Reddit reviews BABYBJORN Baby Carrier Original - Black, Cotton

Oh OP, I'm sorry for the loss of your sister, truely I am. Everything must be a whirlwind atm for you and your family, my sincere condolences.

Your poor, poor parents. It's going to be rough parenting a child without being able to pick them up all the time, both for your parents and your neice. Could they afford a nanny or live in help, do you think? You could also look into day care. There are heaps of kids in 9 - 5 day care. There might be some that do pick up / drop offs which would benefit your parents. One of the hardest things is getting a kid in and out of a car seat. Do they drive at all?

Get them a baby carrier for right now. Something like this Makes it heaps easier to carry the child. Easier on your back and arms and babies love them.

Good luck, OP, I hope you're doing okay.

I think this is a front facing baby carrier, similar to a baby bjorn.

Does it seem to be on the right scale for that?

I agree with you on the Baby Bjorn. My wife and I both love it and it's especially great for me as a guy. I carried my nephew around in one for a few hours at the park and he slept almost the entire time. It's definitely one of the more comfortable carriers that I've used. If anyone is looking to get one, I'd check online for more information and prices. Amazon is the cheapest I've found.

This is what I was going to recommend. I know the last thing you need is more expensive baby products right now OP, but this or this could help your GF immensely (if she's got the back muscles to bear it).

Infants often sleep better when worn, and even when they're awake it'll at least free up your GF's arms so she can do other things.

One of my wife's coworkers got her a Baby Bjorn, so we do plan on using that a lot, although not exclusively.

I'm not sure why, but it's incredibly rare for me to see anyone using something like the Bjorn around the city. It seems like such an easy thing to do, especially if you're just going out for a walk or quick errand, that I can't really figure out why it isn't more commonplace.

First of all...

Realize that you are entitled to ask for help if you need it. If you need a little break for a couple of hours after work for yourself (and if you can afford it), then I recommend spending that time at the gym, and that you get a babysitter to come and cover for just a couple of hours. I know you feel obligated to be there to care for your son, and you are obligated to participate in his care. But you are also obligated to take care of yourself for your own sanity and health, and taking a little bit of time for exercise is going to benefit your son as much as it does you. If you get off work in time to take care of him, have a babysitter come during that time instead. Head straight to the gym or the track and get a vigorous workout in, then come home and send the babysitter on his/her way and take care of your son for the rest of the evening.

See, exercise is not only good for your body, it's also good for your mind. And most of us with ADHD here can attest that a good workout is just as essential and effective for clarity of thought and mental focus as a dose of medication is. You will control your symptoms better if you get regular exercise. So if you do anything to "pawn him off", it should be that.

I know from experience that this can be a hard thing to do as a parent. But my non-ADHD partner has insisted on getting child care (from grandmothers and paid babysitters) so that I have time to exercise during the day at some point. He wants me healthy and functional, and if we have to spend a little money to do that, it's worth it because I operate so much better. Still, the guilt gets to me. Just gotta get over that and realize that, as dedicated you are to your child, you must also be dedicated to yourself in order to give that child the best parenting possible.

Otherwise, here are other tips:

• If you can't get away to the gym, pop that baby in his stroller and get out there for a walk together. He'll love it and it'll help clear your head after the work day so that you can come home and get things done. Make a routine out of it and soon both of you will look forward to the bonding time on your walks. You can talk to him and show him the world, and it will create special memories for the two of you while ensuring your sanity.
  
  
• Set a timer each night for 15 minutes and spend that 15 minutes cleaning. Put Little Man in the backpack so he doesn't cry. Get one like this if you don't have one already. For the 15 minutes you dedicate to it, you can get a lot done. Sweep through a room or two and just pick things up, dust, return things to their rightful places, put away some laundry, whatever. 15 minutes a day and you'll have a clean house before you know it.
  
  
• Don't let him have too many toys. Seriously. We've got a "One in, One out" rule. Every time a new toy comes in, one old one goes away. They end up not playing with most of them anyway, and they blow up everywhere and just end up getting broken. If he gets used to not having a ton of toys, he really won't know what he's missing.
  
  
• This seems like a trivial one, but it helps anyway: store your food storage containers with the lids on. Makes organization easier, even though it takes up some more space. I know you'd love to have your lids and containers all nicely stacked and filed, but fuck it. You've gotta do what you've gotta do. Keep the lids and containers together and you won't end up with the godawful mess that the container cabinet always turns into.
  
  
• Make sure you keep a routine at all times. It's good for you and it's good for him. Kids need structure, but ADHD brains need structure just as much. Get into a routine so that the same things happen at the same time every evening. "Get home, go for walk, come home and read a book, holding time on the couch while you close your eyes for 10 minutes, get up, put him in the backpack and clean for 15 minutes, prepare dinner (also with baby in backpack), eat dinner, bath, massage him with lotion to relax him, read another story, bottle, cuddles, bed by 8." That's just an example of a possible routine, but you get the idea. If you get him into a set bedtime routine, then you can use the time after bed to do stuff for yourself.
  
  
• Sometimes babies won't stop crying. Remember that crying won't hurt him. If all his needs are met (food, sleep, diaper, physical comfort, etc), and he's still crying because he wants to be picked up, you can either carry him on your back wherever you go, or you can learn to tune it out and let him learn to self-soothe. Those moments when you feel like you're going to toss him out the window if he doesn't stop crying? That's a moment when you go put him in his crib where he can't get hurt, turn on the monitor, and close the door behind you as you leave the room. It's better to take time to cool off than it is to get increasingly frustrated with a screaming baby.
  
  
• Set up a safe play area that's large enough for him to move around, but is fenced off so he can't escape. Don't worry too much about the effin' mess in there. Let there be pillows and blankets and toys and all that, and keep all that stuff in that one area. Don't let it extend to the rest of the house.
  
  
• Keep his clothes in bins instead of a dresser. Baby clothes are a bitch to fold. Don't bother. Just separate them and toss them into those square baskets you can put on shelves or something. Saves on laundry time so much.
  
  
• Get a big toy box and just toss all the toys in there. Just like the clothes, it's pointless trying to keep them organized on shelves.
  
  
• Remember that this stage will pass and other new joys and nightmares will take its place. He won't scream when he's put down for 2 minutes forever.
  
  
• Keep a lot of teething rings in the freezer.
  
  That's all I got for now. Good luck! You can do this!

So the Baby Bjorn original ($50) is a newborn carrier with great built in head support that you can start when baby is 8 pounds. It does not distribute weight well in the parent's back, however, so I used it up until baby weighed 17 pounds, and then it became too difficult for me to to keep using it, though you can still go up to 25 pounds.

The Ergo original needs a newborn insert for it to work for the newborns, and I've heard a lot of complaints that the insert makes it too hot and is not as well designed as the Baby Bjorn built-in head support. So that's why I switched to Ergo Original only after I couldn't use Bjorn anymore (after baby weighed more than 17 pounds).

The newer Baby Bjorn One (on sale for $100) is supposed to distribute weight better on a parent's back so I'd imagine you can use it well past 17 pounds. I actually just purchased this after I made my post to you, as I'm due again in 2 months. I preferred Bjorn over all the others I tried (I was very active while babywearing, bending down and twisting down to clean, wearing it many hours inside and out) so I'm hoping this newer version solves the past problems and I can use it the entire time through.

Look at the top review on the newer Baby Bjorn One, and they say that it is very similar to the newer Ergo 360, main difference being the Ergo has a loud velcro belt. Sounds like both of these choices solve a lot of the earlier problems and could be your one stop shop for a soft structured carrier throughout babyhood. My knowledge is a few years old - I wish I had experience with the upgraded carriers for you but they will know all about these in /r/babywearing so you may want to check out that sub too!

Hahaha, went through the same thing some time ago. A couple bits of advice:

• In general, turn-based games will be your best bet, but by no means does this constrain you to RPGs (at the moment I'm playing Dungeons of Dredmor, which can be done entirely with the mouse). I did well with some titles like Gratuitous Space Battles and Dwarf Fortress (which although realtime, can be paused at any time and controlled by just the keyboard).
  
  
• Consider puzzle or puzzle-like games
  
  
• I seem to recall a few DS / 3DS games having alternate button presets specifically designed to allow the game to be played with just one hand, but can't remember off the top of my head which ones...
  
  
• Also, macros/hotkeys can be very useful. Something like Auto Hotkey / X-Mouse Button Control combined with either a cheap gaming mouse with multiple buttons, or a keyboard-heavy game can allow you to map all the keyboard commands to the mouse, or map any complicated commands to one chunk of the keyboard.
  
  
• In TF2 I can confirm from experience that it is possible to play Sniper, run up to a Sniping Spot by alternating between the mouse and keyboard, then just camp out using only the mouse. Obviously wouldn't work for competitive stuff, but on pubs it went surprisingly well. For extra credit, copy to your clipboard some text like, "You just got sniped by someone holding a baby" and hit Ctrl-V + Enter after every kill :D
  
  
• Something I didn't discover for a very long time: any product similar to a Baby Bjorn is an absolute gamechanger. Hours at a time, with both hands free!

I second that- look at the baby bjorn. or a carseat they will greatly appreciate it in 6 months- it's a win, trust me.

You'll never catch me on my weekly frolic through the woods with my PS4 without using one of these.

Yes but only when there was something NEW for us both to see and interact with. This frontpack was the most personally valuable thing I owned for a solid 2 years through both of my kids. We would go out on the town for hours and hours and then take a nap. Seriously one of the best times of my life.