8/16/2006

Monthly NINO Babywearing Meeting

This week was my groups monthly NINO babywearing meeting. The focus this month was slings and pouches.

After doing an introduction to the features of various slings and pouches, we started playing around and helping one another.

One woman with a newborn was having trouble with her pouch. I showed her how to her turn her baby around so it would be easier to nurse him in the pouch, but it does appear her pouch is just a little too big for her. She would probably be more comfortable with one just a tad smaller.

Everyone had great fun chatting about the various brands of pouches and slings and trying on each others' baby carriers.
One woman had completely forgotton how to get her Ergo on her back so we did a quick refresher! That is so funny. For a few months, my daughter refused to go on my back and I felt like I had totally lost the skills but luckily, it's like riding a bike!


And another was ready to try the Ergo. She had borrowed an EllaRoo wrap from me to use while her baby was in a Pavlic harness to help correct hip dysplasia. First time in the Ergo baby carrier and she was nursing her baby! Of course, my daughter had to show her the ropes!

8/08/2006

Now you can see what I see! Oopa videos!

What a treat I have for you! I have been lucky enough to have met Amy Abreu in real life (she's lovely - good looking and nice!) and to have studied her sling technique, but not to my heart's content.

Amy has put awesome sling instruction videos on her Oopa website. I have always been fascinated with how she puts the baby in the sling and keeps her arm in there while she makes the adjustments. I have tried it this way a few times but never quite gotten the hang of the technique. Now, I will be able to study it at my leisure, as will you, and hopefully master and share this technique with others.

Also a treat is just looking at the rich colors and simply gorgeous Oopa silk slings. Better still would be to own one myself but I'm still working on making that happen. Meanwhile, I can imagine touching them and hearing the rustle of the fabric helps!

8/05/2006

Baby carriers are like shoes

People tend to get nervous when buying a baby carrier. They research and research and want to get it right! The thing is, it's totally cool to get multiple baby carriers.

Think of it like shoes.

You have to have sandals for breezy days. Maybe flip flops for days you just want quick in and out. You gotta have a nice structured shoe with good support for long walks. Maybe a hiking boot or shoe if you're into that. And of course you need some dressy shoes - you might have to compromise comfort.
Everyone owns at least a few pairs of shoes and usually several of each kind of function to go with different outfits, weather and moods.

Let me ask you - how often to your feet change size? Not often, right? So when you pick out a shoe, you know that it will work for you until it wears out, you get tired of it, or styles change (if you care about that sort of thing). But babies, well, they change! Oh, and so do new mamas - they (usually) shrink (eventually).

So the baby carrier that was ideal for the first few months may be awful when your baby hits six months. Or you may have lost so much weight that it isn't a good fit.

Newsflash! There is no penalty for getting another! And another! Yes, okay, they do cost money, but you can easily come by used baby carriers on Ebay, craigslist, the babywearing swap group, or thebabywearer.com. The latter, by the way, is the definitive site for all things babywearing. You will need to create a login but it's well worth it.

So go ahead. Buy a second baby carrier. Or even a third. Know that you can sell it and recoup some of your investment when the time comes.