Baby wearing...for the win?

I have addressed this issue before, but just in case you haven't picked up on it, Elly is a needy baby. Very needy. She is clingy and has a constant need to held and if you leave her alone in a room she freaks out. You can't go get laundry, or grab a drink or even go pee without listening to Elly cry and fuss. I think baby wearing might just be the solution to this dilemma.

I've always thought that baby wearing was kind of a new age hippie sort of thing. I mean before I actually learned anything about it. Before I did some research and read the blogs of some intelligent women who did baby wearing (and there are some weird cookies out there who do it.) I thought of it as one of those granola, hairy-arm-pit, unwashed sort of things. Of course, nowadays, organic is trendy (Remember back when people who ate organic had dreadlocks and wore a lot of hemp bracelets?) and of course hemp is getting to be trendy. Every one is into all-natural products, mineral make-up, locally grown produce, reusable shopping bags, etc. We've all gotten to be way more eco-conscious in the last year or two. So I guess hippie is in?

But I refuse to give up shaving my arm pits. I don't care if becomes trendy!

After researching I found that baby wearing is no more hippie and new age than breast feeding is. It's really more old school and natural that putting baby in a bouncer and letting them "tough it out."

I started looking into baby wearing while I was pregnant. With a high-maintenance high-energy toddler, I worried about how I'd manage tending two babies at once. Baby wearing seemed like a good solution. It's something that moms having been doing since our hunting and gathering days. The Native Americans carried their little papoose and the Chinese carried their babies in colorful slings. Josh kinda frowned on the idea of the sling and carrying the baby around all the time. Then I started thinking about how Evie just preferred to do her own thing and how it might be awkward to try and keep the baby with me all the time and I guess I talked myself out of it. I still thought it was a great idea and whereas I was afraid it wasn't for me, I still supported it.

I read a lot of the history of baby wearing. There are a lot of resources out there if you're interested. Here are some links:
*Baby Wearing 101
*Sling babies
*Wikipedia Baby Wearing


Since Elly came along I've had to make a lot of compromises on my parenting style. I guess that's a big part of parenting...compromises. Co-sleeping has never been something that I've wanted to do with a newborn, but it has been necessary as Elly now wakes up every morning at 5 a.m. to come sleep with me. Before I made that compromise no one was really sleeping. Well, my husband did some, and that just ticked me off. Now I'm a little aggravated that I have to get up every night but at least I'm managing about 7 hours of decent sleep.

Another compromise has been the schedule. I really support having babies on a schedule and Evie was the perfect infant for someone with my anal retentive tendencies. I like having predictability to my life and knowing when I'm going to be doing what. Elly despises schedules. She works hard every single day to keep us all on our toes. Other than the 8 a.m. bottle she has right when we get up and the 9 p.m. bottle every night before bed, I have no idea when or how much Elly will eat. No idea. Some days she wants to eat every 2 hours. Some days only every 4. Sometimes she will down 6 oz and ask for 2 or 3 more. Sometimes she'll take an hour to barely finish 3 oz. There's really no telling. Generally speaking she eats between 25-32 oz a day. But I have had to completely give up on getting her on a schedule for now. I'm hoping when she starts solids she will get on a 3 meals and 4 bottles schedule. Hoping...

She also doesn't usually nap in her crib like I would prefer. Or spend enough time out of that vibrating bouncer seat. Or get as much one-on-one time as I'd like. The list goes on...but you get the idea.

But one thing I really can't compromise on is that I have to put her down sometimes. I'm a mom of TWO and there are a lot of other things that I have to get done during the day. And I can't wait til after both babies are asleep because I need to sleep too. Plus I'm usually so exhausted by then I'm lucky to have the energy to wash my face and drag the covers over me. I have come to grips with the fact that I will not keep my house spotless or even tidy most of the time. I have accepted that I may not get a full night's uninterrupted rest for several years. If ever. I've moved on from thinking that I will get everything done, be it laundry, yard work, or even just photos uploaded. But with a toddler who needs food, drink, diapers changed, attention, etc. on a fairly regular basis I need to have my hands free so that I can at least take care of her. And maybe start the dishwasher or the washing machine. Ya know?

I've come to terms with a lot of changes since Elly's birth. Still I have to spend more time than I'd like listening to her cry because I cannot hold her all the time. I'm hoping that baby wearing helps resolve some of this. So last Friday I ordered a sling. My mom received a code from Seven Slings for a free sling, you just have to pay shipping and handling. So we each ordered one paying only $11.95 for it. She received hers yesterday and I received mine today. I went with Supernova because I thought the purple was pretty. I also went with a size 2 based on the site's size recommendations, though I wish I had gone with a 3 so I'd have more room.

Evie REALLY liked it. Of course I didn't get it for her, specifically but she wants to try everything. She also decided she did NOT want her Daddy taking her picture and made ugly faces. But I promise, she loved it. The site says the sling supports up to 35 lbs and Evie is about 25. I am not sure I would want a 35 lb kid in it but Evie was pretty comfortable to carry. I walked around the house for a few minutes with her.

It felt pretty comfortable hands free. I think this will be my favorite carry position, though the child has to be able to sit up unsupported to use this one. So Elly has at least a few months.

Please ignore my clothes and hair. I had just wet my hair and gotten ready for work when the mail arrived. I was so excited to try out the sling and I really didn't have time to change for a photo shoot. I didn't really think about how I looked. haha.

I put Elly in the front carry...or tried. She really liked it too. Once she got over the first few moments of "Holy crap what is going on?" where she grunted and squirmed and kept trying to throw her arms up and grab my face.

So I really like the sling. I think Elly is going to really like it and I hope it means a happier baby. There are supposed to be a LOT of benefits to baby wearing including a closer parent-child bond, improved language skills, decreased risk of a flat head and a healthier baby. We shall see!

I will definitely update you guys in a week or two on how it is going. Evie really supports the baby wearing. She carried her baby around for awhile in the sling.

So Evie's a baby wearer. I guess I am officially a baby wearer too...but I promise I'm still shaving my arm pits. And legs for that matter. Eesh.