I really thank God for the friend who introduced me to the baby sarong sling while I was pregnant with my first child. It had been essential in my decade of raising my children till I retired it last year when Joram was 3 years old and had grown too heavy to be carried for long. It was versatile and very portable. It served as my breastfeeding cover, an effective tool to put baby to nap especially when we were out, the quick and straight-forward way to keep my hands free with the piggy-back position and when I didn't need it, I could simply stuff it into my handbag. It helped me travel light.
So far, I have had 5 slings: two cotton ones, one yellow and one baby-blue; two sateen ones, one purple and one navy-blue; and a sky-blue silk one. I bought the cotton ones first. Back then, that was the default material sold in stores. My eldest boy was completely comfortable in them. However, my girls who came afterwards perspired super easily and it was really uncomfortable for the wearer and the baby to be stuck together, soaked in sweat. Thankfully, a new lighter and cooler material, sateen, became very popular around that time and so I bought two new ones and gave away the old cotton ones. Another friend later handed-me-down the gorgeous silk one. However, despite looking really lovely, the material was too smooth and the baby would slide down gradually over time. In the end, I only used it on special dressy occasions.
Now, I have kept my favourite navy-blue sateen sling as a souvenir from the back-breaking baby-toddler days. It is extremely well-worn and it had tears which I mended. This sling carried all four of my kids. But because I got it only when I had my elder girl, the big brother was only carried in it when he needed to nap while we were out and so I couldn't find any picture of him in this particular sling. Obviously, I found the most photos of my second kid in the sling because she was such an ultimate sling baby and was truly my daily burden!
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