Phil and Ted buys Mountain Buggy

As you may have read here, Mountain Buggy was in receivership and shopping around for buyers. According to the National Business Review, the stroller maker phil & ted has purchased the debt ridden company for an undisclosed amount. They will continue manufacturing the Mountaing Buggy strollers in the current factory located in New Zealand. It will be exciting to see what the two companies combined will think of. I wish they would come up with a PERFECT double stroller!!

BabyHawk Mei Tai Baby Carrier

As you may have read, I have been using a Hotsling to wear DS when I needed to be handsfree or when I did not have a stroller for him. However, I found that he was getting quite heavy and hard to carry because all his weight was being carried on one shoulder. I did some research, much of it at TheBabyWearer.com, which is an excellent resource for anyone looking for more information on baby wearing. It can be overwhelming at first but there are people there who will help you navigate through the site.

Anyway, I was considering a soft structured carrier and a Mei Tai and ended up going with a Mei Tai because of the adjustability factor. I am thrilled with my choice. Because babywearing is not big in my area, I did not really have any place to try out carries so I read reviews and decided on the BabyHawk. There are other great brands out there that I would love to try but I started with this.

Mine has black straps with this fabric. There are tons of choices but this is what I went with.

It is soooo comfortable. My DS loves it and I wear him around the house alot. I do mostly back carries and find it easy to carry him like that. I still put him on my back near a couch or bed so that we have a soft landing spot in case something happens, but the tying is getting easier. One thing I have found super helpful in distributing the weight so that more of it is on my hips and less on my shoulders is making a twist (lexi twist) around the small of the babies back.

That little trick has made a huge difference. I have tried some other tweaks such as creating a chest tie (I am not that familiar with the correct verbiage) but the back twist helped the most.

In my opinion, babywearing is worth a shot. Although you may prefer to transport your baby in a stroller, you will see how handy a baby carrier ends up being.

Breathable Bumper: The Best of Both Worlds

DaintyBaby.com recently started carrying a new item called Breathable Bumper by BreathableBaby. They make a couple of products but their main one, and the one they are best know for is their Breathable Bumper. When my DS was in a portable crib in my room, I often found him sleeping with his feet sticking out of the slats and sometimes he would wake up crying when he got stuck in them. A friend of mine has the same crib but never had that problem because she has a crib bumper around her crib which protects the baby from banging their head, arms, legs against the wood. I never felt comfortable with a crib bumper being that it increases the risk of SIDS and goes against the advice of my pediatrician, so I just left the crib bare and exposed DS to the wood! I figured he is still better off that way.

I no longer have to make the choice anymore between crib bumper vs. bare, hard wood. BreathableBaby came up with the amazing idea of making a crib bumper that cushions the wood and keeps little limbs in, but is also breathable and safe-hence the name.

Basically it is the same shape as a standard crib bumper, however instead of being made from puffy batting and fabric it is made from a mesh-like material that promotes air flow and helps maintain air access. It is slightly padded so it is cushiony but not padded enough that toddlers can use it as a step ladder. It comes in alot of colors, fits most cribs and is washable!! All in all, it is a great product and really brings the best of both worlds together.

Bugaboo Frog Gets a Discount!!! Now $629!!!

When DD was born, I agonized over which stroller to buy. At that point, there were very few Bugs in the neighborhood and I could not fathom spending $729 (the price it was when I wanted to purchase it) on a stroller!! I was thinking about some other strollers like the Inglesina or the Mountain Buggy -all in the under $500 price range but somehow I kept turning back to the Bugaboo Frog. Everyone who owned it raved about it. As one store owner told me,"The only people who don't like Bugaboos are the people who don't have them!"

I decided to splurge and make the purchase, and after tax and the Valco cupholder that I added to my purchase, it cost me over $800. Whoa!!! But, I loved, and still love my Frog to bits so it was worth it. I was glad I got it then because shortly after I purchased it the price jumped to $759!

Zoom ahead to March 2009. I am browsing the internet and see the Bugaboo Frog priced everywhere at $629!! I know Bugaboo doesn't allow discounting so what is going on? Turns out, they dropped the price!!

Whoo Hoo!!