Our babywearing story

To celebrate the International Babywearing Week I joined several giveaways on Facebook (keep your fingers crossed for me to win a Tula carrier, I already know I didn't win Artipoppe wrap, booo) and also decided to write down our babywearing story.*

I got a used elastic wrap and Ergo carrier some time before Teodor was born, later I found out that the elastic wrap was totally wrong (probably Medley) and the carrier was a fake...well-spent money. Anyway, It took me two months before I started babywearing,  he was happy either in a stroller or sleeping in our Stokke daybed before, so why to bother, right?. The first weeks were just so exhausting that I couldn't find energy to give it a try...and once we did, we did it totally wrong. Lesson learnt - not all instructional videos on youtube are useful. 

July 2014, first and probably last try, the wrap was not supportive at all.

The carrier was my no. 1 choice from the beginning, he hated the newborn support or maybe I put him in it wrong, so we slowly started to try without it... 

June 2014, one of the first tries

...soon he would spend a lot of time being worn because he started hating the stroller. And he slept so well in it. But only if I walked. So we took a lot of trips to the malls, that helped me to keep sane. There was no other way how to make him sleep...I remember walking up the stairs in the evening and down and up and then Charlie would give up...and then finally Teodor fell asleep. Crazy times. 

Snuggled in on a cold July day, unfortunately I lost the fleece cover :(

When he was about 3 months old, he wouldn't latch...once I found out it is possible to breastfeed him in the carrier, breastfeeding was saved...the price I had to pay was a lot of babywearing because when he got finally sleepy, he would eat...Soon I started breastfeeding him anywhere, even on the streets in the city, on the bus, in the hobby shop...(the carrier actually gave kinda privacy)

Revolution came with a real woven wrap, Ellevill Zara...It was million times more comfortable than the fake carrier...

I found proper instructional videos, found out that the cross-carry isn't a rocket science...and totally fell in love with babywearing (I probably already was in love but having a proper wrap spiced it up :)

With babywearing another revolution came, I decided to go with attachment parenting, I mean I always inclined to it but wasn't sure if it is the right way but being close to our son for many hours every day persuaded me not to be worried to spoil the child.

Having a wrap was so handy when he had to undergo his two surgeries, the doctors and nurses had some comments on it but it turned out that they have never seen such a calm baby after surgery...I mean seriously, there was a child crying in the crib, 5 people were standing around and nobody would pick the child up...I don't know what the child's condition was, I just over-saw it, but this is how it seemed to me. Surprisingly enough, the staff had no comments on us bed-sharing. 

Once you have a wrap and are part of the babywearing community, you feel like you need more. Plus autumn was coming and a good woolen wrap was exactly what one needs, right?

I ordered Oscha Liberty Maya (why nobody told me it was as supportive as Ellevill?) and also Oscha Ring Sling (which I used only a few times, never learnet how to use it.) 

Our shopping trips would look like this, people seemed to judge me from time to time..

As you can see, he was getting bigger and bigger every month, so I was very motivated to learn to wear him on my back.

Unfortunately, never learned more than a simple rucksack because at some point he stopped to mind the stroller and with the weather getting colder, I didn't mind stopping babywearing him. I got a Lilliputi babywearing coat, but never learned how to close the zips when he was on my back (in the carrier) and when he was in the front, he would take his arms out...so the stroller was an easier option. Plus he slept longer in it. This happened when he was about 8-9 months and worked till he was 11.5 months. 

The only picture I have of the babywearing coat, me and Teodor.

Before his first birthday, he started screaming a lot, hated the stroller,...only the carrier seemed to help. But he was way to heavy for the fake ergo, so I order Tula. The best-spent money ever! So comfy! Since then, Tula is our best friend, there hasn't been a week when he wouldn't fall asleep in it...We use it a lot even now when he is 18 months...It is probably true that toddlers have a lot of problems to calm down and Tula is a great helper. 

In the time between Oscha and Tula era I got a Yaro wrap with linen, it was supposed to be very supportive, which it is, but Teodor didn't like it when I was wraping him on my back, so it's more or less unused. Might come handy when my belly grows too much and can't Tula-wear him...

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Anyway, babywearing isn't only for babies, toddlers do benefit a lot from it too...Even though he can run on his own, he seems to appreciate the closeness and he falls asleep in no time. When I make him sleep in the bed, there is always some screaming before and it takes an hour.

Two days ago

I definitely plan to babywear the second baby, this time totally from the beginning and I plan to become a that person who has a big stash of wraps :))

* I also intended to write our breastfeeding story when the International Week of Breastfeedinw was, but didn't find time.