Amanda Peet wears her Ergo Baby Carrier

I was so happy to see these gorgeous photos of Amanda Peet wearing her baby in an Ergo Baby Carrier. (Click on the link to see the rest of the photos.) Behind the scenes of the babywearing vendor scene, I often see the disappointment when celebrities are gifted baby carriers and then either don't use them, or use them poorly, in obviously uncomfortable ways. Amanda obviously got it; babywearing makes airport travel and, well, life, easier!

It's a funny thing about celebrities. They are of course people just like the rest of us, but we can see them so much more than they can see us. So a simple thing like hanging out at a babywearing meeting and finding out about the rejuvenated art of babywearing is something that isn't generally going to be an option for a well-recognized celebrity. I have long asserted that just as there are fitness trainers who make it their business to train celebrities, there should also be babywearing consultants who specialize in this area. Any celebrity is absolutely welcome to fly me out and get lessons but of course, they'd have to pay airfare for my little one too. Or just come visit! I'll hook you up! Gee, perhaps I'll put this as an item in my shopping cart. You never know! (Edited to add - Here it is! Babywearing Consulting!)

More and more often, we are seeing celebrities babywearing and doing it well! We all look to celebrities to learn about fashion and trends. Babywearing is one trend that is not going to go away. Yes, it can be a fashion statement, and there is nothing wrong with that! But it's also something that has taken many countries by storm because of how it enhances our life. Believe me, I would not willingly carry around an extra 30 pounds strapped to my body if there were not some advantage to it. The sad irony is that countries where babywearing has been done out of necessity are now making economic advances and consider babywearing beneath them. So while they are rushing out getting expensive strollers, celebrities here are ditching the stroller as often as possible. *

*Just to be clear, I am not anti-stroller. But there are so many times where it is easier and more convenient to not have a stroller and to simply babywear. I still love my stroller! I just don't use it that often.

A month of life in the Ergo

If you were going away and could only take one baby carrier with you, what would it be?

I just evacuated Florida for the entire month of September to avoid hurricanes. I traveled alone with my 5 year old and my 15 month old and 2 carry-on pieces of luggage. I can't bear checking luggage because something always seems to happen to it and anyway, can you really imagine trying to collect luggage with a toddler and another child to keep track of in New York City?

My baby is now a bit of a runner. Everything requires fine planning; I need to get to the airport early enough so I am not stressed but I certainly can't be hanging around there too terribly long with a toddler. Having just made a solo trip with both girls to Massachusetts, I know her threshold for being in the Ergo on public transportation is quite long, so long as I'm on the move and it's interesting. An airport terminal is pretty boring.

Sure enough, about 5 minutes before I could board, she got fussy and I had to keep moving to keep her happy. I wanted to board first because I didn't want to be shuffling in a slow line with her on my back. Once I got on the plane (Jet Blue - they are so helpful), she was fine. I mean, she was all over the place, on my lap, on the floor, but she stayed put, thank goodness, and mostly napped on my lap once we took off.

I didn't want to risk public transportation on the way to my mother's place so I took a taxi. What a mistake. The idiot driver didn't give me a moment to get the carseat strapped down securely. I was flopping all over the back of the cab as was the baby and he simply would not pull over. I finally had to give up and just do the best I could so we didn't both get killed. I have a Costco travel baby seat which weighs only 4 pounds and I don't think she was very impressed with it. My older daughter I put in her booster seat which is just a seat base so it's very portable as well.

During our stay, we used a stroller for local trips and tried to avoid taking it on subways and buses. It is really quite a pain to get up and down subway stairs with a stroller banging upside your leg. On the days I was without it, I felt totally free and relieved. Of course, carrying a baby all the time does become quite tiring day after day when you're not used to it. I admit that I lost 5 pounds over the course of the month because of a combination of carrying my baby all the time and also the fact that in the city, you wind up walking about 2 miles a day. Some days we walked 4 or 5 miles but on those days I took the stroller and had my older daughter on a Buggy Board on the back. So I was still getting a workout pushing her.

I learned some great tips for wearing the Ergo during my stay. I'll be putting these on my website. One tip is for wearing the Ergo on the front. In order to get the chest strap closed behind you, loosen one shoulder strap a lot and then close the strap with ease behind you. Then simply tighten the shoulder strap. The same applies to the Patapum Baby Carrier.

On the way home, I took public transportation all the way from New Jersey to JFK airport in Queens. It took a lot of doing and I did have a few choice words for the New York MTA subway stop at which the PATH dropped me off as there was no access for someone carrying babies and luggage but mainly, it went quite well, due, in no small part, to the Ergo freeing me up to be able to carry my 2 carry-on bags.

Think about that for a second. I was able to travel from New Jersey via PATH to the NYC subways to the Air Train and through stairways and elevators and across streets and bridges all without my husband's help and with my baby on my back. I could not have managed this without the Ergo. I would have had to take a taxi and that one ride would have cost more than the Ergo! Plus, how would I have negotiated the airport without the Ergo? I would have had to gate check my luggage and then worry about it and deal with entertaining 2 children while I waited for my bag to show up. No thanks! This was such a breeze!

By the way, now that I'm back in Florida, of course the hurricanes are not cooperating with my plans and keep coming. We lost power for a few days after Hurricane Wilma and I had to climb the stairs in my building many times. I'm still feeling the Ergo love as I put baby on my back and hauled up whatever supplies we were able to find on foot since there are no gas stations open and we were not willing to use any gas just in case we had to evacuate due to FPL warnings that power might not be restored for a month. Whew! If you're panting from reading that sentence, you should have heard my breathing at the top of the stairs!

Traveling alone with a baby and a kid, AKA I love my Ergo baby carrier

I just have to share this story because it's so amazing to me. Amazing in that it was no big deal! When I had just one child, I couldn't have, in a million years, dreamed of traveling alone with her. I couldn't have managed her and all the stuff. We always had a carseat and a stroller to carry the carseat and luggage piled on top of that.

Fast-forward to my recent trip to visit friends. My husband dropped me off at the airport and off I went with my 5 year old, my baby on my back in the Ergo baby carrier, and 2 carry-on pieces of luggage. That's it!

I always get really stressed out about going through the security checkpoint and this time was no different. But putting the luggage on the rack to get x-rayed was no big deal. My shoes went into a plastic bin. They insisted on xraying the Ergo but I just walked through carrying my baby, got her on my back right away, slipped my shoes back on, and off I went with my two daughters. Honestly, it was a breeze.

But that wasn't the end. Getting on the plane was so easy with my baby safely on my back, directly behind me. My daughter wheeled her luggage so I felt very free with only one piece of luggage to handle. As baby was behind me, stowing my own luggage was a breeze. Same thing when we landed.

The friend who was picking us up wasn't able to meet us when the plane landed and there was no way I was going to hang out in a major airport for hours so I took public transportation. Had to, really; I had no carseats. I wound up taking a bus, train, trolley, train, and another bus. It took about an hour and a half. The baby snoozed in the Ergo on my back, hoodrest up, and arrived refreshed. I could not be more thrilled to have pulled that off. Much more relaxing to keep moving than to try to keep track of a toddler in an airport and luggage and my older daughter. What a nightmare that would have been!