When I was pregnant, I bought a cheap baby carrier from Lidl for £10. It was quite sweet, seemed fairly robust (to my untrained eye) and I was happy with my purchase. My son came along a few months later and when he was about a month old I put him in the carrier at home so that I could get on with making the lunch. He usually wouldn't sleep in the day, but within 30 seconds of being in the carrier, he was fast akip and I was able to potter around - wonderful! Unfortunately about 15 minutes later my back was really aching (he was quite a big baby, very tall and heavy). I desparately wanted to put him down, but couldn't find a way to do it. In the end I had to bend down over the moses basket, take the straps off my shoulders and leave him 'wearing' the carrier until he woke up. The shoulder straps and the flimsy strap around the waist were so unsupportive, and there was no way of taking him out without either taking off the whole carrier with the baby in or having another person help. I never used it again.

With a little practice I was able to slip the carrier over my head whilst holding the baby, get him into the carrier myself and do up all the neccessary clips. I left one leg hole closed each time (alternating sides, as the adjustible clip that went over the velcro seemed to loosen slightly, and also he was growing so quickly the holes needed widening!). In order to get him into the carrier, I put one leg in the already velcroed leghole, then strapped the other leg in. Then I supported his back while I
clipped each shoulder strap on. It was very easy once I figured out where all the clips etc went. The carrier has a small bib attached by poppers, where baby's head rests on your chest. This is realy useful as young babies sick quite a lot! There was a sparre bib in the box, too, which came in useful.

I used the carrier often around the town and at the supermarket. But the next real test was a day out at the zoo. Joshua spent a few minutes facing outwards (hadn't done this before), so that he could see the animals more easily. The button that holds the top down (where the back of the head would rest when facing the other way) kept coming open, and even when it didn't the material kept curling up, hugging his chin. For this reason he was quite uncomfortable facing outwards and much prefered being carried facing me. I hoped this would change as he grew, but unfortunately we always had the problem so he never much liked facing outwards. By the end of our zoo trip, I was a little tired and was feeling the strain of having had a baby strapped to myself all day.

During the week we spent hours walking, all the time with my son strapped to me in the carrier. Being able to use both hands was very useful, even if only to hold my son's hands as we walked, and I never felt as though he was in danger of falling. I did support him with my hands most of the time but if I needed to I felt confident letting the carrier take the full strain. I was able to do almost everything I needed to (including use the toilet - the joys of being a single mum!) with my son securely attached to my chest. The only thing I struggled with was eating, but that was only once when I wanted an ice cream but there wasn't enough space in front of my face to hold it!

I continued to use the carrier until my son weighed about 20lb, at around 7 months. I washed it in the machine in a mesh bag at 30 degrees with no problems. I had hoped it would last longer than that, but he grew very quickly! By this time he was struggling to fit into the carrier, was far too wriggly and my back couldn't cope with more than half an hour of carrying. He was also able to sit up well in his buggy like a big boy, so didn't want to spend so much time cuddled on Mummy's chest.

So in short,