I hope that you are all enjoying the long holiday weekend! I am so excited to have Heather from I Lay Smiling posting today. She is a momma to two gorgeous kids, Rowan and Briar, and is super knowledgable about baby wearing and different kinds of slings and carriers so I was stoked that she wanted to share her knowledge. Give her a warm welcome! <3
Hi everyone, this is Heather! I have always been a fan of baby wearing. There is just something about it that makes sense to me. Then again, I’m a believer in the 4th Trimester and I guess we follow a lot of Attachment Parenting methods. Although I’ll admit that I didn’t really do much reading on it, I just knew what made sense for our family, and we do a mix of whatever works for us. So from the time Rowan was born, he rode along, close to me just about everywhere we went, and during the day at home as well.
For Rowan, we used the Moby wrap, and the Ergo.
I was not personally a fan of the Moby- the material was frustrating to work with and very hot. And unless I had it tied uncomfortably tight, then he would continually slip down. With any baby wearing, safety is really important. Making sure that the baby’s face is visible, and nothing is blocking their nose or mouth is something to be aware of. Also, positioning is important too. If baby is squished into a position where their chin is crunched down onto their chest it can also make it difficult for them to breathe. Press your own chin into your chest and feel the difference in your throat. Just things to keep in mind.
I also tried a Hot Sling (not adjustable) where the baby lays in a cradle type position. I was not comfortable with the safety of this type of sling. The fabric came up over the face, and held them in a position that didn’t seem safe to me.
The Ergo we LOVE, and will continue to use. It’s easy to get off and on, and even adjusting it between users is a piece of cake. Rowan still rides in it to this day, and Briar will too once she’s a little bigger.
Toddler wearing is a great thing too! Even at older ages, babies and toddlers love to be close to their parents. It makes them feel secure, and encourages bonding in a special way. I think even as toddlers, our kids enjoy the cuddle time, and being able to see what we’re doing from our perspective.
When I first saw the Sakura Bloom Ring Sling on THIS (<clicky) lovely lady’s blog I fell in love. I so wish that I had known about these sooner so that I could have started working on Jared about it in time to have used it when Briar was a newborn. What I loved about it was that I had never seen a sling that carried the baby the way this one does. Instead of being in a reclined position, that often is unsafe, the infant is held upright, high on the chest, tummy to tummy with the parent. As the baby gets older, a hip carry, outward facing, and back carry are all possible with the sling as well.
But Jared was all, “It’s how much money?? And we already have three other baby carriers??” … which I get. It’s a lot to drop on what looks like just some fabric, right. But I just LOVED how it held the little baby in this tight little cocoon. That it was light weight and wouldn’t look like I was wearing a big, ugly shirt. That I could just slip it over my head instead of fumbling with 20ft of fabric to weave a wrap while my baby was crying waiting to get into it.
Mmm… so I obsessed a little. I would talk about these slings all the time to Jared. I’d show him adorable pictures on Instagram, and I whined about how much I hated the Moby wrap and that B was too small for the Ergo. (I put her in it anyways a few times while the Moby was in the wash but it didn’t go well. Her head kept sinking lower and lower. Neither of us were comfortable.) Every day when I took Rowan to the playground and wore Briar in the moby, I would end up drenched in sweat within ten minutes. I was miserable.
Jared was (is) gone so much at night for school, that putting two kids to bed at once meant that I needed to be wearing the baby. Just having two kids under two years old makes baby wearing essential. Then Briar had her two month shots and wanted to be worn a lot more. I already wore her a couple of times a day, but she was needing to be close to me more during the day and crying if I tried to put her down in the swing. But we just couldn’t pay $88 for a new carrier at the time.
