A Tale of Two Sisters

I thought I would kick off my blog with A Tale of Two Sisters. I have two daughters, Big E and Little E, and they are now 4 years old and 14 months old. Whilst they do have their similarities they are different in looks and personality, and my babywearing experience has been equally different with both of them, some of which I’m going to share today.

When I was pregnant with Big E I had no intention to babywear, in fact I had never really considered it, but I was given a stretchy wrap and a caboo by different friends who said I would find them helpful with a newborn. When Big E was a couple of weeks old I tried them out; I disliked the caboo but I took straight to the stretchy wrap and then began my love affair with wrapping.

Big E was worn full time from about 6 weeks; by full time I mean I wore her around the house and out and about, abandoning the pram completely. I loved the closeness it brought and the practicality. I wouldn’t describe her as an unsettled baby but she wanted to be held… a lot… and she was also terrible to get off to sleep so the sling became invaluable to me.

 

Using a woven wrap allowed me to get out and explore the beautiful Cornish countryside that I had moved to shortly after Big E was born. It took me to places I could never get to with a pram.

As Big E grew so did my wrapping skill (and my wrap stash!) and we moved onto back carrying. As she grew even more and learned to walk we entered the independent stage that saw wrap strikes that I thought would never end! But little legs get tired and the novelty wears off; wrapping resumed!

By the time I was pregnant with Little E, Big E still wanted the occasional lift to which I was happy to oblige but she tended to walk more often and I began to really look forward to wrapping a newborn, especially as I hadn’t used a woven with Big E until she was a couple of months old and I had several beautiful, soft woven wraps ready and waiting for a squish. I wrapped my bump, for comfort and support but also in excitement and anticipation of what was to come.

Eventually, 11 days “overdue” and just 2 days before her sister’s birthday, Little E made an appearance and at just a 2 hours old was in a ringsling ready for discharge from hospital. I’d grabbed the ringsling in a hurry and without much thought as I’d had to ambulance transfer into hospital in the early hours of the morning, abandoning my home birth. In retrospect, I was glad that I had brought it rather than a wrap because whilst she was happy in a ringsling wrapping was another matter completely!

Much to my disappointment, my newborn Little E who I had been so looking forward to wrapping, literally for months, did no want to be wrapped! She would cry in the wrap, if not straight away within 5-10 minutes and I was so upset and worried – what if she was a baby who wouldn’t to be wrapped! Fortunately the lovely mums in the Firespiral Facebook group listened to my hormonal and slightly irrational worries and talked me down; give it time. So we wrapped regularly for short periods of time, as much as she would tolerate, several times a day, and used a pram (that I’d had to go out and buy!) when we went out.

Then, one day when she was about 4 weeks old, something magic happened. She actually fell asleep in the wrap!

Up until this point I had tried to wrap her when she was sleepy or already sleeping, but on this day Firespiral worked its kitten-belly-soft-sleepy-dust magic and she fell asleep in the wrap. From this point onwards our wrapping journey changed; she was happy and content to be wrapped and the pram was abandoned.

After Little E’s arrival I found that Big E began wanting to be carried again, so sometimes even now she is 4 when I’m out with my husband we’ll take the pram along (he doesn’t babywear) and swap the girls around so I can take turns to carry both of them. Some special times I have carried both of them together, and this tandem wearing has brought me enormous pleasure.

I have found with Little E I have needed to be far more intentional about wrapping than with her sister though. Where Big E wanted to be held, Little E has been more content to lie down or sit and play, and although wrapping is our mode of transport when I’m out and about, in the house we do much less babywearing. Now I have gone back to work 28 hours a week I have noticed that even more and am having to be more deliberate about my wrapping opportunities.

I have enjoyed wrapping for over 4 years now and it is a big part of my life. It has brought me much pleasure, many beautiful photos and I feel it has strengthened my relationship with my daughters. It also has brought me into a wonderful community of parents who also wrap their children, and I have made some good friendships through this. I hope to have at least a few more years to enjoy wrapping Little E before our babywearing days draw to a close. I don’t know if we’ll have any more children, but if we do I wonder what sort of wrappee they will be!

 

 

Review: Firespiral Slings Enchantress Mercury Gossamer

Firespiral Slings have recently released their Mercury collection. As with their last collection all the wraps released at the same time with smaller quantities available immediately and the option to backorder whichever size you would like. I think this is a great system as it enables people to choose exactly which wrap they would like and reduces the number of wraps cut in unwanted sizes. I like that Firespiral are always looking at new ways to improve their business and make their wraps accessible to everyone, their business model doesn’t depend on exclusivity and they are responsive to their fan base.

The enchanting Enchantress Mercury Gossamer was released on Monday, we’ve not seen a Gossamer design released for a little while so it was great to see it in this collection. Gossamer is a beautiful spider web design, inspired nature and it’s a design that I always feel looks even better when wrapped.

The blend is 74% cotton, 18% linen, 8% merino and weight 270gsm, it feels medium-thin in hand. It has some of the benefits of wool; a little cush and softness; but due to the low wool content is very easy care and doesn’t have any wool prickle. It feels strong, with a bit of stretch without sag.l and the Gossamer pattern also helps to give it some grip.

It’s not as thick as some of the 25% wool wraps, Verglas Midnight Midwinter for example, but I think it’s a great autumn wrap because it’s can be layered without being bulky and you can layer your baby’s clothes appropriately and not worry about overheating.

The colours are beautiful and so perfect for Autumn/Fall. Enchantress is like a rose gold and Mercury a grey green and both remind me of the colours of leaves as they start to change and fall from the tree. It’s quite a shiny wrap and metallic looking. I definitely see olive green on with wrap but I know others see it as grey. I’ve included a selection of photos in this review to get and capture the colours, however it’s a bit of a chameleon.

Enchantress would be suitable for little squishes as well as bigger kids. It’s soft and mouldable and would be easy to wrap a smaller baby in. I also carried 16kg Little E in a single layer carry very comfortably and think it’s a great blend for this but it’s not as cushy as some of the higher percentage, thicker woollies so others may prefer multilayer carries for bigger kids.

Enchantress and the Mercury collection can be found here in the shop along with other in stock wraps, blankets and accessories. There is also a friendly fan run community group on Facebook where you can find out more about these and previously releases and buy/sell/trade older Firespiral wraps.

Review: Firespiral Golden Twilight Starmap Librarian

We had the latest Librarian wrap from Firespiral Slings visiting for a test run and here’s what we thought.

Image Description: White woman with short dark hair carrying a white baby with fair hair on her front in a blue and gold wrap with three different patterned sections

Librarian design was originally released as a teaching wrap for sling libraries and consultants with a repeating geometric design that differed on the rails. Later this design was made available as a general release in two colourways.

The latest incarnation of the Librarian features a different design and uses the Festival, Starmap and Tentacular Spectacular patterns to split the wrap into 3 distinguishable sections which are helpful for teaching and learning – more on that later.

Image Description: White woman with short dark hair carrying a white baby with fair hair on her front in a blue and gold wrap with three different patterned sections

The wrap is 100% cotton, meaning it is easy care, but it is also strong and has the special Firespiral kitten belly soft cush that their cotton wraps produce. The Twilight warp is a rich navy blue as the Golden weft really does look golden against it, not just yellow, and the wrap has beautiful shine. It is easy to wrap with and has a nice combination of grip and glide with the top and bottom rails being slightly me grippy than the middle section.

Image Description: A photo from the front of a woman with short dark hair wearing a blue and gold wrap with three different patterned sections in a semi double hammock with a long tail hanging down in front and spread showing the three different patterns.

I want to give special mention to some of the features that make this wrap particularly good for learning with but this isn’t just a wrap for beginners, the eye catching design and wrapping qualities I’ve already mentioned make it suitable for everyone. For Team Starmap this wrap has the added benefit of being able to see the full design across the middle.

Image Description: A white woman with short dark hair carrying a white baby with fair hair on her back in a semi double hammock. The wrap is blue and gold and has 3 different patterns and the baby is asleep. The photo is taken from the side.

I am particularly impressed with this design from a teaching and learning perspective and here are a few of the reasons why:

• Three easily identifiable sections so you can quickly see whether you are working with the top, midde or bottom sections which is useful when learning to tighten across the width of the wrap and when positioning passes.
• The top and bottom edges are different colours which also helps to ensure you are working with the correct section.
• There is a definite blue side and gold side to this wrap so it’s easy to differentiate between the different faces, this is particularly useful if you are trying to put a flip into a carry or have accidentally flipped the wrap.

Image Description: Two photos of a white woman with short dark hair carrying a white baby with fair hair on her front in a blue and gold wrap with three different patterned sections. One is a close up and the other taken in a field. Both show a front reinforced torso carry and show both the gold and blue sides of the wrap.

I am not visually impaired and I recognise that not all people who are visually impaired have the same needs or experience however there area couple of elements to this wrap that I think could be particularly useful:

• The navy and gold are high contrast colours, for some people this will make it easier for them to differentiate the patterns (some of the original Librarian wraps do not have such high contrast colours).
• The three sections feel different to one another. I already mentioned that I am not visually impaired but as someone used to using my other senses I was able to tell the three sections apart from feel alone. This could be very useful for someone is completely blind and more adept than I am at using touch for information.

Image Description: White woman with short dark hair carrying a white baby with fair hair on her front in a traditional sling carry with a slipknot in a blue and gold wrap with three different patterned sections

I’ve been really impressed by this wrap and although I wasn’t sure it was one I would like (my brain likes order, symmetry and matching!) I have found it to be rather beautiful.

Review: Firespiral Slings Petrichor Winter Hill

I was really excited to get my hands on one of the unreleased wraps from Firespiral Slings and give it a test run. Petrichor Winter Hill is a Synergy weave wrap and it is the first double weave by Firespiral to have a woollen weft (two of them in fact!).

Petrichor Winter Hill wrap design

The hidden warp (Twilight) is a beautiful blue cotton and both weft faces are 100% wool, giving a final blend composition of 59% cotton and 41% wool (corrected blend details). The wool used is quite fine and uses a combination of 5 different grey, brown and tan threads to create the Winter Hill design. Although the blue warp is tucked away between the two wefts it does peek through in parts of the design and also gives an electric blue iridescent effect through the brown as the wrap moves.

Macro of threads

Macro of threads

Video description: A short clip showing the blue iridescence as a brown and grey wrap is moved

Petrichor also features a change to the Winter Hill design, the iconic telecommunication towers that featured in the original design, and are a familiar landscape to those living in the Bolton area where these are designed and woven, have been altered and are now a less prominent part of the design.

Telecommunication towers

The geeky bit: By my calculations the post wash and first wear GSM was just over 300 (just over 310 prior to washing and just under 310 afterwards but before wearing). Like the other Synergy weave cloths I have tried it has density in hand without being thick or unwieldy. When it arrived to me in loom state it felt almost slick or lanolised, this is to do with the processing oils used when weaving with wool, so I followed the wash routine advised by Tamsin and Jen and did 3 back to back wool cycles in my machine with a wool safe detergent in each wash. I then squished the wrap between a couple of towels and air dried flat overnight. After washing the wrap had lost 50g which just goes to show what a difference the washing process makes! The wrap felt very different after the wash too, softer and no longer oily and it had bloomed.

Loom to bloom

Because Petrichor is a woollen Synergy weave neither side of the wrap has cotton on the face of it, which is quite different to other wraps by Firespiral where you have areas that are smooth cotton and areas that are woolly formed by the design. This is a very woolly feeling wrap and a little prickly to start with, though I did not find it uncomfortable and was happy wrapping against 5 month old Tiny E’s skin, it will be interesting to see how this breaks in and softens further with use, it has already started to become softer and more fuzzy and I would expect that process to continue.

Fuzzy wool

Because of the all wool surface Petrichor has quite a lot of grip, and without the cotton to balance it I wondered if it would be too much for my preference, however I found it actually glided well in double hammock passes yet was still grippy enough for a ring finish, my slipknot was also manageable when I loosened it slightly and it held well.

Semi double hammock with ring finish

Inside Out Coolest Hip Cross Carry with slipknot

Petrichor was so good with huge 28kg 6 year old, Big E. It doesn’t have the cush of some of the other heavyweight woollies such as Calluna Callisto, Greystoke Glasto etc, but it has a density to it that is comfortable on the shoulders. I think with such a big wrappee the fact that is isn’t especially thick in hand made wrapping easier and not so much of a work out. It also means the wrap folds down relatively small which is a bonus for the older up-down walking toddler.

Big E in a back carry

Big E in a Semi Double Hammock

Big E’s long legs sticking out pulling the wrap taut when knee to knee

In hand it has a surprising amount of stretch when compared with how it wraps; I didn’t feel like it had a lot of stretch I needed to work out, nor did it sag after a while, instead it created supportive and well moulded passes.

Tiny E in an Inside Out Coolest Hip Cross Carry

Tiny E in a ruck

Tiny E in a ruck

I was as happy using this with a smaller baby as I was with my biggest girl, though I do feel it shines particularly with the bigger kids. It also works well in both single and multi layered carries so I think would work as a base length or mid to short length wrap.

Tiny E sleeping in a ruck

On Wednesday 10th of July Firespiral Slings are releasing 6 of their wraps on the Twilight warp. More information and photos about these and Petrichor can be found on their Facebook page and in the chatter group. I had the opportunity to see some of the other designs at The Wrap Show and there are some lovely wraps being released on a variety of blends, colours and designs.

Review: Firespiral Slings Seaspray Cyano Tentacular Spectacular

Firespiral Slings are releasing a series of wraps woven on a split warp; one side is called Sunset and is a vertical grad from lilac to pink to raspberry and the other is called Cyano, a vertical grad from electric blue to turquoise to sea green. Several wraps were planned on this split warp and I have previously reviewed two of these in this blog; Night’s Watch Cyano Charters Moss and Dryad Sunset Seafoam. This last couple of weeks I have had Seaspray Cyano Tentacular Spectacular visiting for review.

Seaspray is an Elements wrap which is a tighter weave than Alchemy and will require a little more breaking in. It didn’t come to me in loom state, having first visited Wild Cuddles who had given it a good wearing in, and was fairly soft when it arrived but seemed to soften further during our use. It is a medium weight wrap around 260-270 gsm compromising of 74% cotton, 20% hemp and 6% merino. Because of the low wool content this is an easy care wrap that requires no special washing and can be tumble dried, which is always a bonus!

The Tentacular Spectacular design is very pretty, I think better in person, and it reminds me of bubbles or the suckers on an octopus tentacle. One of the nice things about this design is there is no right or wrong way to wear it, and with a graduated warp colour it means you can wear your favourite colour at the top without affecting the design.

I really love the Cyano colours and paired with the ecru Seaspray weft it made a really fresh, bright wrap with beautiful shine that will be lovely in spring and summer. I expect the Sunset version to be equally bright and beautiful.

I really liked the wrapping qualities of Seaspray, although I hadn’t been sure I would as it is Elements and I really love Alchemy. It doesn’t have the cush or cloudlike softness that you often find with Firespiral wraps, however it also wasn’t diggy but comfortable on the shoulders. I didn’t find it had a lot of stretch but it was still able to produce a really tight wrap job that felt very solid. With the pattern and texture of the wrap I expected it to be very grippy, and whilst it does have plenty of that and is able to hold tight in a half knot, it also had a surprising amount of glide to it – double hammock passes moved smoothly over one another. Seaspray is strong enough for toddlers but soft and mouldable enough for little babies too; a great all rounder!

Seaspray Cyano Tentacular Spectacular will be released later this year via the Firespiral Slings website, date to be confirmed. Find them on Facebook for more information about upcoming releases and special length pre-orders.

Review: Dryad Sunset Seafoam

Firespiral Slings are releasing a series of wraps woven on a split warp; one side is called Sunset and is a vertical grad from lilac to pink to raspberry and the other is called Cyano, a vertical grad from electric blue to turquoise to sea green. One of the wraps being released is Dryad Seafoam and I have had Dryad Sunset Seafoam here for a visit.

Dryad Sunset is a quad blend of 56% cotton/18% viscose/16% hemp/10% linen, and although we’ve seen the Dryad weft before this is a more heavyweight version weighing approximately 350gsm.

Now I am not really a pink fan, you may have noticed I wear a lot of turquoise and more recently purple, but this wrap is like sunshine on a rainy day, and we have had a lot of those recently! The colour is vibrant and glows on even the dullest of days.

At 350gsm this falls into the heavyweight category, and as a whole the wrap feels quite hefty but in hand it doesn’t feel that thick, especially compared with some of the Firespiral wool blends, but it has got some density to it. The Sunset cotton is silky smooth and soft where as the Dryad weft is slubby and textured; these two combine to give a wrap with well balanced grip and glide. It has some stretch but not a lot and once wrapped it gives a really solid wrap job.

It is a wrap that will require some breaking in but I can feel it has the potential to become floppy and buttery; in the short while that I’ve been using it I’ve seen a difference. I’ve used this with both Little E and Tiny E, and it is very sturdy and supportive.

It perhaps wouldn’t be my first choice with a very small baby unless well broken in, but at almost 8 weeks old it works really well for Tiny E and is great with Little E too. It works well in multilayer carries but is also very comfortable in single layers and I think it would be particularly good as a shorter wrap with larger baby or toddler.

Dryad Sunset Seafoam is available now in the Firespiral shop, but if you are more of a blue fan its Cyano sibling is still to be released, date to be confirmed.

Squish Worthy? Newborn Wrapping

So you might have noticed I’ve been wrapping a newborn, or squish, recently – though I’m not sure at 6 weeks I can still call her newborn! Often when people talk about wraps and review them they will describe them as being “squish worthy”, myself included. Today I wrapped with my least squish worthy wrap, and it was a success – so what makes a wrap squish worthy… or not? How much of a difference does the wrap make and how much of it is about technique? Or your baby?

Wrapping a newborn is different to wrapping a bigger baby or toddler. In my experience most people come to woven wrapping their first baby later, often having progressed from a stretchy wrap, though with subsequent children they may go straight for a woven and discover it’s not as easy with a tiny newborn! As I’ve mentioned in another blog post I followed this pattern with my first two children. I thought I was quite good at wrapping and then Little E came along and it was a real challenge – especially as she didn’t want to be wrapped initially! She was also much more floppy than Big E, which in retrospect made it harder. Tiny E is a different experience entirely, she has loved the wrap from the very beginning and is strong, has good tone and similar to Big E in this way.

Top to bottom: Big E, Little E and Tiny E

In addition to the usual safety principals of babywearing, with a newborn you should be mindful of overextending limbs and respect their natural positioning. Some babies may have tightly froggied legs, for example, and the wrap should support them in the same way that you would hold them in arms.

Often thin, soft wraps are considered to be particularly squish worthy and I will admit that I have favoured these with Tiny E. They are easy to wrap with because they mould snugly to your baby providing good support to their c-shaped spine, and produce small bunched passes that do not over extend little legs. There is also something particularly nice about a thinner wrap that makes you feel as though you and your baby are one.

However, you may still wish to use a thicker wrap like the one I used today. It requires more careful tightening to ensure even support and you may like to adjust your carry type to reduce the impact of chunky bunched passes on small legs. I wouldn’t rule out a thicker wrap on the basis of its weight alone, but consider other factors such as how well broken in it is, how do the pattern or fibres affect the grip and glide and which carry would it work best for.

Finally, here are a few techniques/ideas to consider when wrapping a small baby:

Add in a Lexi twist – this can be used where there would normally be a cross pass, and it lowers the point where the wrap tails cross over each other so it doesn’t affect the legs.

Use carries without cross passes – for example a reinforced torso/traditional sling carry or a Front Wrap Cross Carry with Pond finish or Anne’s finish. These carries have hammock or horizontal passes that “cup” the baby’s bum and don’t extend the legs with cross passes, this can be particularly useful with froggied legs when it can be difficult to get cross passes in place.

Top to bottom: FRTS, FWCC Pond Finish, FWCC Anne’s Finish.

Relax and wrap at a time when you and your baby are comfortable. If your baby doesn’t seem very keen to start with, don’t despair, they may just need to get used to it. With Little E I wrapped daily for short periods of time (5-10 minutes) or when she was asleep until she became settled when she was wrapped.

If you are new to using a woven wrap and want to carry your newborn you may find a one to one session with a carrying consultant useful.

Happy wrapping!

Review: Firespiral Night’s Watch Slings Cyano Charters Moss

Firespiral Slings are starting 2019 by releasing a series of wraps woven on a split warp; one side is called Sunset and is a vertical grad from lilac to pink to raspberry and the other is called Cyano. The Cyano warp is a reincarnation of the popular jewel toned striped Cyano warp we saw released a few years ago and this time it appears as a vertical grad from electric blue to turquoise to sea green. You can read more about this split warp here including some interesting behind the scenes production photos and information.

The Cyano warp is probably my favourite so I have really enjoyed seeing it rewoven as a beautiful grad and I have had the pleasure of hosting the Charters Moss tester recently. Charters Moss is also one of my favourite designs, so woven in Cyano this wrap was always going to be popular with me! You can read more about the inspiration behind the Charters Moss design here, I really appreciate the name and design links to where the wraps were made but my favourite element is the Northern Lights dancing in the sky.

The weft, Night’s Watch, is a dark navy somewhere between Obsidian, Twilight, Octarine and Midnight. It’s made of alternating navy blue viscose and black cotton-cashmere threads giving a final blend composition of 86% cotton, 10% viscose and 4% cashmere. This is an easy care wrap that can be machine washed and tumble dried… win!

I expected it to be soft, given the blend composition, and I knew it was fairly thin (although medium weight) however I was pleasantly surprised by how cushy and marshmallowy it felt when it arrived. It was also, as I expected, very soft and would be perfect for wrapping Tiny E. My tester came washed and tumble dried and comparing notes with a friend (@wrapasaurus on Instagram) who hasn’t tumble dried her tester it sounds like it adds to the fluffy feel is the wrap.

The wrap is mouldable with some stretch, the passes glide into place and then hold there to give a really supportive carry. It works really well with a newborn because of how snugly it moulds to their curves and because the bunched passes are not too bulky around little legs… Plus the softness!

Little E wanted to go up and this wrap also worked really well with her; because of the wrapping qualities I’ve already mentioned I was able to get a good double hammock with tight chest pass. It was supportive with her 15kg, easy on the shoulders and she was comfortable.

This really is an ideal newborn wrap, but the good news is it also works well with an almost 3 year old. Although I opted for a multilayered carry with Little E, and it was good in this, I would also happily carry in single layers. This is fabulous in base size but would also make a lovely midlength or short wrap (with the added bonus of doubling up as a beautiful, soft shawl!) and I am torn about which size I would like this in!

The release date for this beautiful wrap is still to be confirmed, but you can follow Firespiral Slings on Facebook and see their website for more information on their upcoming releases, they also have an Instagram account (@firespiral). In addition to a general website release for sizes 3-7 Firespiral also offer the opportunity to preorder shorter or longer wraps, custom lengths, babywearing bags and ring slings, and this will be announced on Facebook and their website.

Edit: Both the Cyano and Sunset Night’s Watch Charters Moss wraps will be released on the 23rd if March.

Review: Ruck n Roll Handwovens Parzival

This last week I’ve had the pleasure of hosting a tester wrap from Ruck n Roll Handwovens. His name is Parzival, and he is a very handsome wrap from a three wrap series inspired by Ready Player One. Parzival has a tencel warp and a sea island cotton weft, measures around 4m and will be listed for sale this week!

The first thing that struck me was how incredibly soft and silky Parzival was and how it felt fluid in hand. I knew it was going to be perfect for wrapping a newborn and it didn’t disappoint.

It is relatively thin and has a bandage like quality to it that gives a supportive, mouldable wrap job with beautiful drape.

Whilst perfect for wrapping a small baby it also held up well with 2y8m old Little E. The hammock passes glided over each order effortlessly and it also gave a really snug chest pass, but once tied off held in place with grip that was unexpected for the silky soft feel of the wrap.

None of my wrapped photos do colours justice, so here are a few that capture the colours better.

For more information on Ruck n Roll handwovens you can find them on Facebook and join the chatter group (this is where Parzival will be listed for sale).

Wearing in Pregnancy

I’m now reaching the end of my pregnancy (I hope!), we should be meeting our third baby soon, and this is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while. There is lots of information available regarding baby and toddler wearing in pregnancy which I’m not going to repeat but I wanted to share my experience of it with you.

During my second pregnancy with Little E, I wore Big E until the last few weeks before I gave birth; she was almost 3, big and physically developed for her age so didn’t need or want a lot of carrying. I had some pelvic girdle pain during that pregnancy which I saw an excellent private specialist physio for.

This time round Little E is 2y8m, she is smaller than her sister was and, as you may have seen in a previous entry, she has some hypermobility particularly in her knees and ankles (as well as mild hip dysplasia). Because of this she is a bit uncoordinated and clumsy (well that’s part of why!) but she also tires more easily and has been more willing to go up in the wrap. We were told by the physiotherapist we saw that she is also likely to experience sore legs after a busy day of activity, and whilst that’s not something she’s had the communication skills to express until now for the first time recently she complained of being sore and needing a rest!

This pregnancy has been quite hard going for me. I experienced a lot more nausea and sickness in the first 15 weeks than I had in my previous pregnancies, and this had an impact on my being able carry that I hadn’t expected so early on. I generally avoid waist belts/tying in front when I wrap anyway and usually opt for a chest belt or candy cane finish, but I found this made me feel constricted and much more sick, even without pressure on my stomach. As a consequence when we were out and about with my Mum Little E would go (quite happily) in the pram; my Mum would push her as she likes doing it, where I have always hated the disconnected feeling it gives me from my children. If I was out on my own I would still wrap but it made me feel much worse so it wasn’t an enjoyable or comfortable.

As my nausea went I was left feeling much more exhausted that I had in my previous two pregnancies and found myself continuing to carry less than I would like. At about 13 weeks I also developed pelvic girdle pain, which has been significantly worse in the pregnancy too (apparently I’m falling apart this time round!), in general it didn’t stop me carrying but it made it painful and I really felt it in the days that followed. My husband doesn’t usually carry, but did do on a few trips away this time when I’d overdone it and found just walking or sitting painful.

Once again I saw my amazing physiotherapist and she has been worth every penny to have a thorough assessment, treatment and personalised exercise plan. If you experience PGP in pregnancy I cannot stress enough the importance of seeing a good physiotherapist, it has made all the difference in this pregnancy, and although it didn’t go away it became much more manageable.

One of the things I love about wrapping is how versatile it is and how it can be tailored to the shape, size and requirements of the individual. Using a single length of fabric I have been able to vary my carries to accommodate my growing abdomen as well as my growing child! My personal favourites have been a seatless ruck with a candy cane chest belt or a double hammock variation with a candy cane chest belt or tied under bum. Both of these carries removed any pressure on my bump by tying at my shoulder or under bum. The double hammock provided an extra layer of support for longer carries with my growing toddler but the seatless ruck offered a quick and easy option for a high back carry when I was struggling physically to wrap. The first two images are of a double hammock and the second two of a seatless ruck.

I also experimented with a buckled carrier, now I am not a buckles kind of girl at all and it definitely isn’t my preference but it was manageable. I found wearing the waist band over my 33 week bump restricted my diaphragm too much and I got very breathless but when I threaded the waist band through the shoulder straps to produce an onbuhimo style carry it was much more comfortable.

Carrying in pregnancy can be physically very demanding, though as someone who carried regularly before pregnancy those muscles had already developed strength, but it does put additional strain on your core and pelvic floor. I found I really needed to listen to what my body was telling me, and take a break from carrying when needed but because of doing this I have still been able to carry right up to the end, our most recent carry being at 39+5.

The benefits of carrying don’t go away because of pregnancy and I’ve actually found it has been useful to maintain my closeness and bond with my 2 year old. I intend to tandem wear both of them once the baby is here on the days that Little E needs a lift, so watch this space!

The Sling: A Place of Safety

I would imagine that most of you who read or follow my blog are already babywearers, and this concept of the sling being a place of safety will be well known to you, but I was reminded of it again this evening so wanted to write a short post about it.

We are currently away in Center Parcs enjoying the festive fun of Winter Wonderland, and whilst Little E wants to walk everywhere and my my pregnant pelvis isn’t up to carrying much we have managed a few wrap cuddles, which we found especially helpful when she was feeling poorly this morning and just needed to be close.

This evening we walked over to watch the firework display down by the lake. Little E has a bit of a love-hate relationship with “bangs”. She likes fireworks… until we watch them! With Bonfire Night being so recently we’d had a little trial run and found that despite her enthusiasm to watch them when they actually started she became upset by the noise. We came prepared with a pair of ear defenders and this evening Daddy carried her in a borrowed buckle carrier as it was a bit more of a walk than I felt I could manage carrying. It also meant that she could be carried on the front and find comfort from her Dad if she didn’t enjoy the display; my bump gets in the way of this now!

When the fireworks started, despite wearing ear defenders, she wasn’t keen and instead snuggled into Daddy and the sling, closed her eyes and retreated from the sensory overload of the light, sound and people and I was reminded of how the sling can be a place of safety for babies and toddlers.

From birth the sling provides a source of connection and comfort, a safe space for our children to explore the world, allowing them to be active participants in what’s going on around them, but also allowing them to withdraw when needed, just as Little E did tonight… and I remember she did the same last year too!

The sling can also be a place of safety from the inquisitive but well meaning strangers who want to get up close to admire (or even touch) your beautiful newborn. It lets you control how close other people can get whilst keeping your baby snuggled and secure on you.

There are so many benefits to wearing our babies and toddlers (or even preschoolers), and I love that after 5.5 years of using a sling I can still appreciate these anew and that even at 2.5 years old Little E still benefits from the connection and safety it brings.