Tan, can you post a photo of how you are wearing it, it may give a few clues as to why it's not comfy.
If you tie it apron style, you will get a deeper seat, but a shorter body. Non apron style (ie: when you tie it, the top of the body is pointing upwards, there is no 'fold' or seat) gives a longer body but a less deep seat. Many SSCs or mei tais with padded waist bands are worn non apron style because of the padded waist, which doesn't lend itself to being worn apron style - it doesn't fold easily. Unpadded waists are usually (but not always) more comfortable worn in apron style, padded waists in non-apron.
Are you crossing your shoulders straps at the back, or wearing them rucksack style? Crossed will be more supportive.
Sagging is often the main cause for shoulder discomfort in a carrier, as is the baby sitting too low. Make sure that the waist strap is tied at your true waist, not at your hips - his bum should be no lower than belly button level, and you should be able to easily kiss the top of his head.
A couple of things to try:
- before you tie the shoulder straps, do a couple of little bounces, pulling the straps tighter as you do. I hold both straps in one hand, and kind of lift E's bum and then pull the top of the carrier up tighter with the other. What you are aiming to do is to lift bub's bum so that it is not sagging, and to bring his body as close to yours as possible. It will also lengthen the body. J is still young enough that you want the top of the body as high as possible so it supports his neck.
- Try tying in a lexi twist (google it if my explanation is not clear). Your straps will need to be quite long for this. When you bring the straps round to the front, instead of tying them under the bum, cross them at back level, do a couple of twists, then bring the straps down under the bum and round to tie at your back. This will give a bit more support at both bum and back level, and will prevent sagging. If the straps are not long enough to do a lexi twist, you could try tying behind his back, this sometimes helps, especially with a youngun.
If the straps are canvas and not padded, and only seven cm wide, this could be part of the problem. The narrower the straps, the more weight is put on a single point, so you might find that they are digging in. Washing and softening the canvas may help (as will scrunching it up and generally trying to bash it into submission), but generally speaking, narrower straps are more comfortable when padded. Unpadded mei tais often have very wide straps (google BBO or ball baby overall for an example) as these spread over the shoulders and back more and provide more support and less pressure points. That's not to say that you'll never find your mei tai comfortable, it just might need a bit of tweaking in the way you wear it to get it that way.
Give us a shout if my destructions (I mean, instructions lol) make no sense.
ETA: gee I posted too slow - meant to post this last night. What melbel said LOL.
YouTube helped me with my MT for sure. Doing the bounce helps make sure bubs in (kinda like I jiggle getting into skinny jeans. same concept )
As Suse says, a photo definitely could help us troubleshoot. My Mei Tai is my favouritest of all my carriers, it was so perfect. I really hope you can make yours work. As Suse suggests, perhaps you will need to tweak the carrier where it's uncomfy - if the straps dig in, perhaps you'd want to add thicker straps or something, or add padding (I've heard memory foam, like in pillows, is awesome) to the straps you have.
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