First up... my truly adored Lenny Lamb babywearing coat!
After having tried the KinderCoat and not finding it to be exactly what I was looking for, I did some more research on other coats for winter babywearing and stumbled upon the Lenny Lamb winter jacket. I ordered it in a size small from Lenny Lamb and it arrived in about two weeks to my door.
The interior is a soft fleece that isn't overly thick, and the outer material is a sturdy feeling water resistant layer.
There were two different panels included, one for front carries and one for back. There is a hood for baby, which is one of my favourite things about the coat. For the first year I owned this coat, I mostly wore it on my own without the panels. I received compliments about the colour many times, even in my place of work. When I became pregnant with our third child, I wore the back carry panel as an option for my growing belly. With a wool sweater or a fleece under the coat, I found it warm enough on even the coldest of Ottawa days. There are great toggles all over the place to pull things tight and keep the wind out.
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| The interior (grey) and hood |
There were two different panels included, one for front carries and one for back. There is a hood for baby, which is one of my favourite things about the coat. For the first year I owned this coat, I mostly wore it on my own without the panels. I received compliments about the colour many times, even in my place of work. When I became pregnant with our third child, I wore the back carry panel as an option for my growing belly. With a wool sweater or a fleece under the coat, I found it warm enough on even the coldest of Ottawa days. There are great toggles all over the place to pull things tight and keep the wind out.
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| Demoing my coat sans baby |
When Little Miss was born in October, it was still too warm to use the coat. I mostly used my Lenny Lamb fleece or Kokoala panel during this time. However, when the snow and wind came, this coat was invaluable. The wind-proof outer lining was so wonderful for the very cold days of school pick up and drop off for big brother. I would use the baby hood and was happy that the Velcro from the baby hood could hook to the Velcro of the adult hood, which made a tiny wind-proof wall for baby's head, and kept both of our hoods up well.
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| A very cold and windy day in Ottawa, but we were warm! |
When the temperatures dropped to -20 Celsius or more I found we needed an extra fleece layer each to keep warm underneath the coat, but we were toasty as long as we did so. I have now worn this coat for two winters as my main winter coat, both with and without baby. I have worn this coat nearly every day for walks and in tough weather. There have been no issues with the quality of this coat, and it is still looking as good as new. I look forward to using it for back carrying this winter, as I did not use it much for this way of wearing in previous years.
The verdict:
Pros: Affordable, available, well made, comfortable, attractive
Cons: None I can think of.... maybe not cold enough for -20 degrees without an extra layer?
Recommendation: Great coat for wearing in even the coldest Canadian winter days, with an extra layer.
