Before Maja was born, I thought wearing shawls looked like the cutest thing ever. I saw other moms walking around with their babies in wraps and thought to myself that I really want to do that too. So before she was born we bought a shawl, and it was then used about eight times.
Of course, it was super cuddly once you had tied and stuffed her - and Maja had a great time. But for me, the tying itself unfortunately became something that made me shy away from using the shawl. It was a little too noisy. I didn't really want to admit it because I still saw myself as a nagging mother .
One weekend when we really needed a carrier, we had to borrow our friends' carrier. We were both pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to put it on and "install" Maja, and she was just as happy in the harness as she had always been in the shawl.
Then and there we decided to buy our own carrier - and it has really been used, I can say!
This is how we did it
Since all harnesses fit different users differently, I really recommend trying a few different ones. I first read up and narrowed down the huge selection on the market to the 4 I thought would suit us best based on other people's recommendations and what I had read and seen about the harness. Then I ordered home all 4 from Jollyroom so that both Kim and I could test them. Thanks to Jollyroom's right of return, we were then able to send back the harnesses we did not choose.
ErgoBaby Omni 360
ErgoBaby Omni 360 I thought would be my favorite. A lot of people have one and highly recommend it, and it was actually very comfortable to wear. In addition, it seemed perhaps the best of all from a baby ergonomics perspective. The ErgoBaby Omni 360 has comfortable shoulder straps, good back support and (perhaps the best thing about it) it's SUPER easy to change between the “facing me”, “away from me” and “on my back” positions.
This still had a super mare minus: you tighten the shoulder straps by pulling from front to back (instead of from back to front), which is a very unnatural movement for me. I never felt that I tightened the shoulder straps well enough myself, which is one of the most important points for me, who is at home with Maja by myself during the day.
Another minus was that the detachable hood didn't really have a logical place. When not in use, it must either hang loosely in front of the harness or be stored in the pocket (which means that nothing else can fit in the pocket) or in an external location (which for me anyway would mean that it is never with you when you need it) .
ATTENTION! It should say: the hood does NOT have its own pocket.
Lillébaby Complete All Seasons
We tried two different versions of the Lillébaby Complete, and they had a fit that both Kim and I liked best. They have great back support, soft and comfortable shoulder straps and (most importantly for me) the shoulder straps can be tensioned both front-to-back and back-to-front .
In the picture below that I posted on instastories, it says that the buckle from the shoulder strap sits right in the armpit for me, but I later noticed that it was because I had the back buckle too loose. When I buckled it, the shoulder strap buckle also fit well. This is better seen in the picture where I show Lillébaby Complete Embossed below.
This All Seasons variant has a mesh fabric in the back for the baby that you can roll forward if the baby gets too hot. The minus with that is that both the pocket for the hood and for other things then disappear, because they are built into the flap you roll down to get the mesh fabric.
A minus with both variants of Lillébaby Complete is that it is quite difficult to switch between "toward me" and "away from me" mode. You must first remove the backrest, then unfasten and hold on, and then put the backrest back on. If you think you need to switch back and forth a lot, this may be worth thinking about.
Lillébaby Complete Embossed
Regarding the model, the Lillébaby Complete Embossed is exactly the same as the All Seasons variant, but the big difference is found in the pocket. This one has no mesh fabric, but instead a pocket for the hood + a large zippered pocket for other small items. The fabric is also completely different on this baby carrier.
So the pluses are the same: nice shoulder straps, can be tightened from back to front and has good back support. The only real downside to both versions of the Lillébaby Complete is that it is a little difficult to switch between "toward me" and "away from me" mode, which again can be good to keep in mind if you think you need to switch between modes often .
Tula Explore
The Tula Explore was also a carrier I thought would be a favorite as so many raved about how good they were. But actually, this was the carrier I ditched the fastest of them all. Because the belt has no back support, it felt like it was cutting into my back, which was very uncomfortable for me.
This carrier also had the same "hood problem" as the Ergobaby: the sun protection hood can be removed, but then it has no obvious place. You can keep it in your pocket, but then you can't take anything else with you.
But aside from that, it's easy to switch from "toward me" to "away from me" position, and the shoulder straps were nice and fasten from back to front (which you know I prefer).
So, which harness did we choose?
Both Kim and I very quickly agreed that it was a Lillébaby harness we wanted. Tulan immediately disappeared for me because that it felt like it was cutting into the back, and besides, it was the most expensive of all. I then had a bit of a hard time letting go of ErgoBaby because at first I thought it was the one we should choose as so many people recommended it, but finally I realized that I can't choose one I can't even tighten myself properly.
The construction of both Lillébaby variants was exactly the same, but we chose the LilléBaby Complete Embossed over the All Seasons because the pockets were much more practical on it and we liked the look better.
I can't stress enough how much the baby carrier has made motherhood easier! Periodically, I've used it for long periods of time every day, and it's absolutely invaluable when traveling. Maja has slept, cuddled, joined hiking and even skiing in it, and she is always just as satisfied!
I can't recommend a carrier enough to all baby parents! <3
