The Rundown on Baby Wearing

I love babywearing. My toddler LOVES babywearing. And the newb? Well, he could go either way I suppose, sometimes he loves it, sometimes he hates it, I really wish he would just love it all the time. We own a lot of carriers by my own standards, maybe not too many by some other people's standards, but I'll tell you all about what have and what we love.

The Stretchy Wrap:
The two most popular are the Moby Wrap and the Sleepy Wrap, stretchy wraps are also super easy to DIY, you just need about 5 yards of a good knit interlock fabric, cut it down from the bolt width to about 20-30 inches wide (by 5 yards long) you can leave it as is because knits don't ravel or you can serge around it for a more finished look. Stretchy wraps are great for new babies and front carries. When a baby gets to be over about 20 lbs or so the wrap can get a little stretched out by their weight and you have to constantly tighten it, so its best for small babies. Stretchy wraps should also NEVER be used for back carries as the baby can fall out if they flail backwards. I like a stretchy wrap for the newborn stage, and I've noticed for my babies the stretch is nice for calming them down because it can feel womb-like. Here is Sawyer in a front-wrap-cross-carry (FWCC) at about 1 month old.



The Ring Sling:
Great for nursing small babies, nice for a quick and easy hip carry for a toddler, the ring sling is great for short periods of time and a quick in and out. Our sling is made by me. If you make your own, just make sure you get GOOD rings, you don't want your baby getting hurt! We got our rings from slingrings.com they have great prices, a huge selection of colors, super fast shipping and excellent quality rings. The downside of the ring sling is that all of the weight is on one shoulder, this can get a little uncomfortable after a long period of time. Here is Carson nice and cozy in the sling at about 5 months old.



The Woven Wrap:
I LOVE woven wraps! They are extremely versatile. You can carry a newborn or a toddler in a woven wrap. You can do about a million different front, back, and hip carries. If I were stuck on a desert island and could only have one carrier, it would absolutely be a woven wrap. There are some woven wraps that I dream about having, but they are spendy and my bank account is against me having one right now, BUT they're easy to DIY. You do have to be sure to get a good fabric for a woven wrap though, any old thing wont do if you're wanting to wear it a lot. Also, you have to think about how often you're going to be using it, sure $150 sounds like a lot but if you plan to exclusively use a wrap and no stroller, then it starts sounding like it isn't that huge a price tag. For now, we have two woven wraps that are home made. One is made of gauze (if you buy gauze at Joann Fabrics, make sure you get their "crinkle cotton" as the stuff they have labeled as "gauze" is not true gauze and isn't sturdy enough) our other woven wrap is seersucker, if you're buying from Joann's they also have osnaburg which makes a good woven wrap as well. Or you can buy a didymos wrap and I'll droll all over it and live vicariously through you, ok?

My favorite carries for the woven wrap? It depends on which kiddo I'm wearing and what my mood is at the time. Right now my favorite carry for Sawyer is a Back Wrap Cross Carry (BWCC) modified with ruck straps and tied Tibetan. My favorite carry for Carson is BWCC with a chest belt. Check out thebabywearer.com or YouTube for lots and lots of ways to wrap your baby in a woven wrap. Back carries are great for trying to get things done, like making dinner or vacuuming. Carson LOVES to be in a back carry in a woven wrap, its by far his favorite, if he even sees the wrap he will bring it to me and ask "mommy can I be in carrier?" Now if only Sawyer was so happy about being in a back carry, he's still not so sure. I have, however, mastered the superman toss to get him up there! The only real downside to the woven wrap (at least in my opinion) is that there is a learning curve to it, I mean, there is a learning curve to pretty much all carriers, but I feel like the woven wrap has the most learning to it, but once you know what you're doing? It is absolutely AMAZING!

This isn't me (obviously) this was taken from the Didymos website, but it is my FAVORITE wrap, the Didymos jacquard in lime waves...I'm in loooooooooooove with it!



The Soft Structured Carrier:
This is probably the most main-stream of carriers. You want to make sure you stay away from things like the Snugli or the Baby Bjorn, they are what babywearers refer to as "crotch danglers" because the crotch of the carrier is to narrow its very bad for a baby's hips, the entirety of your baby's weight is resting on their crotch. You want something that is wide, so that the baby's weight is spread from one knee pit to the other knee pit. The two most well known are the Ergo and the Beco, both are super awesome and totally worth the price tag if you can swing it. We have a Beco, which I thankfully was able to find second-hand for about $30, but I will tell you now that I have it and know how awesome it is, I would have absolutely scrimped and saved up to buy a new one full price if I hadn't found one used. The Beco and Ergo can be used for front and back carries, they have straps like a backpack and clip into place. They're great for quick in and out like the ring sling, but have much better weight distribution. The Beco is my go-to grocery shopping carrier because its quick. I usually keep it in the car. It is also a great carrier for carrying one baby on my back and the other on my front, I put one kiddo in a wrap and the other in the beco. If you're new to baby wearing and don't want keep track of how to wrap, this is a great way to go. There are also some great tutorials and patterns out there for making your own, they require a bit more sewing skills than making a wrap and you have to make sure to buy good quality buckles, places like REI or other sporting goods stores generally have good ones with their rock climbing equipment, remember this is going to hold your baby so you don't want something flimsy!

I have a different pattern, but this is the beco butterfly 2:


The Mei Tai:
The Mei Tai is similar to the soft structured carrier but with ties instead of buckles, this makes it a little more adjustable than the SSC. The Babyhawk is one of the more popular ones, but it is also something you can DIY with some basic sewing skills. Ours is a DIY mei tai and its ok but I sort of winged it so while it worked great when Carson was small, I did not make the body of it tall enough for a toddler. Here's a Babyhawk:



So do you babywear? What is you favorite type of carrier?