump around.

1 comments:

The museum of natural history does tours in English (we could not commit to such since the baby) and offers some brochures in various languages too. It is, however, just opened again and the staff was a bit overwhelmed. The place is beautiful, just the building on its own is a sight to see.

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