I bought a Beco Butterfly carrier in July (at The Portable Baby), and I feel like it deserves a review. Here’s what it looks like (from the Beco website; our photos of mine are below):

I should say up front, I’ve got mixed feelings about it. I’m hesitant to write up ‘cons’ because this product is truly a mix, and the ‘cons’ list always makes it sound like it is a dud. It would be accurate to say this carrier may work perfectly for you, and you will need to try it for a week to know. There ain’t no other way…as I’ve now learned.

Here’s Little Capucine, asleep (her arm should be above that strap but she tucks it under sometimes):

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When we were looking for a cosleeper, the first (and basically only) option we found was the Arm’s Reach cosleeper. Arm’s Reach is essentially the only player in the cosleeper market as far as I could tell, and all of my mama friends had one and recommended them. But as it turned out, none of their models worked for our european-style Ikea bed, which has no box spring and is only thirteen inches off the ground.

We weren’t too bummed about that, because looks-wise the Arm’s Reach is a very utilitarian-looking metal/plastic/nylon structure in the same vein as a Pack ‘n Play - you’ve probably seen one already, they are everywhere:

Say what you will for functionality, this is not one of those droolworthy baby items.

And then I happened to spot an ad in the back of a Mothering magazine for a wooden cosleeper called The Baby Bunk. (more…)

This morning, reading a post on Ohdeedoh (I’m such an Apartment Therapy fan, seriously) about traveling with kids reminded me about our recent trip. We took our little Capucine to France in June for a month, and among the many memorable moments were, unsurprisingly, a few lessons on air travel with an infant. There are a lot of ‘what to take’ lists around, and I read at least ten sites on the subject ahead of time. But of course, there is always something to be learned. I emailed these thoughts to some other mamas originally, and they liked it so much, I’m posting it again here. (Note that these tips are most appropriate for international flights. It would be a little overkill to worry about all this for a four-hour flight. Except the one about the nose-rinsing, boy don’t skip that one.)

I’ll put in links for products I used for this list, too. It was all one small backpack, no big deal. Here ya go!

- We booked the aisle and window seats in a three-seat row, on the hope that nobody would want to be in a seat between two parents and a baby. (The Air France lady was the one who told us to do it.) That worked perfectly, we had an extra seat to pile stuff in both ways. Barring that, go for a bulkhead seat.

- We reserved a bassinet, many airlines have them on long flights. Request one when you make reservations and then call to reserve or confirm again 48 hours before the flight, because there are usually more babies than bassinets. That is a tip from a flight attendent, too.

Here’s what the Air France bassinets are like:

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