Adventures in babywearing. #1 Love for the common crotch dangler.
It's been nearly eight years since I first became a mother, eight years where baby carriers have been important tools of the trade to me. I daresay that my parenting style had been a different one had I not picked up my first carriers. Carrying my babies close has allowed me to keep my children close while doing activities that need both hands. Like, well, when I think back to those early baby days, eating. Later, stable chores, getting laundry done with a fussy baby and walking in rough terrain all worked their way into my days far smoother than they could have done if I had to drag a car seat wherever the stroller couldn't go.
My first baby carrier was a hand-me-down BabyBjörn. Some friends had invited us over to look over their baby stuff and see what we wanted to use. I remember seeing the Björn and think that yes!, carrying my baby made all kinds of sense. While riding my horse with my baby in it sounded somewhat dangerous (even if I recalled seeing a woman doing that when I was younger), I could think of several situations where having my baby close and my hands free sounded like a good plan.
Fast forward a few weeks and you can picture me sitting in the maternity ward common room, sore and overwhelmed, listening to information from the resident physiotherapist on things to do and things to avoid. "Baby carriers," she said, "place babies in a position that is so hard on the small baby's skeleton, that they are best avoided until the baby is strong enough to sit up by herself." I remember wondering about what age that would be, but since I didn't want to sound stupid I kept my mouth shut.
Fast forward yet some weeks, it had become clear that we might as well have named our baby "Roo". He wanted to be close to us at nearly all times. When awake, when asleep and most of all when sleepy but not yet sleeping. After fiddling with the BabyBjörn a number of times but putting it down for fear of harming my precious bundle of ... frustration, I decided to give it a short try. Oh joy! While calling it a life saver would be stretching the truth quite a bit, it sure was a sanity saver. My baby was close to me and content, and I had my hands free.
Over the next months, I used the BabyBjörn carrier to wear him down to sleep, to go for walks and to calm him when he was fussy. While calling it a life saver would be stretching it, it certainly was a sanity-saver. It wasn't the most comfortable of carriers, but we were fine. My baby communicated clearly, I could trust him to start squirming a little as soon as the position started to tire him out. I learned that he was comfortable in the carrier for a maximum of 30-45 minutes, and I respected that. Looking at a photo now, though, I can easily see how I had to compensate as much for the weight in front with an infant in the BB as I did with a toddler in a mei tai. So what? He was happy, I was happy and our days worked out nicely. Win, win, win. Later, the BabyBjörn collected dust while other carriers shone, but I'll always think fondly of it for the joy it brought me in the beginning.
