Ayyyyyyy! The pain! The pain!

The 3-way Snugli is a great idea. You can carry the baby facing you, facing out, or on your back. There are shoulder straps, a waist belt, and little load-adjustment straps that pull the baby in towards your shoulder straps. In theory, this carrier is a soft of soft-baby-carrying version of a heavy-duty backpack. There's a stiffened flap that is in front of the baby or behind the baby, depending on where he/she needs support. The seat is adjustable up and down.

I got this item on eBay for $5, in good condition, and was pretty proud of myself. Evenflo kindly supplied me with the instructions and a drool protector that was missing. I washed it nicely and stashed it away during my pregnancy, occasionally taking it out to demonstrate to my admiring friends how wonderful it was and how well it worked with a doll inside it.

Then the baby came.

I tried putting him in. He screamed furiously. The highest seat position was too low for my little guy (of average height on first attempt). The support panel dug into his chin if he faced out, and made him disappear from sight if he faced in. If I got his seat high enough to look at him, his head came up to my mouth. I panicked trying to take him out, got tangled in the straps, and well, let's just say we were both in tears by the time we got disentangled from the wreckage.

I figured, newborns are harder to carry than dolls. We'd try again later.

Months passed, and I borrowed someone's Baby Bjorn, and found that it was really comfy and that my kid could deal with a front carrier now. So we went back to the Snugli. We managed to get set up without too much hysteria, and took off for a walk.

My son liked the Snugli fine, though he had a bit of a ding in his chin from the support flap when we came back. I, on the other hand, was in incredible back pain. I couldn't tighten the shoulder straps enough for comfort. The waist belt was too loose also. So the whole contraption, with 10 lbs of baby inside, rocked back and forth at every step. The load adjustment straps could be tightened or loosened, sure, but without abatement of my agony. The pain took an hour to go away.

At the time I tried on the Snugli, I was 5'1", weighed 120 lbs, was not especially narrow-framed and had no back problems. (I'm still 5'1", but I weigh more now)

We bought a Baby Bjorn and have never looked back. I forget what I did with the Snugli. I may have thrown it away.