Bobbin's Babyshower Day 5 - Hug-a-Bub Baby Carrier

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I am such a fan of Babywearing. When I was buying the necessities for Tricky one of the first things I bought was a Hug-a-bub.

Now I’m the first to agree that they do look hard to put on when you first see them, but after about two or three goes you’ll be an expert. Map Guy and I became proficient in tying it on in seconds and popping our little guy inside. As a newborn we took him out to dinner in it and he slept soundly almost the whole time, feeling safe and cozy as he nuzzled against me.

My favourite things about the Hug-a-bub are:

• Soft organic cotton
• Great variety of colours – I have both neutral and black now so I can match it with what I’m wearing!
• Your hands free to cook dinner, hold on to a toddler… or, um, Tweet
• Unstructured means they grow with your baby and toddler
• Skin to skin gives you both an oxytocin boost – the love drug, baby!
• Wide material supports your back and baby’s (even my dodgy back could handle it) Can breastfeed handsfree and on the move!

I have two of these amazing carriers for one lucky winner (one in raspberry and one in black!) with a combined value of $198. To win answer the following question in the space provided in the entry form below:

How many positions can the Hug-a-bub be worn in? Hint: answer here.

Don’t forget you can enter each giveaway daily and use the share buttons to go in to the drawer to win the Shloer hamper.

See you tomorrow for another awesome prize in Bobbin’s Babyshower Giveaway.

Bobbin’s Babyshower Giveaway graphic modified from a Creative Commons image from NinaMatthews Photography

Natural Transition - Plus FREE Hugalugs!

I have said before that I'm a daisy chain away from being a full blown hippy what with my drug free birthing, breastfeeding, home cookin' shenanigans. I embrace my inner Crunchy Mama and for the purposes of wearing that crown, ignore all the meat and processed food I eat.

So when Julie from Natural Transition kindly offered to help me get to Blogopolis I thought it was a really good fit since her site is a resource for all things natural pregnancy and birth related. I actually offered to get a Natural Transition tattoo on my forehead for the conference yet strangely enough Julie declined. Can you believe it? Weird.

Julie is a Sydney based naturopath, breastfeeding counsellor and natural fertility consultant and her Natural Transition website is an amazing resource full of information on everything baby related; from fertility, pregnancy, birth to breastfeeding and more... and it's all FREE! And we know how much I like free things.

Julie is obviously doing something right because she's a finalist in the Bio-Oil Ausmumpreneur awards in the Eco Friendly Business category for her Natural Transition shop and in the People's Choice Best Blog category. The first one is judged by a panel interview (aargh!!) but the second one is a vote, so if you've got a tick, you can go here and click the pink like button down the bottom.

I checked out the shop and here are a few things that I wanna get my hands on:

I used reusable nursing pads when Tricky was feeding round the clock and I was on Dairy Duties, but they were plain and boring pastel colours. I wish I had these! Hooters for your hooters! Huzzah!

Cheeky Bits Boutique Nursing Pads $8.00

I'm a massive babywearing advocate and I own three different types of carriers. The one that I used the most was my Hug-A-Bub. But I want a black one so I can wear it clubbing I can mix and match with my outfits because I'm terribly vain!

Black Hug-A-Bub $125.00

Now this I have just ordered. Nappy bucket deodorizers! We've been cloth nappying for 14 months now, you'd think I would have learned to hold my breath when I open the bucket. Even washing daily as I do, the ammonia smacks you in the face when you open the bucket. These babies are bamboo charcoal and absorb odours!

Pure Bamboo Nappy Bucket Deodorizer $7.95

I was a skeptic of baby legwarmers until I was given a pair recently and now I love them. They're really funky and a great way of showing off Tricky's awesome cloth nappies too! These are so freakin cool but I can't choose between skull and cross bones and stripey. Hrm bad ass or rainbow child?.

Hugalugs Leg Huggers $10.00 or FREE with a GlowJob!

If you need anything fertility, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding or mamahood related, be it advice, information or a product, then head over and check out Natural Transition. Right now she's offering a FREE pair of Hugalugs legwarmers with any purchase if you mention GLOWJOB at the checkout. You even get to choose what design you want, how cool is that?

So head over now and grab something for yourself or for a friend.

Hug my bub

When I was pregnant I read every blog and forum I could find to help me sort out which baby products I would need and which I could go without based on the reviews of women who had purchased them – I didn't want to fall in to the trap of reading the catalogues or the bounty magazines that all told me I MUST have this and that and then never use it, especially with the $1000 challenge I had set myself. On almost every list of “I couldn't live without” products was a baby sling, and one in particular featured more heavily than the others – the Hug-a-Bub.

After reading the reviews and checking out the website I decided I had to have one NOW even though I would have been barely four months gone. Trying to keep to budget I sourced one second hand for just $50 (the RRP is $120 for the version I got – I am a bargain hunter extraordinaire!) and watched the DVD instructions for tying it like I was studying for an exam. I wondered if I would ever get the hang of it and be able to tie it as quick as the woman in the video, who pointed out she was doing it slowly for instructional purposes.

Carrying your bub around in a sling is known as baby wearing and is actually quite controversial, with people either loving or hating the idea. Since I bought a sling you can tell which category I fall in to. Some believe that carrying your baby with you all the time will spoil them and you'll end up with a monster but research shows that “babies worn in slings are less clingy and tend to initiate separation much earlier than babies less frequently held. It allows them to be AT the centre of activity not THE centre of attention, which is a wonderful environment proven to stimulate brain development and cognitive learning.” What's not to like about that? I figure that women all over the world going to work in the rice fields carry their kids while they work, and I'm pretty sure in the early days women carried their children to avoid them becoming a tasty little snack for a Sabre Tooth Tiger – and they turned out just fine.

In the past few weeks I've been wearing Tricky in the Hug-a-Bub and I have nothing but glowing praise for it. In fact, I've got it on now because he was being ultra fussy – within a few minutes of being in it, snuggled in close to me, listening to my heartbeat, he was fast asleep. It even allowed Hubby and I to go out to dinner to a restaurant so tightly packed with tables and chairs there would have been zero chance of manoeuvring our pram around – it also meant Tricky slept the whole time and we enjoyed a lovely meal without worrying we were disturbing anyone else with a crying newborn. A lot of women I have spoken to have lamented that their old life disappeared as soon as they had a baby – no more dinners, no more outings. I realise that the old days of just jumping up and going white water rafting without notice might be gone (I've never done this anyway, so for me it's no great loss), but with a sling we're able to take Tricky around with us and he is content to just observe the world, safe in the arms of Hubby or myself.

Are you for or against baby wearing? Leave a comment below with your experiences.