This post is part of my series, “Kickin’ It Old Skool: Why and How We Are Old-Fashioned” or KIOS for short.  If you’re new to the series, please read my disclaimer before continuing on.  I’m keeping a table of contents to this series here so you can see what I’ve already written about and what more there is to come. 

And, finally, I’m just about written out of ideas for parenting!  Clearly, I’ve covered everything any parent could ever need to know about parenting! 😉

I do have a couple more thoughts to add, things that are important to us that I didn’t feel like giving their own post.  I also have one more post for today with some bonus links and then, we’re done with parenting and on with food!  Hooray!

So, here are two bonus ideas:

1. Babywearing:  I have LOVED wearing Ellie.  I used a mei tai when she was smaller (which I made), a Moby wrap for a little while until she outgrew it (weight-wise) and our Ergo from around 8 months of age.  Rather than a burden or an obligation to wear my baby every second, I’ve found wearing Ellie to be a crucial parenting tool, allowing me to soothe her (and sometimes put her to sleep) when nothing else would work.  It also allowed me to get so much more done around the house than if I’d had my hands/arms full of baby.  I honestly don’t know how people manage to parent an infant without having some way of wearing their baby.  I definitely didn’t feel like I had to wear her all the time.  If she was happy, I was more than happy to have her be down on the ground.  But for all those times when an baby just needs to be held, my mei tai and then the Ergo were absolutely indispensable, both to my sanity and Ellie’s happiness.

Ellie doesn’t like to be worn anymore, which is fine with my back.  But we do still keep the Ergo with us, for the occasional times when we need to go somewhere and a stroller doesn’t work.

It even works in the middle of winter!

Now Ellie wants to wear her bunny.  (I need to make her an Ellie-sized sling!)

2. Infant car seat = used only in the car:  Before Ellie was born, we decided that we didn’t want to use an infant car seat.  We had read some studies which showed that it’s not that safe for an infant to sleep in an infant car seat for long periods of time (due to potential oxygen flow restriction) and didn’t want to get into the habit of leaving her in it.  We did borrow an infant car seat from some good friends of ours for the first few weeks but treated it as if it was immovable.  Around six weeks, we installed our convertible car seat (which we love), and haven’t looked back.

We were warned that we would be sorry to have to wake up a sleeping infant and we said that we were willing to accept those consequences.  Two things have made this decision easier for us: early on, Ellie HATED her car seat and rarely fell asleep in it and once she got older (and continuing up to present), she transfers quite easily from car seat to bed if she’s asleep.  She usually just nurses for a couple minutes once we’re inside and falls right back to sleep.  Even if those things weren’t true, we would still be committed to this practice though. We wanted our baby in our arms as much as possible, and not in a seat.  Plus, those things are SO heavy to carry when they have a baby in them!  My back/arms just couldn’t take it!

Here’s what the Maryland Family Health Administration has to say about infants sleeping in car seats:

Car seats should only be used for transportation purposes. The car seat should not be used as a place for infants to sleep or sit while not in transit. Sitting or sleeping in a semi-reclined position for excessive periods of time can be unhealthy for babies. When not being used for transportation, put your baby to sleep in her crib or bassinet or on the floor for tummy time. (source)