JJ Cole Medley Baby Carrier

When our baby wants to be close and we need to get something done, we love having the JJ Cole Medley Baby Carrier. Putting it on takes seconds, and it’s easy to place our son in the carrier. We use the Medley while we need to complete light housework, pay bills, and keep organized. It is so nice to have our hands free and accomplish those necessary tasks while we keep our son close. I’ve even been able to take him outside and have him “help” while I watered our garden. When we go out, we’ll take it with us and carry our son in the carrier for trips to the grocery store and baseball games. It is much easier to carry him into places using the Medley than toting his large, heavy car seat. Our baby is happy, comfortable, and close to us in this carrier.
The Medley Baby Carrier has a sleek black foundation and offers various stylish covers (available separately, $10) that allow you to change up the look (or change colors if you have, say, a son first and a daughter second). Both the cover and carrier are machine washable on the gentle cycle. They need to be air-dried. The manual is illustrated and has easy to follow instructions. After you’ve used the carrier once, you probably won’t need to review the manual again until it’s time for baby to face outward. It’s nice how the carrier can be used forward facing and outward facing. My husband and I can both use the same carrier by adjusting the straps to fit.
The Medley is designed for babies 8 to 35 pounds. For small, inward facing babies, there are leg loops and a button adjustment to support the head and neck. When our baby was only two weeks old, we had trouble using this Carrier because our son was too small and curled into a little ball. Once he reached six weeks, he was big enough and strong enough. I still pad the front of his chest with a burp cloth to keep his chin up a little. Our son is 13 pounds now, and within a few weeks I think he’ll have enough strength so he won’t need the extra padding—though I may keep using a burp cloth under his chin to collect the drool and spit up accidents.
The Medley is designed so that it does not have a layer between the parent and child. We like how this creates closeness and keeps our son comfortable and cool. We’ve tested it on the hottest summer days; yes, our shoulders and waist were a little sweaty, but our son was quite comfortable and stayed cool. The shoulder support has a thick padding that works well to reduce shoulder pressure. The waistband is also padded and supports most of the weight. The Medley Baby Carrier does not aggravate my neck and shoulder problems because it is well-designed and well-padded.
One evening, our son was sound asleep, and we took our evening walk with him in the Medley Baby Carrier instead of waking him to place him in his stroller. Our walks are a little more than a mile and include our 53-pound dog. Thankfully, my husband joined our evening stroll because I wouldn’t have been able to bend over to clean up after our pup while wearing the Carrier.  It was nice not to deal with the leash getting wrapped around the stroller as our dog races to sniff everything. I felt like my hands were empty because I had both hands free!  My husband and I could even hold hands while we walked, and that was something we haven’t been able to do since the little man came into our lives.
Price: $70
To buy: jjcolecollections.com