The Art of Babywearing

Ah yes, babywearing....which brings me to the question: "Does anyone besides me think "babywearing" sounds weird?" When I told a girlfriend, "I'm determined to wear my baby!" last week in a mission statement of sorts I felt a little weird about it, gotta admit. 

Regardless, I am determined to at least give babywearing a solid 'go.' Of all the things to learn when veering around the child raising curve I never expected babywearing to send me into a tailspin. Along with breastfeeding (which is a whole different blog in itself....I still don't know where to start on that one) I wasn't ready for the challenges of "wearing" Isla. I expected her to want to "kangaroo up"... just slide right in to the wrap and away we'd go. Unfortunately, my Little One hated having her arms tucked in and her legs tucked up under her in the newborn pose. It was literally out.of.the.question. 

I originally had the Ktan but it didn't work for me. The sizing just wasn't right....I was right between the small and medium and just couldn't get it to fit right. That being said, I have a girlfriend who adores the Ktan so I know it can work wonders. I purchased the Moby. Yes, the yards of fabric scared the daylights out of me (can you tell I'm a Mom, who else says "daylights?") I mean, why do you need that much fabric? For the love! I tried it several times in the newborn pose and as noted above Isla hated it. She screamed and cryed and arched her back. It was not pretty. So we stuck with the stroller. 

After three months of strolling everywhere- including the dog park I decided it was time to get serious with babywearing and if the Moby didn't work for Isla to purchase something that did. 

This is one of the ONLY 2 times I got the Moby to work for me in the beginning. Isla was sound asleep and woke up pissed! Newborn position was not for her! 

Last week I decided one of my Spring Goals was to try to do one of our two walks a day in the Moby to see if Isla liked it. I also started to do the Mom-facing position with her legs out. They say you can do this around 4 months or when their neck is stable. Isla's neck is stable for the most part. She still bobs a bit but falls asleep in this carry so I tuck both sides around and usually put my hand behind her head to provide additional support. I did my safety checks: hips are 'even', face is within kissing distance and chin is not in to her chest. Everything checked out!

What I've found out over the past two week is that this thing takes practice. Like A LOT of practice and patience! At one point Isla was screaming in her bunny chair, I had locked Stella (the dog) out of the bathroom purely because she was looking at me like I was a failure and I was almost in tears trying to put on the Moby. After two tries I finally got it on secure enough - Isla was snug as a bug and by the time I got the dog all leashed up, Isla was asleep- can you believe it? I couldn't either!

Check us out---we're becoming pros :)

This is us today at the dog park - MOBY UP FRIENDS! I'm still a beginner but we're on the road to babywearing success! This will come in so handy this summer when we're travelling or at our weekly dog park dates with Miss Stella the Terrier. 

I'll follow up with more babywearing updates as time goes by. What's your favorite carrier? 

Hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Xo-S