Part of the reason that babywearing has been so easy for me to embrace is this: Charlotte and I take two walks a day.
Goodness knows that I love motherhood. I don’t even mind the poop. But staying at home with your child can be an exercise in brain shrinkage. Take, for example, the earthquake in Haiti.
The earthquake I did not know about until TWO DAYS after it happened.
My house is where current events go to die, so Charlotte and I take walks because it gets us out. We walk in the rain and we walk in the sunshine and we walk up mountains and down hills (at least, that’s what it feels like). We walk around parks and we walk near horse corrals and recently, I walked by someone’s house and saw LLAMAS in their backyard.
Llamas.
In their backyard.
IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY.
When the weather gets too cold or too rainy, I put Charlotte in the stroller. I warm up a bean bag and toss it down by her feet, wrap her up in a quilt, and she falls happily asleep before we hit the corner.
Most of the time, though, I think it is far easier to shove her in a carrier and go. When she is strapped to my chest, I can interact with her in a way that I cannot when she is in a stroller. We giggle together and I make faces at her and I point at things like trees and creeks and vans and, you know, LLAMAS, and identify them for her. I can breastfeed her on the go, as well, and it’s easy to take pictures of the two of us together (okay, of my chin and her face together).
But the best part of babywearing is this: her sweet, little head is an inch away, right in my kissing zone. I only have so many years of kissing her whenever I want, so I try to sneak in all the kisses I can.
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Oh my goodness look at those cheeks! So edible!
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Llamas? Amazing. I not-so-secretly want one, or an Alpaca. Being from the great frozen North, I find it slightly amusing when you talk about it getting too cold. LOL It was -20 degrees Celsius here last week!
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Charlotte looks so bad ass in this picture! I love it.
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hey Sarah! i LOVE babywearing too :)
for me , it makes life so much easier. i am more saddened that i didnt know about my options when my first two kids were babies. so i only have a short time to enjoy it with my 3rd baby. im glad you found the ‘babywearing love’ with your 1st.
all i have right now is my sleepy…whicxh will soon have to be retired…i cant imagine doing it with a wrap thats not stretchy, but when out tax refund come back, i will be funding a custom Babyhawk Mei Tei, and a Neobulle Julie, 4.6… if i can find one EUC (excellent Used Condition) that would be great-but am prepared to pay full price new….i know you’ve done a post involving your different carriers a while ago, but whats your favorite?
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i wear alice all-the-time too. i wonder why we got a stroller, actually. when it’s too cold, it means it’s too snowy, so i can’t get it out anyways, so i end up carrying her.
i love that i can be in a shop and still whisper little things to her ear without anybody else hearing me.
the only thing that bothers me is, with one or two walks a day, is that i’ve been around every single corner of my village. everywhere. so i take the car. so i set my wrap up at home, hop in the car, and once it’s time to put her in the wrap, it’s all bent and i have to re-wrap. without it touching the ground. and that’s impossible…
do you have a technique ?? -
emilie, what kind of wrap is it youre using?
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I love baby-wearing too… I wish it was easier though. It’s way too cold here for me to wear Isla in the winter, so we don’t really go for walks outside unless it’s mild. The only other time I can wear her is when we’re doing errands, but there’s so much fussing involved. Once Spring comes, it’ll be easier though… I look forward to it.
***Amanda, I know Sarah uses a Moby wrap. I use a Mama Kangaroo wrap… And it kind of sounds like Emilie uses one similar. -
As you said - I think babies in a stroller would miss out on a ton of conversation/interaction. I like that I could at least have the baby face me with the stroller I have. Have you thought about how your walks will change whenever you have a second baby? I get kinda sad thinking how I can’t carry him when I’m mega pregnant. Oh well - I guess that’s part of the whole growing up part (like you were talking about with the food).
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So, I have no opinion on babywearing, you know since I’m not a mom, but I love how you describe it. It really does seem like a great option for so many reasons.
Also, btw, you look great in that picture. You should frame it or something.
Back to work . . .
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I heart babywearing! I felt like Hadley was so much more aware of her surroundings because she felt safe and close. We rarely used the stroller when she was tiny. Actually, if memory serves, we took the stroller out of the car for one reason or another, and it sat in our garage for over a month before I used it again.
I miss popping her in the sling or Ergo, but I am too pregnant to be able to manage an 18 month old in either of those things, and she is far to busy and independent to want to sit in them.
Enjoy this time!
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I ‘m sorry, I’m still stuck on llamas in LA.
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Sarah, how many wraps and what type do you have and use?
Also I know that you have mentioned that you use g diapers when you go out but what are your every day diapers? I’m sorry if you’ve already answered these questions and i have just missed them :)Your daughter, btw, is adorable. It is good to know that those cheeks are getting enough gobbling or I may have to come over and assist :D
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Llamas? I love llamas. There is a picture of me with my arms wrapped around the neck of a llama. I was “feeling him swallow”...lol.
Those oranges and those cheeks are making me hungry.
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I too loved wearing my babies. With my daughter, we rarely used our stroller except for certain situations. It was just so much easier and more fun! I didn’t get to wear my son for as long because then I had the problem of the “me too’s” from my daughter. Carrying 1 baby.. no problem. Carrying a toddler and a baby… kind of hard.
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Corinne - The temperatures you are talking about aren’t even real to me. When our birdbath freezes, I act like Hell froze over. I don’t even want to think about it getting any colder than that. SHUDDER. Also, I kid you not, the llama person has a neighbor with alpacas. And there’s someone who has emus there too. It’s like a tiny neighborhood zoo.
Amanda - It really depends. When Charlotte was tiny, I used the pouch for two weeks before I touched the wrap. I wish I’d tried it sooner because she lived in the wrap for her first three months and it was easier on my back at the beginning when everything was shifting back into place. Now, though, I use everything. We have a water sling for the shower, ring slings, pouches, the Ergo, the wrap, a Bjorn, and I use them all pretty equally. It depends on the task at hand. I rarely take a five-mile walk with a ring sling, for example, it just kills my back, but I don’t really go through the trouble of getting the Ergo set for a quick run to the store either.
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Emilie - Honestly, I don’t wrap “properly.“ The fabric starts crumpled and stays crumpled the whole time. When she was littler, I made sure everything was properly folded. Now I just pop her in and adjust it so it’s comfortable on my back and between her legs. If I don’t want the wrap to touch the ground, I stand next to a bench or I open the trunk to the car (I have a change-mat in the trunk so I can change Charlotte on the go and I set her down there with a toy). I use the bench or the trunk as a wrap catch-all while I’m wrapping up. I rarely wrap up more than once a day, it’s just crumply crumply from there on out =P
Julia - We have two strollers for some strange reason, and one of them is set up so that Charlotte can face us too. I think my general preference is still carrying her, though, because I can interact with her at my level. She’s in this phase right now where she sees my nose at her level and tries to shove her fingers up it - which I’m not too crazy about - but overall it’s nice to chat with her and make silly faces when she’s a couple inches away. I have no idea what we’ll do when I’m mega pregnant or when she’s bigger - I’ll miss it when that day comes! =(
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Liz - Isn’t it awesome what a difference a comb makes?
Dandy - I KNOW!
Miss Joules - We use Fuzzi Bunz most of the time. When she was younger, we used prefolds and thirstie covers as well, but now we’re pretty much all into the Fuzzi Bunz. In fact, until I buy more gDiapers in her current size, we’re all Fuzzi Bunz all the time! (I should get on that). I’ve thought about trying other pocket diapers, but I really like the snaps and alot of them have velcro. Also, we just have the one wrap right now - a green moby.
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I didn’t know about the Earth Quake for about 24 hours. It wasn’t until I opened google reader and saw blogs about it.
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Charlotte says: “what are you lookin’ at, punk?“
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I love to wear my baby too. He is by far the cutest accessory I have ever worn and kissable too! I usually wear my Lil Man in the Ergo. It’s so comfy!
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*best ever*
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It’s so good to hear all you moms who carry and talk to their babies. It breaks my heart to see how many moms put their babies in a stroller facing away from mom and talk, talk, talk, on the cell phone instead of to the child.
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Fabulous picture! Walks are a great way to escape the house and get some fresh air.
-FringeGirl
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thanks Sarah. i do the car thing too, but now it’s really too gross on the ground in switzerland to take a chance. i ordered a ring sling and i’m hoping this will help, but i’m not sure about long-distance walking with all the weight on one shoulder…
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This is one of the 884948409328 bajillion reasons why I can’t wait to get pregnant again and do some things differently than I did with my first. We have always been big walkers too and I was a stroller mom. To be honest, I kind of thought the baby strap-things were… well, weird. But I once overheard a mom who was wearing one go on and on about how she can vacuum! and carry groceries! and do all kinds of things that I only fantasized of being able to do while my boy was that little.
It is officially one of the first things I’ll buy when it happens.
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I have a Beco (similar to the Ergo) and LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! I recently discovered the world of carrying my son on my back while trying to get things done and think it has to be gods gift to mothers.
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Alicia S., you really can do everything! even potty! lol
the last thing a new mom wants to do is put down her baby just to do domestic things like cook and clean, and the advantage of wrapping or carrying is that you can do it all w/o feeling guilt for not snuggling w/ little one! you get to bond faster and sooth upset babies quickly. its my go to-when baby is fussy and nothing else is working-she settles quickly and falls asleep fast too.
Sarah, im not going to be a harpy and say NOT to use your Bjorn, but i will provide you with a link to a forum board consisting of seriously seasoned babywearing mamas who advise against that brand for the HEALTH of baby. apparently it is very bad for the alignment of the spine…
i hope my links work-some of the boards are private, but the info im passing shouldnt be…http://community.babycenter.com/post/a21459235/info_thread_forward_facing_carries
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I love babywearing! I’m so impressed that you get out so often.
Elizabeth isn’t usually in the mood these days. When I go to the store she’d much rather sit in the shopping cart like a big girl or something! I was originally not going to bother with a stroller at all but I did discover that a stroller is a much better idea than babywearing while skating and now feel much happier about having one. A stroller gives you extra stability and baby extra protection; babywearing I was just terrified someone is going to knock you done.
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Mary - I don’t skate, but I can totally see how if I did, I’d use a stroller! There are some activities that I will not do when she’s strapped to me because the prospect of possibly tripping or falling terrifies me.
Amanda - I know about the Bjorn, although I’d heard more bad things about the hips than the spine. I still use it when I’ve forgotten to launder anything else because I feel better carrying her about than I do setting her down. It only gets pulled out maybe once a month, if that, which makes me feel better about it. I figure that sort of moderation can’t be too bad, right? Hopefully?
Emilie - I can’t do the ring sling for long distances. Even if I switch shoulders, it just aches after awhile. Another option might be a mei tai or something like that?
Alicia S - I used to think they were weird too =P
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Amanda - HAHA, that has to be awesome. Although I have to admit, that my son - who turned two just today! - has been so clingy at times that he’s demanded to sit on my knee while I pee. And, being as attached to him as he is to me - I’ve let him.
He definitely has had to sacrifice mommy time, though because of us not having a strap around the house. And even though it didn’t kill either one of us, I will definitely do it differently next time. Especially because now when I hold him my arms start to feel like Jello after about 10 minutes of carrying him through a store :-/
Sarah - I just wanted to let you know that I’m officially addicted to the pictures on your site. I’ve never been so in love with pictures of someone else’s kid!
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Oh, yeah, Mitzie—
(btw, this is my last comment on here, I promise… )I totally see your point about the strollers, but I will say that our stroller walks were a family affair. My step-daughter (whom lives full-time w/ my hubs and I) usually rode her bike alongside us while Spencer and I got to chat after working all day. The stroller was one of the few times I was able to give my full attention to my husband and step-daughter while still sharing an activity with the baby. Plus, she was able to push, too, sometimes which made her feel on top of the world. Now that Matthew walks on his own with us, we can’t take our eyes off of him for a split second.
So even though I’m not disagreeing, I did just want to say that strollers have their advantages too.
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I agree Alicia, stroller do have a place. I couldn’t get the hang of baby wrapping so I used a stroller. It’s just the ignoring of the baby that concerns me so. Talk to the baby, not to the cell phone. How else is your little one going to learn about robins, and power shovels and llamas ?
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Mitzie - Oh my goodness, I’m supposed to teach her about power shovels?!
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Thanks for the giggle Sarah, no you only ‘have to’ teach boys about power shovels. Mine would be scathing in their preschool years if I misidentifed a bucket loader or a bulldozer as a power shovel. Boys are different creatures altogether than girls.
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Lol, Mitzie, I used to baby-sit these three little boys a few times a week. On trash day, we would just sit in front of the window and watch them pick up the trash and the oldest one would tell me all about the different parts of the truck. One time, the neighbors had some work being done on their house and I misidentified the type of truck (WHATEVER, I was using the discovery guide, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!) and the middle one got all indignant about it. Heh.
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I’m a full-time nanny for three boys. By the time the youngest turned 3, he knew construction vehicles inside out and upside down. I know I promised I wouldn’t comment anymore, but that cracked me up about you sitting in front of the window. Meeting in front of the window at work with my boys to watch big dump trucks dump mulch for the yard in the summertime is a regular occurrence. if I’m ever a few minutes late meeting them, they all three yelp in unison—“Alicia, quick!! You’re gonna miss it!!!!!!“
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Charlotte looks like The Godfather in that last photo.
By Megan R. on February 03, 2010
Finnley’s reflux is finally improving (shhhh…don’t tell the angry reflux gods or they might strike us down!), so we have had a chance to do some baby wearing. I wore her to vacuum the other day. She was too fussy playing on the floor, but once I strapped her on….she didn’t care what we were doing! Gotta love that! Looking forward to spring here on the East coast so we can enjoy more walks!