strap one on - baby wearing

if you're like me, the first couple weeks after i had my son i was rather stir crazy. a week after the birth, i was out with granola papa&baby at baltimore's annual powwow, a giant, free, outdoor folk festival.

we were lucky enough to receive as a gift a fantastic travel system by chicco- it has the carseat and base and an awesome stroller. at 7 mos. he's still using the carseat and he's a big boy of 21 lbs. the stroller got a lot of use in the beginning when my body was healing, but it was a little to heavy so i could only use it when papa was around.

enter 'baby wearing'.

i asked around and cruised the internet to find the best method of baby wearing for me and my boy. my requirements: safe, flexible, comfortable for both mama and baby, inexpensive.

after some initial searches i'm afraid i had to add a requirement: pre-made. i'd love to be able to say that i'm crafty enough to take some measurements, some cloth, and a needle&thread and fashion something marvelous, but i'm just not. not yet. that's what all of this is, a learning experience. however i have experimented with baby wearing using cloth that i had cut to various measurements, and i've used a few different carriers, with varying degrees of success. i will say this, since papa and i have started baby wearing our little joy is not a fan of his stroller.

and yes, papa loves wearing his son and taking him for long walks. he even wears him when we go shopping. it's some of their best bonding time!

our baby wearing voyage goes like this:

i started with the infantino baby carrier by mistake actually. i added a slightly different carrier to my baby registry but decided to buy one when i was in the store one day. they didn't have the carrier from my registry, just this one, and it looked like a good carrier. it never worked out for me and my baby. he was way too crunched up and couldn't breathe. it got no use from us. (this particular carrier has since had a safety recall issued on it.)

we moved on to a chicco ultra-soft infant carrier which worked out considerably better. our little one was pretty comfy when he was smaller and we still use it from time to time now.

in between trying out manufactured carriers i tried more traditional methods of baby wearing. armed with cloth cut to various lengths i tackled the instructions on MamaToto, BabyWearing.com, TheBabyWearer.com and Moby Wrap. The Moby Wrap method worked best for us.

next, we were given a baby bjorn original which was great! as soon as i put it on i realized how most of the other items left me with a very sore lower back. the baby bjorn helped my back so much. but my baby got very heavy very fast, and we like to walk a couple miles at a stretch, so eventually even this carrier needed an upgrade.

then i saw a tweet from my goodmamafriend and she said she was wearing her baby boy in a hip hammock and she was working. hip hammock? i can wear him on my hip with a device i don't have to cut-and-stitch (remember, i'm not crafty). i went back online. i saw the original hip hammock, which happens to be the one gifted to my goodmamafriend, then she let me try hers out with my son. it's an awesome device but after some consideration i chose the ultimate baby mei tai from parents of invention. right now at about 27 inches and 21 lbs. this carrier works great for me and my boy. he likes to ride a little low on my hip so that his head rests right on my breast (which is actually pretty awesome because the other day i was even able to easily nurse him while we walked and he fell right to sleep).

this whole journey has made me very aware of another thing we need to take into account when deciding on a baby wearing method; it's not just the size of the baby, it's the size of the mama. i am not a small woman. i'm tall and curvy and having a baby has added a lot of extra curves. some carriers just don't work because they require strapping the baby high on the chest in order to avoid lower back pain. high on my chest are some 40F (yes i said it, it's called pregnancy!) boobs so trying to strap a big baby there defies the laws of physics. before buying a carrier you really should try it on with the baby in it. it will give you some idea of whether or not it works with both of you. if you know someone with a similar carrier, see if you can borrow it for a day and take your little one for a walk.

all in all i'm a big fan of baby wearing because i see how content it makes my baby, and i have a very energetic boy! it's all a matter of trial and error to find one that works for your family, so don't get frustrated if things don't work out the first time.