Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Simple Baby Part 3: Transportation

For the first year, one of the hardest things for me to figure out was how to go places with Noah. I started out nervous that Noah couldn't quite breath in the Moby (that fear lasted about two weeks), and once I got over that fear, I took Noah in the Moby EVERYWHERE, and it was replaced by a laziness around driving places since that involved way too much preparation (car seat, moby, diapers, grrr). Fears and laziness aside, transportation was one area where it would make sense to try different carriers and means of transportation, because otherwise those first few months can feel isolating (and it's remarkable how portable tiny babies are, when they're sleeping all the time). Thrift stores and Craigslist are great for finding strollers, and sometimes carriers.

We have a car seat, a stroller, and two different carriers (one Moby, one Ergo). Here's how we got ours:

Car Seat- received second-hand (less than six years old) from someone we knew. This is controversial, but I felt comfortable that it hadn't been in an accident and was all we needed, particularly as he wasn't in it much.

Stroller- we waited on buying this, then bought it from a thrift store when Noah was a little older. My parents also got us a wonderful second hand stroller in Cape Town, which gave us extra flexibility of both a small and a larger stroller. But you really just need one. I'd advise against a huge stroller unless you're super-strong, because you're usually dealing with a non-walking baby at the same time as a stroller.

Ergo and Moby Carriers- At the time Noah was born there weren't a lot of free or used carriers on Freecycle/Craigslist, so these were things friends bought us new. We went with the Moby (when Noah was little) and the Ergo (up until now). Both carriers will last for a really long time. This said, it might make sense not to spend too much money before you know how your baby likes being carried.

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