little feet, big sky

In an effort to feel less guilty about getting my dream Calyx, I’m selling some of my less-used carriers. I love them, but Spice has just gotten too heavy for me to be comfortable carrying her in anything other than a really supportive SSC. *sigh*

Brown Moby wrap. Gently used and in great condition. $30 + $5/shipping (US).

OhMyMommyClementine Powder Pink Silver and Black reversible mei tai. Also gently used. Reversible to pink & black leopard print. $20 + $5/shipping (US).

Drop a note in the comments if you’re interested!

Bear in mind that I have three babywearing apparatuses: a Mamma’s Milk pouch sling, a custom Oh My Mommy Clementine mei tai and a brown Moby wrap. Spice was fine in the Moby for the first couple of weeks, but the Moby is a crazy piece of work to quickly throw on and go, since it’s so incredibly long and drags on the ground. Plus, I’m sure I could get the hang of it with time, but unless I had someone to straighten the wrap on my back so it wasn’t bunched up, it was seriously uncomfortable to wear more than an hour – a huge negative for a sling that’s so much work to get on and off.

The pouch sling is pretty good all around. Mamma’s Milk makes one of the few adjustable pouch slings, with hidden velcro so that there’s no rings, buckles, etc. Again, Spice was okay in it the first few weeks in the cradle hold, but fights it like a mad woman now. I’ve tried her in the tummy-to-tummy position, but she screams and claws at my chest and neck until I take her out. Finally, yesterday we had some degree of success with a careful facing-out position. I know you’re not supposed to have a newborn facing out, but she was half sideways, has good head control and was tucked in bum-first, with her feet lotus up. She could lean against me, and it worked well enough to get her from the breastfeeding support group to the car with one hand free. I’ll keep trying her in it, because it’s by far the fastest to grab and put on. And I’m holding out for using it for hip carries when she gets bigger.

My newest addition is a custom mei tai I bought on Etsy. A mei tai is an ABC (Asian-style Baby Carrier), generally a square/rectangle of cloth with four straps sewn on. Two straps tie around your waist and the other two go over your shoulders, cross at the back, come forward and tied around the baby’s back (newborn) or under their bum (toddler). Basically, it’s like an Ergo without all the bling. I bought the spouse the Ergo and it’s gotten virtually no use because a) he doesn’t remember/want to use it and b) it’s got too much bling. I hate things with buckles and stuff, so I wanted a mei tai. By far, BabyHawk has some of the coolest fabrics and some of the best reviews, but I wasn’t about to drop $115 on Yet Another Carrier that Spice would scream at. Thankfully, there’s Etsy, home of Lots of Cool Things made by SAHMs at Low Prices. I browsed around and settled on a cute custom mei tai with a pink/white/brown stripe pattern and black straps. After some confusion on my part in regards to how many mailboxes I have outside my house, it arrived and Spice screamed each time I put her in. Joy. Until it occurred to me to make it a little shorter by folding up the bottom and putting her in again facing out, bum in first. Success! I carried her around for about 10 minutes like that until she started to fuss. No point in pushing my luck, right?

But the swing. *sigh*

I want to carry her, my precious little bundle o’ joy, but she just won’t stand it! Bleah. And there’s only so much in-arms I can do without having at least a hand free, so.. we got a swing a couple of weeks ago. I felt super guilty about it, until I accepted the fact that this is not a battle – it’s about her being happy and comfortable. I almost always try to soothe her to sleep in my arms, but sometimes she’s just too cranky and tired and keeps fussing. I tuck her into the swing, pop it on the fastest speed and put some lullabies or white noise on, and she’s asleep faster than a drunken me passing out on the bed. She’s not going to be 10-years-old and needing to swing herself to sleep, right? And I keep trying the different slings every week since she seems to go through phases of what she likes.

But in the meantime, I still hate the swing.

Sorry for the absence. Things are still going well, I think. The baby is dropping a fraction of an inch at a time, as I find myself with more abdominal cramps, lower back pain and more running to the bathroom to pee a quarter of a cup, even though I’m drinking so much more fluids. :-)

I’ve been busy working on a redesign for this blog, as Blogger templates are entirely fugly. I’m almost done with the design/HTML, and next up with be integrating with Blogger variables so the whole thing works. Kinda fun actually. I love small, easy projects like this.

I’m ordering some last minute things this weekend, too. Like AA’s baby karate pants (3/$30) and some comfy undies ($6) for me to wear post-partum. I also ordered a Gypsy Mama / Wrapsody Bali Baby Breeze ($67) for myself and since the spouse would probably be overwhelmed by the learning curve of wraps, I got him the Ergo Baby Carrier ($92) with the Infant Insert ($25). Not cheap, but both can be used from newborns to three-year-olds, so I hope to get some good life out of them. I already have a Moby Wrap, but even just trying it on in an air-conditioned house on bare skin felt hot, so I wanted another wrap that would be more comfortable in our god-forsaken L.A. summer heat. (I’m sure the Moby will be cozy and comfortable in cooler weather here.)

I bought them together through theslingstation.com, which has great information on babywearing, and a huge selection of carriers. They also offer free shipping on orders over $90, which is pretty cool and have a very comfortable return policy.

I’m hoping the babywearing thing works out. I always wanted to wear Harley as a kitten, a la Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy. :-) Not that I’m that crazy, of course, but I’m sure I’ll get a lot less strange looks wearing a baby.

Katie’s observations are confirmed by research – in one Canadian study where carrying was increased throughout the day, (in addition to carrying which occurred during feeding and in response to crying), infants cried and fussed 43% less overall, and 51% less during the evening, and studies at Columbia University with mothers and infants considered at risk of failing to form secure attachments, showed that increased carrying led to increased maternal sensitivity, which resulted in less crying and quicker bonding. – Velcro Baby – The Baby That Clings!