Kari Me
I love my Kari Me Carrier, I honestly would not have coped doing the nursery one without it. A month before I was due to give birth to Vosene one of my very lazy twin boys was still not walking and the other had only been walking for 8 weeks, so I knew I was going to have to still push them to nursery in the pushchair. I was entirely unwilling to buy a triple pushchair as we are already overrun with them (we're now at 4 pushchairs already!) so some sort of carrier seemed the logical solution. My other half wanted to buy a Bjorn Baby structured carrier, but I didn't feel comfortable putting a 2 week old baby in one of those as they don't seem to be very supportive and babies look uncomfortable in them. I read a few reviews and the Kari Me seemed to be the best one.
The Kari Me is a long piece of fabric that comes in a variety of colours and has a matching bag to store it in. As the material has a bit of give in it (it's jersey style cotton) it moulds around baby and is comfortable when tied around you. If you buy it when you are still pregnant don't bother trying to tie it as you will think that there won't be enough material to hold a baby and tie it up - I promise you there will, I am overweight and have quite a big bust and it does up with plenty more room. Tying the fabric looks really complicated but once you've done it a couple of times it really is a doddle. I've found it really comfortable for even quite long walks pushing 5 stone double pushchair (that includes the weight of the pushchair - my toddlers aren't that heavy!).
In the instructions there are 5 ways of carrying a baby with it and it advertises that it is suitable up to 33lbs. The carrys are:
Baby facing you - Use this carry until baby can support head well or after this if they need a sleep. Vosene loved this carry and often fell asleep on the nursery run, even if I was crouched down trying to put on toddlers shoes!.
Baby facing out - Vosene loves this carry, particularly if we're walking through the park as she is a nosy crow!
Baby in a breastfeeding position - I've only tried this once and it seemed like it would only be possible if you had pert boobs, so I gave up.
Baby sat on your hip - I haven't tried this yet - I'll update as soon as I do!
Baby on your back - This is supposed to be the carry for when they get heavier (i.e. up to 33lbs), there is no way that this would work - I tried with one of my sons when the Kari Me was first delivered, I think he was around 25lb at the time and the fabric is far too stretchy, he can just twist out of it!
I have only really used it for the first two carries, I will say that now Vosene is 15lbs I think she is getting a bit heavy for the material, because it has a bit of stretch in the material she seems to wriggle out of it a bit more. It may just mean that I need to progress to the hip carry (I'll update this review when I try) - or that I need to buy a either a structured carrier or a sling with less stretch.
They retail at £45 brand new, I bought mine from ebay second hand for £30 which suggests they hold their resale value well.
