Strollers

I’m an anti-stroller mom. Have been right from the start. Maybe itsbecause I wanted to make sure Rachel attached to us (she’s adopted) or maybe it’s because the infant carrier from the car seat was just plain heavy. Anyhow a couple of weeks before Rachel was born I investigated the different slings and wearable baby carriers. Keeping in mind that I couldn’t waddle my daughter to save my life, meaning I needed something that was super easy to use. We ultimately purchased a homemade black sling from Mothering Made Easy, http://www.momme.ca/index.php. Part of the reason for that was hope Richard would wear the sling occasionally. Regardless I used the sling the first year of Rachel’s life pretty exclusively and the stroller was for the grandparents. She slept in her sling a lot and Richard was proficient at getting her out of it and into her crib without waking her. I used it for walks, shopping, hikes, housework, etc, including a hike on one of the easier trails at Algonquin Park. Rachel like the sling and it was the one place you could be guaranteed she would settle down. I used the sling until she was about 18 months old then she preferred to be on her own two feet pushing the stroller or at least walking with Mommy.

Around the time Rachel was six months old we started to use a backpack carrier for longer excursions or if I really wanted Richard to be the one to carry her. One of the first big days with the carrier was the 2007 Niagara Falls Casino Marathon. We walked along a large stretch of the Niagara Parkway and Rachel spent the whole time on Richard’s back. We used the pack on my back when camping, on the 2008 London Health Sciences Do It For Dad Walk, or standing at the Richmond Street CP rail crossing to watch the CP Holiday Train roll through London in December of 2008. As Rachel turned 2 she wasn’t interested in the backpack anymore so we stopped using it.

We use strollers/wagons, etc on occasion because of convenience, but these days she’s happy to walk or ride her tricycle most places. The strollers and wagons are only used when she’s tired, the location “unsafe” or she wants to push/pull them.