BABYWEARING IS FOR EVERYONE
Do you know all those memes that have the whole social media gone wild? I`m a huge fan of them, I especially enjoy those who compare things like “ Yeah, parenting is great, but have you tried sleeping one full night?”. So, I came up with one on my own (there may be someone out there who thought the same as me, not sure): “Yeah, strollers are great, but have you tried babywearing?” 😊 Awesome, right?
As a babywearing parent (twice, actually) I did enjoy spreading the love for carriers and every time a tired parent would complain that their child always demands to be carried, while other chores needed to be done around, I would empathize with them but always asked: have you considered babywearing? And since many of them would just reject the idea, because “that`s not for me”, I decided to bust this myth and prove that there are carriers for each and every need.
This will be the first part of a presentation for different styles of carrying, suitable for every taste. 😊
I`ll start with my first carrier ever worn, which was an elastic wrap. At first, it was quite difficult to realize how it needed to be wrapped, as a beginner and with no assistance for it. But after my first failed attempt, I followed some video tutorials and things began to look easier. However, by the time we got used to wrapping, the baby was starting to feel heavier and heavier, and the wrap wasn`t as efficient as it used to be in the first place. If wraps were my weapon of choice, I would have definitely continued with using either a woven wrap or a ring sling, which are great to start with also. And for a creative and nonconformist person, the variety of colors, fabrics and ways of wearing are a thrill. The weave of a wrap offers the best support, while allowing the wearer to play with different kinds of knots for the front, hip or back carrying. Multiple choices… but not for a lazy person like me. 😊
We had to move on to a more long-lasting support and we ended up having a full buckle carrier, which was much better: easy to use just by placing it around my waist, clicking the buckles and we were good to go. My personal full buckle was a simple one, didn`t cost me very much, but it needed changing to a larger size after a while, because I still wanted to have my baby carried around, although he didn`t ask for it that often. Luckily there was a toddler size version to the baby size one we have bought in the first place. It was built larger, to ensure a great, optimal position for a toddler and also to feel comfy for the parent as well.
In the meantime, in order to support not only the environment, but the parents` need to stick to one item only, a complex and complete adjustable carrier appeared on the market. Many parents would give up babywearing when the classic baby carrier would not fit the baby anymore, even though, from time to time, the little one would ask to be carried around, or the parents wished they`d still have a product to carry a larger child. For those reasons and so many more, the long-lasting carrier like The One was released on the market, enabling parents to use it from the first days of a newborn, up until toddlerhood. Simple adjustments that could make the carrier go smaller and narrower for a newborn, or higher and wider for a bigger child, made this carrier one of the most wanted products for the new, expectant parents to have on top of their must-have list. A single carrier that would be with them for the entire babywearing experience, from the beginning.
This is not where babywearing ends, because in the next chapter you`ll find out about one more carrier that I tried and absolutely loved and also a cute, little surprise. Keep close!