Library update - Hoppediz woven wrap

I'm happy to announce that our carrier library now includes a woven wrap - a Hoppediz in the bright and beautiful Delhi colourway.

It was kindly donated by MayBaby who currently sell Hoppediz wraps through Trademe.

Hoppediz are very similar to Storchenwiege woven wraps and the Didymos stripes range of woven wraps. They have quite a dense, thick weave which makes them super supportive, especially as your child gets older and heavier. In addition, they're really wide (this one is about 4 cm wider than my Storchenwiege Inka which is already considered a wide wrap) so they are great for back carries for toddlers.

Like other European woven wraps, Hoppediz are made from high quality cotton free of pesticides and chemicals.

Hoppediz have a couple of extra handy features - firstly they have middle markers on both the top and bottom rails of the wrap. This is very helpful when doing back carries. In addition, they come with a little pocket at one end to put your keys, phone etc.

Hoppediz have lots and lots of different colourways, possibly more than any other manufacturer, so there is something for everyone. The Delhi colourway we have is very cheerful in shades of red and orange.

The wrap comes with an extensive instruction booklet so it doesn't matter if you've never used a woven wrap before.

All in all, a very good example of a woven wrap for you to try out. Please email our librarian if you'd like to try it (or ask at one of our slingmeets).

If you're thinking of buying one for yourself, let them know that you're a Babywearing Wellington member and you'll get a 10% discount.

Thanks again to Anna at MayBaby!

Babywearing Beyond Infancy

We're Babywearing Wellington, but we've been around for well over a year now, and our babies have grown up a lot in that time so we have a bit to say about how wearing an older baby or child differs from wearing an infant and why you might want to consider it.

Emma wearing 2.5 year old Leith in a woven wrap

My son will turn 2 next week and I've been wearing him since he was a few days old. When he was little, babywearing was very useful to me, but as he got older and more aware it became a joy.

One of my favourite memories from his first year is from when he was just over 6 months old and I had him on my hip in a ring sling. We were walking through town and he was looking around at the world and then turning back to look at me with a delighted "Did you just see that?!" look on his face. It was lovely to be able to share in his developing awareness of the world, and that's one of the beautiful things about wearing babies and kids who are awake a reasonable amount of the time. They are getting to see the world from you level, where all the exciting stuff happens, where they are part of your interactions and conversations. You also get to talk to them about what you're both seeing. And, when it all gets too much, you're right there for them to snuggle into for comfort.

One of the reasons that a lot of people with small babies don't envisage wearing them when they get bigger is that they think they're going to be too heavy. My son is about 14kg, so he probably looks gigantic to those with little babies. If someone were to wear him for the first time now they'd probably struggle a bit, but I started wearing him when he was 3kg and have been wearing him as he's grown, so my strength has built. It is a pretty good workout, to be honest. I can no longer wear him all day, but he wouldn't let me, anyway.

These days I don't wear him much around home, but he does sometimes get pretty clingy when he's tired, sick or teething and wearing him allows me to get things done while also minimising tantrums and meltdowns.

Many parents still find it helpful to wear their toddlers to help them get to sleep, but unfortunately it's incredibly rare for me to be able to successfully transfer him out of the carrier onto the bed. He'll occasionally nap on me when we're out, but I'll admit that that is rather tough on me physically, so I try to avoid it.

More often I wear him in public.

He likes to walk places these days, but he gets tired easily so it's great to have a carrier in the bag for when he decides to sit down in the middle of the pavement. It's a lot easier to cart around "just in case" than pushing an empty stroller (unless you're picking up groceries, in which case a pram can be pretty handy). We use public transport a lot so I definitely don't want to wrestle a stroller on and off the bus when we might not even need it.

It's also great for when he refuses to hold my hand and I don't want him running off. I can put him on my back or I've been known to tie one end of a wrap around his waist and use it as a leash!

Many carriers are suitable for carrying larger kids but ones that can be used for back carries are ideal. Carrying a heavier child on the front of your body can be very tough on your back, and as they get taller they are more in your way as you have to reach around them and peer over them!

There are two common kinds of carrier I wouldn’t recommend for carrying larger babies, neither of which are suitable for back carries. Mainstream frontpacks are designed for babies up to a year old but many find them uncomfortable well before then. Stretchy wraps tend to sag a bit with a heavier child and are rarely wide enough to support the back of a taller kid.

SSCs such as the Ergo or Manduca are a popular choice and most of them have a weight limit of about 20kg, which could be around 4 years or older. They're also quite quick to get on and off so can be good for a kid who wants to get up and down a lot or for putting them in it quickly when you're out on the street.

We have started using a Mei Tai recently and have been enjoying it. It's not quite as quick to put on as an SSC but it's easy to wear higher up to let the wee bloke see over my shoulder and it folds up smaller than our SSC if we're carrying it "just in case".

Our personal favourite is the woven wrap. I learned to do back wraps from Emma about a year ago and it's been brilliant. It was a bit of a learning curve but we soon got proficient with rucksack carries and I can quickly get M high up on my back where he can see the world, talk to me, kiss me and rub food in my hair. We find our Storchenwiege particularly supportive and I feel very confident about carrying him in it, despite his ever increasing weight, as the fact that it is one piece of fabric means that there is no stitching to possibly break or come undone.

Though one shoulder slings like ring or pouch slings can be quite tough for long periods with a heavier child they certainly make things easier on your arms for quick carries. They fold up small to fit in a bag and they're quick to pop a child in and out of, so can be a good option to have around for your toddlerwearing emergencies.

A year in the life of babywearing

Audrey recently turned one so I've been doing a bit of reflecting about the past year. She's growing up far too quickly (doesn't everyone say that!) and is being worn less and less. As she's going to be our last child, I thought I'd write a little piece about our babywearing journey over the last year.

In contrast to when Leith was born, I was well practised at wrapping by the time Audrey arrived. So less than 2 hours after her birth, she was snugly wrapped up in my Didymos shorty to come home from hospital.

The first couple of weeks after her birth she was worn for practically the whole day, only coming out for feeds and nappy changes. It was so lovely to have a snuffly, tiny newborn wrapped against my chest again. This time around I was also a lot more confident about back wrapping, so on day 6 after birth I put Audrey in her first secure high back carry in my silk Indio.

We flew to the West Coast for Christmas with my family when Audrey was 3 weeks, and wrapping proved to be indispensable during the trip. She could sleep anywhere, and having her asleep in the wrap in the evenings meant I could still spend time with my family.

I was also more confident about breastfeeding in a wrap this time, and fed Audrey in one for the first time walking around Thorndon Fair just after she was born. Since then, I've fed her while pushing Leith on the swings, while walking around the supermarket, while out shopping...basically anywhere, anytime.

Evenings for the first few months were relatively easy - I'd feed Audrey then put her in the wrap and bounce her to sleep on a swiss ball while Stu put Leith to bed. This way we could spend time together in the evenings without worrying about getting her to sleep or her waking up. From about 9 months or so, however, she was harder to settle like this and it's now easier to feed her to sleep in bed.

With only 19 1/2 months gap between Leith and Audrey, wrapping has been really important for letting me still do things with Leith. In the early months, Audrey would sleep in the wrap while I took Leith to playgroup or music group, or be content to look around while I took Leith to the playground. We didn't have any jealousy issues when she was born and I think a lot of this is down to this. Having her wrapped on me also meant I didn't have to worry about her brother accidentally hurting her or waking her up. Also having her on my back has meant I can pick Leith up if he wants a cuddle.

As she's got bigger, the amount of time she has spent in the wrap each day has steadily decreased. I still wear her once a day or so while out and about places but she hardly ever naps in a wrap these days. She's been walking since 10 1/2 months and when she wants down, she wants down! I've stopped obsessively trawling TheBabyWearer to drool over latest limited edition wraps and have even started thinking about selling part of my stash! That said, whenever she's sick, cranky or teething, I'm very grateful for wrapping. And big girl wrap snuggles are the best. Having seen people still carrying their much older children, I hope we've still got lots of wearing ahead of us!

Emotionally Attached to my Didy

This is the story of how I developed an emotional attachment, akin to that of a child to a blanky, to my Didymos Silk Indio woven wrap sling. I call her (yes, it's a she) “Didy” and she holds a special place in my heart.

Of all the slings I've tried, Didy is my absolute favourite. Aside from being beautiful, tactile, and totally practical for a warm baby in summer, Didy holds a lot of meaning for me as a solution to many of my baby Holly's initial sleeping problems.

Holly was a colicky newborn who found evening sleeping and feeding really difficult. Every evening from around 5 she would start crying, and it wouldn't stop until late (which I'm sure sounds familiar to many new parents). Most of the time she wouldn't take to the breast so feeding to sleep wasn't an option, much to my distress. More often than not we would rock her to sleep, singing while she cried in our arms until she tuckered herself out. It was really hard. Nothing we tried was working, and nothing had prepared me for the anguish I felt at being powerless to stop my baby crying.

Wrap slings had appealed to me since I had seen my dear friend Emma wearing her first born in one. What I liked most about them initially was the convenience and portability. Emma also looked stylish, relaxed and somewhat like a supermum, and baby Leith was snug and contented. So, with Emma's guidance, we invested in two lovely stretchy wrap slings before Holly was born.

We had of course heard about helping your baby to sleep using a sling, but for some reason in those early, sleep deprived weeks, we primarily used the slings we had for taking Holly out walking or shopping. Eventually the light went on, and tried them as a sleep solution, but when we did she was already overtired and would cry even louder as we put her in. We persisted despite those cries because, once she was snug in her sling, Holly would fall asleep much quicker than the rocking method, and would sleep soundly against either mummy or daddy for a reasonable length of time.

Once we made the conscious decision to use slings as a sleep tool, we were much better at putting Holly in the sling before she became really overtired, and eventually she stopped protesting altogether. Often it was only a 100m walk up the road and back that put Holly off to sleep.

We were determined to make a go of it, and the more we looked into slings, the more benefits we could see for Holly. She was such a spilly baby - before, after, in between and during feeds - and seemed most comfortable in an upright position. Of course it meant washing the sling quite often!

The reason why we went for stretchy wraps over woven ones was that we were reluctant to fork out the big bucks on a woven sling without trying the sling idea out first. The stretchy wraps were good for Holly as a newborn, but as she started to pack on the weight, the wraps would sag a little and constantly need retightening. She would also get way too hot, and seemed to need a much lighter fabric. For this reason, Didy was absolutely perfect for our needs.

We also tried a number of different carries before settling on the front wrap cross carry as a preference. All three of us preferred this carry because Holly was completely upright (as opposed to a cradle carry) which helped with the spilliness, and it was the most supportive of all carries for my back.

Once we'd bought Didy there was no turning back. I also stopped using the stroller, taking Holly out for walks in the sling instead. Having Holly sleep in the sling made it so easy to get out of the house, jump on a bus to town, catch up with friends, or do whatever I needed to at whatever time. It has meant that Holly is a completely portable baby – she'll sleep wherever as long as there's a sling handy. Even evening sleeps were blissful, with Daddy putting Holly to sleep in the sling until we adults were ready for bed (then a quick transfer and a dream time feed did the trick). Things really started to come together sleep-wise when Didy arrived. Like a beautiful, woven kind of magic.

Daddy still loves wearing his sleeping daughter. I know it has assisted in their bonding – each sleep is an extended hug. For myself, even when I'm having a bad day, and feel cranky with Holly for whatever reason, wearing her blissfully sleeping in the sling lets me reconnect with her every time.

While it is still completely usable for our bonnie baby, Didy's fabric blend and weave means that it isn't quite as supportive as a 100% cotton wrap sling or a soft structured carrier. So now we use the Manduca or the Neobulle sling. But Didy still remains our most precious sling, because she was a real life saver in our time of need. Didy helped with Holly's sleeping difficulties, her spilling, and I am totally convinced that wearing Holly so much in the first six months of her life helped strengthen that special bond between us. Didy has been fundamental in Holly's development from baby into toddler, and I give Didy much of the credit for the confident, smiley and happy little 12 month old that Holly is today.