I was pretty young when I had my first baby, and I’ll be honest, I just picked the cheapest baby gear available. The Lillebaby Complete carrier wasn’t even something I was considering.
By the second baby, I knew better. On the very top of my list of baby gear that I was willing to spend money on was a good quality baby carrier. There are so many baby products that you can skimp on, in my opinion. But when it comes to a carrier, you’ve got to really do your research and get a high-quality product, because it is definitely worth every penny.
The Lillebaby Complete carrier was the carrier that I actually decided to invest in and here are the reasons why I chose it:
Back Support
The most important thing in a baby carrier is good back support and the Lillebaby has amazing support.
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Why New Moms Need Support
If you are newly pregnant with your first child, you might not think that back support is a huge deal, but I’d be willing to bet that your mind would change after having your baby. I don’t know about you, but my back was killing me by the end of my pregnancy, and it didn’t get much better afterward either.
Relaxin
During pregnancy, your body produces a lot more relaxin than it normally does. This will make you loose and limber. You may feel more flexible than normal or your joints could be sorer–these are some indicators that you are feeling the effects of relaxin on your body.
It really is an amazing thing that your body does. If your body didn’t produce relaxin, then you wouldn’t be able to push your baby through your pelvis without it breaking. Relaxin makes all your joints loose and the cartilage around them to soften. Though it is essential for childbirth, it can wreak havoc on your body in the process.
After you deliver your baby, your body will slowly regulate back to normal levels of relaxin, but while it is doing that, everything needs to shift back into the normal position. If you end up needing to carry your baby 24/7 like many moms commonly do, you will want to have a carrier that protects your back. This will help you to not have too many long-lasting effects of back pain.
How Does It Offer Support?
So how do you know which carriers give the most support?
A good key indicator is if the carrier has lower lumbar support. This means that it has a thick strap that wraps around the wearer’s hips. This ensures that the full weight of the baby is not resting on the shoulders and upper back.
Can You Get Away Without the Support?
Like many other people, I carried a heavy backpack in school nearly every day of my school life. And the one I had wasn’t a fancy one with lower back support. These were much heavier than a newborn baby, so I figured it wouldn’t be a huge deal to have a lower strap. However, what I didn’t take into account was that the baby would be on my front, not my back, for the majority of the first year of life.
Having weight on your front is much more wearing on your body overall than having weight on your back. You also may be a strong person, but recovering from giving birth is no joke. Even if you worked out your entire pregnancy, your major core muscles had to move for your expanding belly, so the overall muscles in your trunk will be much weaker than normal.
Yes, you can buy a carrier that doesn’t have the lower strap. You can get away with it. However, as a person who did this and used it for an entire year of her baby’s life, don’t do that to yourself. Your body will thank you later for taking care of it now.
Different Positions
One of the things that were really important to me in a baby carrier is different carrying options. The cheap baby carrier that I bought for my first baby did not have any options other than front wearing. They could face inward or outward, but that wasn’t even a great option.
The Lillebaby Complete offers six different positions that you can put your baby in. That’s a lot. A lot more than I thought could even be possible, and honestly, I didn’t even use all of them. I found the positions that I liked the most and I pretty much stuck with them, but it was nice to have lots of options available.
Here are the 6 different positions:
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Fetal Position
One of the big reasons why I decided to buy the Lillebaby Complete rather than some of the other carriers on the market was that they had newborn carrying option that didn’t require an extra insert. This isn’t because I had to buy an extra thing, but that didn’t hurt.
I didn’t want to have to worry about losing the insert. When you have a baby, you buy a lot of baby gear. And I don’t know about you, but sometimes all the little pieces of all the little things get mixed up, especially if you have a child digging into your boxes and things all the time. An extra insert seemed like another thing to keep track of and I just didn’t want to risk losing an essential piece of my high-end carrier.
The Lillebaby, unlike the other carriers, suggests to roll up a washcloth or thick burp rag to put under your baby’s bum as he or she is in the carrier. This will keep them in the fetal position and support them so they don’t slide down. It’s not perfect, and it took some getting used to, but it worked pretty well.
Watch the video below to check out how to do it, if that didn’t make sense!
I also liked that there wasn’t an extra layer of cloth between the carrier and the baby. This helps the baby not to overheat during the hot summer months.
Infant Inward
The Infant Inward position is my absolute favorite holding position in the carrier for the first year of life.
One of the many concerns that parents have is hip dysplasia. Many carriers have come under scrutiny because people worry that they encourage forward-facing too early in babies.
If you have read my review of the baby Upseat booster, then you will know all about how hip dysplasia is caused and how to prevent it. But as a little refresher, hip dysplasia is caused when babies’ legs are wrapped too tightly in a narrow, or awkward position. The inward-facing position is fine because the legs can spread naturally around the carrier’s waist. However, some carriers that outward carry, cause the legs to be unsupported and in much too narrow of a stance.
I try to carry my babies for as long as possible in the infant’s inward position, but at some point, they just struggle to look out. Once they are at the point where they really fight to be turned outward, they are usually ready to safely face that way.
Ergonomic Outward
The ergonomic outward position is a safe way to have your baby facing outward. The Lillebaby Complete comes with snaps that will make the base of the carrier much more narrow so that the baby can comfortably and safely have his or her legs hanging naturally outward.
As I mentioned earlier and as you can tell from the image above, you really shouldn’t have your baby in this position before 6 months for safety reasons.
Hip
In all honesty, I have never tried the hip position, but it is intriguing. The only reason I didn’t try the hip position was that I almost constantly have my babies on my hips anyway, that I really just wanted to use the carrier for good even support on my back when I could.
However, if you are a full-time baby wearer, I can see how this position would be very useful. It can be really hard to get things done when you have a baby constantly on your front, especially as they get older and bigger.
Toddler Inward
The toddler’s inward position only differs from the infant’s inward position in that the neck support doesn’t need to be there anymore. This is for babies 6 months and older, but you might find it difficult to keep your baby happy facing inward for much longer after about 8 or 9 months.
Back
This is another reason why I love the Lillebaby. I absolutely love that you have the option of putting the carrier on your back. It is so supportive and for some reason, my babies loved to face inward on my back rather than face inward on my front.
Carrying the weight on my back did wonders for my body and I had the stamina to carry them for longer and longer walks. They loved that it was like piggyback and that they could see the world go by as I did, rather than backward.
This position was so comfortable for my older babies. I cannot tell you how many naps my babies took right on my back during a walk out in nature.
Newborn Size
As mentioned in the fetal position section, I love, love, love that the Lillebaby doesn’t require you to buy an additional insert to use this carrier for newborns. All you need is a thin receiving blanket or bulky diaper rag and your baby will be supported enough to sit comfortably in the carrier at newborn weights.
Sun Shade
I didn’t think that I would need the sunshade all that often, but I ended up using it quite a bit. It is just a light cloth that can loosely cover your baby’s head. You can snap it to both sides, but I often would only snap it to one at a time, leaving a big hole for my baby to breathe through.
I’m sure babies can safely breathe even if they are both snapped, but when you’re walking and carrying your baby in the sun, it gets a little sweaty, so we both need all the ventilation we can get.
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Mesh Option
The Lillebaby Complete comes with the feature that unzips and exposes the mesh fabric. This helps you and your baby not overheat so much and it actually does make a difference.
It’s a nice option for hot days, which are many of the days that you actually want to use the carrier outside with your baby.
Pocket For Keys
If you’ve read my review on the My Brest Friend Nursing Pillow, then you know how I love a good pocket. One of the reasons the Lillebaby drew me in, was because it had a pocket to keep some valuables in it. I used this pocket every time I was out.
Lillebaby Complete All Seasons Pocket
However, there are two problems with the pocket on the Lillebaby Complete All Seasons:
It’s Too Small
I know, this might seem like a really nit-picky thing, but the pocket is so slim that it can really only hold a credit card and one single key. You couldn’t even fit a whole keyring in there, so if I went to a park, I could carry one key with me but leave the rest of my keys in the car?
I just don’t love that option and I feel like it could have been easily made to be slightly bigger.
And while we are talking pockets for holding things, there really isn’t a great option for holding all the junk that babies need when you’re out on the go. If you wanted to take a longer walk, then you would have to wear a separate bag for bottles, snacks, and diaper gear. There is one backpack that is coming onto the market soon and that is Hatcher Packs. It is a very innovative design that gives you a baby carrier and a backpack all in one.
It Rolls Down
The pocket is on the flap the rolls down, so if you’re taking a walk on a hot day, which many parents want to use the carrier during the summer, then you have to choose between the pocket feature or the mesh fabric feature.
It is a bit frustrating that this is where they decided to put the pocket, though there aren’t a lot of other options. One other possible place they could have put it was the waist strap, but there really isn’t an ideal spot either way.
Other Models Pocket
These problems with the pocket are really only issues with the Complete All Seasons that has the zipper to expose the mesh fabric. The other models have much larger pockets with room enough for a set of keys and maybe a diaper and other supplies if you’re good at packing things compactly.
However, having the mesh fabric option was way more important to me than having the larger pocket because in the summertime, the last thing you want is to overheat with a baby strapped to your chest.
Pursuit
Another option for a carrier with better storage options is the Lillebaby Pursuit. In fact, if I didn’t live in a place where the summer was so hot, I would probably buy this model instead of the All Seasons with the mesh option.
This model comes with 7 storage pockets. Amazing, right? I feel like I’m dreaming.
The fabric is a soft and flexible knit fabric, that sounds like a really comfortable option for mom and baby. However, again, it is not as breathable as the mesh. It’s a toss up of which option you prefer more, and probably has a lot to do with just personal preference.
Fabrics
The Lillebaby Complete carrier, like many of the other carrier options on the market, has a great selection of fabrics. I would say that the selection of the Lillebaby fabrics is a little more limited and doesn’t have as many limited-time selections as the Ergobaby Omni or the Tula carrier. However, the fabric options that Lillebaby offers are classic options that will never really go out of style.
Most of them are solid colors. The All Seasons carrier is made up of a canvas-like material that is sturdy and will stand the test of time. The Pursuit carrier is a bit more flexible and comfortable knit fabric. It is also thick and sturdy and is unlikely to wear early, but it might wear out a tad bit faster than the classic All Seasons Complete.
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Conclusion
Overall, I love the Lillebaby Complete, and I would recommend it (and have!) to any person I meet. This carrier took so much weight off of my shoulders, arms, and lower back. It distributed the weight evenly and protected my back in some of my more vulnerable times postpartum.
Instead of dreading walks with my baby, I looked forward to them. Heck, I could even nurse in this thing! If you are going to invest in only one nice baby product, the Lillebaby is the thing to invest in.