Shortly after becoming pregnant with D, I joined Cafe Mom, focusing my online-community-building energy towards a due-date group (women all due in October 2010, like me), and a cloth diapering group called Cuties with Cloth Booties. Mostly, I joined the group because my cloth-diapering friend was a member. But it truly provided a wealth of information and an inner-glimpse to the life of the "crunchy mama".
One of the hot topics in Cuties: babywearing.
Baby Bjorn does not count as babywearing, apparently. (Although, if you prefer a Baby Bjorn, fine by me.) Babywearers have Mei-Tais, Mobys, Ergos, ring slings, etc.
My thoughts??
Eff that. I love pushing my stroller. Why do I need to "wear" my child everywhere?
The truth is, you don't need to wear your baby. But after you try one of the options mentioned above, you just might want to! All the time.
After about five months of reading about different babywearing options and doing some research, I decided to buy one. I narrowed my preferences down to an Ergo baby carrier or a Moby wrap.
¡¡Problem!! Ergos are like, crazy expensive. And Moby's are not only a tad bit expensive for my tastes, but I also started reading that the fabric on them isn't as nice as
So, Sleepy Wrap I did buy at a maternity store an hour away from home. (come to find out later, Mobys are available at your local Target store in the baby section. but, still, I like the fabric better on a Sleepy)
The Sleepy Wrap, or any wrap-style carrier, is five yards of fabric that you wrap and tie around yourself to fashion a baby carrier. No complicated straps involved. The fabric may or may not be stretchy, but the Sleepy is. It's made of a comfortable, breathable cotton jersey and comes in a variety of colors.
The Sleepy Wrap comes in a nice box with a big, color instruction book. Instructions are also available on their website, and you can also use your favorite search engine to find videos of happy customers wrapping up their little ones. I used both the instruction book and videos. The first time I wrapped up D was about a week after he made his debut to the world. He was at most 9 and a half pounds and fit well in the newborn hold.
I fell in love with my Sleepy Wrap immediately. I had purchased the gray color, which matches almost anything, and it was so comforting to me, and I'm sure to D, to have him so close and cozy. I wore my Sleepy around the house a lot, but really put it to the test when we took our first trip to Disneyland when D was six weeks old.
There, for your viewing pleasure, is Me and D all our babywearing glory at Disneyland. Love his hat? My mom got it for him at Build a Bear, despite my adamant reminder that it would probably only fit him for the three days we were there, and that he'd never wear it again. Yeah, it's adorable. I took a double-stroller with me to Disneyland, but used the second seat as storage as it was just so comfortable carrying my sweet boy in the carrier, I didn't need to put him down. Eff strollers! (unless you have a three year old with you who gets tired of walking) Two hidden bonuses to babywearing at Disneyland: 1) baby stays away from other peoples' germs 2) you can lose a lot of weight from carrying around the extra load!
We still use the Sleepy all the time. D is now 5 months old and weighs 22 lbs and I put him in more of a side hold. I also do not tuck his legs all the way into the outer part anymore. He loves it. In fact, we just went to Target last night and I put him on me in the Sleepy instead of in his carseat in the cart. He loves to look at stuff, I love to look at him, and he stays away from the germies on the cart. Also, I love how the wrap hides all my baby weight when its wrapped on me nice.
If you've given thought to babywearing, check out the Sleepy Wrap. If you haven't given thought to babywearing, maybe you should. I still don't fully believe all the "benefits" and "studies" that they've done that say that babies who ride in the Sleepy Wrap are smarter and more adjusted blah blah blah. But I DO know that D loves it, and so do I.
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