Thursday 14 March 2013

our babywearing experience so far

I love wearing Nate in slings. It's such a close and cozy way to transport him around, especially when we take slow walks in the woods with the dogs or when we travel into town. 

Nate enjoys it too. If he is cranky or frustrated, I can put him into a baby carrier and he calms down, usually falling asleep after some gentle motion. 

But Nate used to hate, I mean really hate, being put into a baby carrier. He would scream and shout and protest. We were determined though, and kept putting him in the Moby wrap, taking him out when he started crying minutes later. And then, one day when he was 6 weeks old, I popped him in the wrap to do some stuff in the kitchen, and he fell asleep for over an hour! It was magical. My love of babywearing really began to grow after that day.

6 weeks old - first time asleep in the Moby wrap

When Nate was around 5 months old he started to get too big for the Moby wrap, which is made from stretchy material. His legs and torso were strong enough that he could arch his back and pull away from me, which was not only dangerous but also a strain on my lower back. This is when I found my local sling library and started trying different baby carriers. 

We started with the Storchenwiege Baby carrier first. We liked this carrier, but the top straps wrap around and tie instead of buckling together so we wanted to try a full buckle carrier too. So we then tried the Boba 3G and fell in love with it!

Storchenwiege baby carrier
Boba 3G

We took the Boba 3G to London and it was so comfortable to wear him in it all day long. I knew as soon as I handed it back that we were going to have to buy one for ourselves. The Bobas are really expensive and I hesitated to spend so much, but we will get so much use out it that I thought it was worth it. I like the fact that it is super adjustable so my husband and I can both use it easily and it also has a newborn setting so that if we ever have another baby we can use this carrier from birth. The Boba 3G also comes with foot straps, so we can continue to use it until Nate is 45 pounds...which is until he is like 3 or 4 years old!

I have also been trying other types of slings just to see what they are like. Most recently I loaned a Natibaby ring sling from the library. It was really good for putting Nate in while I was doing stuff around the house, but because it's only on one shoulder I don't  think I would use it for long trips. 

Natibaby ring sling
Next I want to try a full woven wrap, similar to the Moby wrap but with non-stretchy material which is much more supportive. I have a few in mind that I want to try so I will let you all know how I get on with them.  


3 comments:

  1. Lovely post. I use to love carrying my daughter around in her sling, she's a bit big and heavy now though x

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  2. I loved baby wearing. My favorite was my beco carrier. I tried a woven wrap but didn't really like it. I loved buying and selling to try stuff out!

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  3. He is a gorgeous little man! I love the boba 3g carrier out of all of them =)

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