Babies are Worn Here

I made my first sling when I was pregnant with Owen. I looked all over the internet for baby-wearing resources and instructions for making a sling.

I always knew I would "wear my babies" though I didn't realize that's what it was called. I just remember going to the grocery store with my mom one day when I was a young teenager along with my aunt and her baby.  She pulled this padded sling out from her trunk and cozied her baby in it to wear around the store.

I'd never seen that before. But I knew that it looked perfect--that was how I wanted to carry my babies.

So I finished my sling and practiced carying a bag of malt-o-meal cerial around our little basement appartment.

But soon little Owen came, and I was able to sling my baby. 

With Jonas I fell in love with the wrap.  My own homemade version again.  Not stretchy like a "Moby" just a nice soft woven fabric.  And I lost my original sling the summer he was born.  (Maybe you found it. . . in a parking lot somewhere fallen out of my car?.  Arizona maybe--perhaps Salt Lake City?) But the wrap is versatile and can hold older children too.  I originally made it looking for more options as Owen started getting bigger.

I like the wrap best for newborns. It puts that weight right back to wear you are used to it.

And they seem so cozy inside.

I made a mei tai carrier after Wyatt was born.  Once again looking for another option for the older kid--this time Jonas.  But it works great for the baby as well. 

We took it on vacation.  And we did not take a stroller.

I have to admit--I was pretty nervous about not taking a stroller on vacation.  We always have before.  But we didn't miss it. . . although, now that I think of it--it might have been nice to have in the airport when we had to get a wheelchair for Owen.  But really--who could have foreseen that?!

Also, my health insurance company sent me a Snuggli for being such a good little patient and going to all my prenatal appointments.  So we've enjoyed having that for Wyatt too. 

I love being so in touch with my babies.  Being close to them is was allows me to know that their needs are being met and they are content.  I love babywearing (and my babies love being worn).


International Babywearing week/month--or something.  Just sharing my love.

The Family Bed

Now that we are parenting our second child, Jeremy and I are being reaffirmed that we fall into a certain camp of parents. This camp goes by many names: Crunchy Moms (c'mon, really? That makes it sound like we don't wash our hair.) Granola Parents, or simply good ol' fashioned Hippies. Now Jeremy and I never decided we "wanted to be" Hippie Parents; we don't parent according to a certain hippie ideology. We just decided each issue as it came our way. Some decisions we made based on principle, and some were just based on practice, but they still landed us in the hippie camp.

We made one parenting decision based solely on principle. That is that we "sling" or "wear" our babies more often than not. Sure the car seat-carriers are great, you can take your baby from the house, to the car, to the stroller, back to the car, to the shopping cart, to the car, and back home. Pretty soon the better part of the day is gone and your baby hasn't gotten any actual physical contact from you. Weren't there babies in Romanian orphanages dying because they never got held? Yes I'm being extreme, but don't worry, this is the only parenting practice of ours based solely on hippie principle.

Consider these next few practices of ours. With #1 I breastfed for the first year until he could drink cow milk, made homemade baby food until he moved on to table foods, and we even cloth diapered on and off. Now, while I do see some of the beneficial hippie principles behind these parenting practices, that wasn't the driving force behind it. I call it parenting by practice, as in--It's just what we do ok? As in--Although I "plan" on breastfeeding all my children, I don't want to be a member of the La Leche League. (I actually don't really like those guys. They do a lot of good, but also a lot of bad because they are too stuck on their "principles" to be helpful in certain individual situations.) As it is, if you wanted to pin down our motivation behind breastfeeding, homemaking baby food, and cloth diapering, it's probably economic--we don't want to have to pay for that stuff.

There is one parenting practice of ours based solely on practice, and that is the family bed. I know there are arguments for, and arguments against, but I don't want to hear it. The point is--I'm tired dang-it! I want to be able to sleep at night, and with newborns the best sleep for us has come in the family bed. So then, why is this topic on my brain today? It's because the apartment we're renting this summer has a queen-sized bed. (We have a double bed at home.) All I know is the queen sized bed is REALLY nice. The bed isn't that comfy, but the size is great. At home our three-year-old is no longer sleeping with us, but this summer things are so crazy and mixed up that he's been coming into bed with us in the middle of the night again. Well, 4 bodies in bed is a LOT easier in a queen-sized bed. Who knows--When we get back home this fall, we may have to knock out a wall in our little house to get a bigger bed!