Babywearing

Although not specifically mentioned in previous posts, you've seen hubs and I babywear since nearly the time our Tater Tot was born.  There was the classic- Ergo style carrier:

(Remember that photo from Father's Day?  She was so little!  When I put her in that now she's almost eye to eye with me.  I need to look around her head to see where I'm going.)

That worked for a while, but when I met my mama friends, they recommended a ring sling for quick ins and outs, like at the grocery store.  Here's a picture of me trying it out:

For hiking, we moved up to something a little more heavy duty that should support her for a few years to come:

Hubs pretty much uses that one exclusively.  I keep the ring sling in the car and used it just today at the store.  It is very handy.  I have an Ergo at home that I use when she's fussy.  I put her on my back to cook dinner or do other chores around the house.  However, as she grows it's becoming less and less comfortable to wear and at some point she'll outgrow it.  Enter wraps.  They come in many different sizes and you can wear your child differently depending on how long your wrap is.  I'm currently borrowing two from friends as I get the hang of it.  Basically, there's tons of different ways you can wrap your baby onto your front, back or hip. I'm trying to get back carries down and I'd like to learn one where her head is over my shoulder so she can really see what's going on.  They're not the easiest to learn, but I'm trying.  Hubs helped me get her on yesterday for a walk on the greenway.

When I sent the photos to the Facebook group about babywearing, they were able to give me lots of tips.  The main problem I have is that she's really wiggly when I'm trying to get her wrapped so it's not as tight as it should be.  She likes to lean and kick her legs and towards the end of the walk we discovered she popped her seat.  Luckily, her legs were still firmly wrapped, but we had to take her out and hubs carried her the rest of the way home.  The advantage of these is that they're always the perfect fit (once you learn how to do it correctly) and they'll never outgrow them so you can use one wrap until they outgrow being worn.  I have friends with 4 year-olds that still enjoy being worn.  However, it can take a while to get the child up and only certain carries make it possible for the child to come in and out often.  I definitely think these have their place and am trying some out as I venture into the world of wraps and try to decide what works best for Sugar Pop and me.  It'll be interesting to see all the different ways we carry her before she outgrows it.