Due to the sudden and unexpected closure of the Tiny Toes venue, we are unable to run the drop in session in that location tomorrow 25th Otocber.

We have been able to change our venue to
Horsforth Childrens Centre
11 North Broadgate Lane
Horsforth
LS18 5AF

The run time is unaffected, running 10.30am-2pm. The gates will be open and we will place signs to guide you to the correct place.

We are as yet unable to confirm the location for the November drop in session in Horsforth, but we will keep you updated.

As always, should you wish to renew your carrier hire please get in touch by emailing wyslinglibrary@outlook.com or call 01132100855. We can take payment online so you do not have to come in to see us to renew your hire.

 

Please remember everyone that there is NO Ossett session today or next week. If your carrier is due back today you have been contacted separately. Thank you for understanding!

THE OUTWOOD SESSION Has been cancelled this week (FRIDAY 7th JULY) due to sickness – please join me in hoping our lovely volunteers and their babies are better soon.

We know it’s hard to cancel a session but sometimes it can’t be avoided – if your carrier is due back tomorrow and you hired it from Outwood, please get in touch and we will give you a new return date.

I’ll also be sending texts to everyone with a hire due back but please share this post with anyone it might affect.

Thank you!

We are pleased to bring you a new drop in venue at Chapel Allerton children’s centre. This session is free to attend and will repeat every four weeks.

Our trained supporters will be available for help and advice with all types of slings and carriers, and you are welcome to bring your own for fitting. A selection of carriers from the sling library will be available for hire on the day. Hire fees apply if you would like to take one home.

This session will replace the Moortown venue, Moortown Junktion, due to its closure.

Every four weeks on a Monday 10.30-2.

Dates for the diary – 22nd May, 19th June, 17th July.

Chapel Allerton children’s centre, Blake Grove,  LS7 3LT

 

 

 

 

We apologise that our venue for Ossett, Play station, is closed tomorrow for the bank holiday.

We will extend any carriers due back to next Monday 8th may for no additional charge. If you’d like to extend for four weeks as normal just get in touch and we’ll do that for you.

Our other sessions this week, Farsley on Wednesday, Outwood and Garforth on Friday, are unaffected.

thank you for understanding.

We are closing for the bank holiday weekend and our next session is at kirkstall on Tuesday.

If your carrier is due back this weekend it will be automatically extended for 7-14 free days of hire. If you hired from our WYSL Wakefield Outwood or Ossett venues, you’ll get a free week of hire until the next session at the same venue. If you hired from pudsey, you’ll get a free fortnight, for the same reason.

The renewal notices will go out via email tonight, if you would prefer to return on your original return date, use the contact us page and we will see what we can do. If you’d like some extra time, get in touch by responding to the email. If you’d like to return to one or our other sessions that’s fine too – check out our venues below. Returns by post are also fine.

Thank you for understanding and have a wonderful Easter!

 

PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE

Moortown Junktion cafe has closed today with immediate effect leaving us without a venue for tomorrow’s session.

After two hours of frantic phoning we are happy to say we will be able to run the session at a local church. Venue changes can be tough to manage so we have made sure it is as local as possible to the original scheduled location.

We will be running WYSL services at Moortown Methodist Church Alderton Rise LS17 5LH from 10.30am tomorrow 29/3/17.

We’ll be running alongside Little Monsters Playgroup in the morning, my huge thanks to Lindsey and her team for that! I will confirm a definite end time as soon as I know one but a member of our team will be at the above address until 2pm to receive returns.

We do not know yet where the Moortown session will continue but we are committed to finding a permanent venue for the area – bear with us whilst we adapt around these circumstances outside of our control.

Please share this with anyone you know interested in this session. If you have any concerns about your visit call Nicola on 01132100855, email wyslinglibrary@outlook.com, or if you are trying to find us call 07505776950.

If you’d prefer to renew your carrier until next month (26/4/17) just call or email and we’ll arrange that. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by the change of venue.

When I work with parents with special circumstances, it helps our community to share carrying solutions that work.

Recently I worked with a visually impaired family and the carrier which was selected was the Ergobaby Adapt. It has several features which made it work very well for parents without sight or with visual impairments.

The Adapt is a carrier which is entirely one unit, without separate pieces or removals extras. The hood is integral, yet folds away, and the carrier needs no insert or accessory pieces.

When adapting to newborns and young babies, the inner of the waistband uses a velcro fitting system which is very tactile. Although the guidance on age range is outlined on the carrier by coloured lines, suggesting different fits, the lines are embroidered into the Velcro, making them easy to ‘read’ – like Braille.

[Picture shows close up of ergobaby adapt carrier waistband. Three embroidered lines of thread in blue, yellow and red guide the sticky Velcro pad into place]

Another feature of the Adapt is the inner fabric of the carrier is different to the outer surface. The shell lining feels softer, which makes it easy to identify which part of the carrier you are handling by touch.

All of the buckles and head rest adjusters on the Adapt are placed on the body of the carrier within easy reach. The head rest adjusters are round, shiny buttons and immediately distinguishable from the rectangular, textured side buckles.

[Photo shows Ergobaby Adapt carrier headrest buttons in close up. Two black buttons and a padded headrest]

The wide set shoulder straps allow plenty of space for safe movement of air around the baby’s head and face, and make checking on the baby by touch easily accessible.

The carrier straps, when done up in the parallel configuration, allow the carrying adult to use the carrier without dangling ends or trip hazards.

We found this carrier to be a really favourable option to last from newborn to toddler, and that it has several really excellent features for use by those families with visual impairments.

Keeping babies close is always valuable, and getting the right carrier is important. When families have specific requirements from a carrier this is even more so. The Ergobaby Adapt worked so very well for the family in question they now have their own – everything from the audible click when the buckles sited, to the safety elastic, to the machine washability of the carrier seemed custom made for them.

[Picture shows woman dressed in white, in black ergobaby adapt. She is kissing her sleeping baby’s head and they are holding hands]

Here at WYSL we have had the privilege of working with families with all types of special needs, from early babies to disabled carers, multiples to children with life limiting illnesses. It’s all about matching the carrying solution to the situation, and in this case, it was a perfect match!

Many thanks to the family and to Ergobaby UK.

It’s our annual CLOSURE – after offering sling library services all year round we are due to close for two weeks over the Christmas period.

We will close for enquiries, rentals and returns at 2pm on weds 21st December, after our drop in session at Tiny Toes Horsforth.

We have already extended any rentals falling due over the Christmas period through to the new year – we do this for every hire for free! The exception is if your carrier has fallen overdue. Please get in touch with use to remedy this as soon as possible, as normal charges will apply over the period for overdue carriers. Please do not use the drop box over the festive period as we will not be checking it.

We will reopen at the Moortown Drop in on Wednesday 4th January. We won’t be too pedantic about carriers due back the first week of January, allowing reasonable leeway people to bring them back to a venue that suits.

The sling library drop box at 55 Thornfield Avenue Farsley Leeds LS285HJ will be reopened for drop offs on Tuesday 3rd January.

The sessions of the first week back are

Weds 4th Jan Moortown Junktion Kids 10.30-2pm

Fri 6th Jan Fuzzy Ed’s, The Sun Inn, Outwood 10-12am

Fri 6th Jan Pudsey Wellbeing Centre 12-2.30pm.

We’re going to be back next year with even more new venues so once they are all decided, we will post a full 2017 calendar.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

 

 

 

This September sees us add a whole new chapter to The sling library in the form of our new Wakefield branch. The sling library name was always based on us sitting between Leeds and Bradford, but finding any amalgamation of those city names too clunky. So The West Yorkshire Sling Library was born, and now it is starting to live up to its name (of course we also have to shout out to other excellent local services such as the Huddersfield sling library and Carry Moor based in Ilkley!)

We’ve always been asked for more sessions and over time have moved from being entirely home based in 2011 to running the first out of home sessions – the Pudsey sling socials – in 2013. After that came other west Leeds venues in Farsley and Pudsey and then at beginning of this year we started our extremely popular Horsforth session. Just this summer we expanded to include a Kirkstall session at the lovely space provided by Kirkstall Children’s centre, and our first session in Moortown Tiny Toes was held in August.

I can tell you now that is a lot of slings and carriers to buy, a whole lot of heavy boxes to move, laundry to do and a lot of babies being carried! I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see the sling library grow.

And now, a fanfare please. We’d like you to welcome not only a whole new session but a whole new team running a weekly drop in session in Wakefield. Nicki, Kirsty, Natalie and Helen have joined us to provide sling services to a whole new area. It’s a very exciting time!

What will change?

If you are local to our existing sessions, probably nothing. The only change you will see is that when you look up our in-stock carriers on our rental system you will now notice a location code below each one which will tell you where the carrier is based – at our Leeds locations or the Wakefield ones. We won’t be swapping the carriers around too much, so please don’t fall in love with one of the Wakefield carriers unless you are fancying a day trip.

If you are based in East or South Leeds, or Wakefield and surrounds, you might choose to come along to one of our new Wakefield sessions to join the fun. They will be running at Cloud 9 in Ossett every Monday between 1pm-2.30pm. They will be a base for carrier advice, rentals and returns. Simply using the search term WF on our online system here will show you the whole of the Wakefield stock. The new sessions have a small charge for entry of £1.00 per adult and 50p per child (babies in carriers are free).

To access our stock system please click this link

You can still contact us here using the contact us page or by emailing wyslinglibrary@outlook.com if you have any questions about our new sessions.