Sling When You're Winning

Francis has turned into a needy little fusspot in the past couple of weeks. It's been quite hard work looking after him on my own. He constantly wants to be held and screams the place down when I put him down. It's not unusual for me to go without a wash or a meal because as soon as I leave him he starts crying. And I'm not talking a couple of whimpers here - I'm talking full-on lung exercise. I'm finding it impossible to get anything done around the house. I've tried to let him cry, but it doesn't work (Gina Ford, take note) and just makes me feel like an evil old crone and crap mum. By the time Graeme gets in from work, I'm exhausted, irritable, starving and desperate for a moment to myself. Obviously things cannot carry on like this or I will end up going crazy.

In the end, I decided that it might be worth investing in a sling to carry Francis around while I'm in the house. Francis can have the comfort he craves from me and I can have both my hands and my sanity back. Kate, my breastfeeding advisor, once recommended the Kari Me sling and said that the nurses used them in the SCBU before stricter rules on cross-infection came in to practice. After doing a bit of research into the numerous types of sling available, I decided that I liked the look of the Kari Me the best and ordered one on Wednesday from Little Possums. It wasn't cheap, but I thought £41 was a small price to pay to preserve my mental well-being!

It arrived this morning and I wasted no time in putting it to the test. The sling is basically an enormous piece of stretchy fabric that you wrap around yourself in different ways, depending on the position in which you want to carry the baby. Following the extremely simple instructions I'd tied it in the "Huggy" position within minutes and Francis was snuggled up to my chest. At first he really wasn't sure what to make of it, fussing terribly for about 10 minutes or so, but he eventually realised it wasn't something awful and drifted off to sleep. Result!

It feels a bit weird walking around carrying Francis "hands free", but it's definitely preferable to wolfing down a Muller Rice while Francis has a severe case of the screaming abdabs in the next room.

Lisa xxx