The Hottest Accessory!

Newborn Nora

I love babywearing!  For those who aren't parents and don't read mama blogs, babywearing is when you, um, wear the baby.  In a wrap or sling or doo-hickey (sort of like the baby bjorn, but I don't recommend those....they can cause hip dysplasia). 

Garret and I are doing the attached parenting style of parenting.  Basically we babywear, breastfeed (though you can do attachment parenting and bottlefeed) on demand, co-sleep, etc.  Nora isn't old enough to be disciplining, but we're planning on using the gentle discipline style.  No, this doesn't mean she'll get to misbehave and run wild....she'll have a lot of consequences and boundaries.

But back to babywearing.  It allows her to be on me or G most of the time, looking at the world on a higher level.  Because we co-sleep (and she nurses to sleep), it's hard to put her down for a nap if we're needing to do something because it involves me having to lie down with her to get her to sleep (though then I can usually get up and do other things).  So when she gets a little cranky (okay, she looks like the vampires from The Vampire Diaries with red rimmed eyes and like she'll eat your face), we either lie down or....she gets put into one of the carriers.  When she was a little baby this meant the Sleepy Wrap (now owned by Boba), which was a joke because every time we put her in it she went to sleep.

Newborn in the mei tai.

Right now I'm typing this after having been able to deal with letting the dogs out, getting them fresh water, emptying the dishwasher, etc...all while wearing Nora in our mei tai carrier.  She's been asleep almost the whole time.  She's teething so she stuck her fist in her mouth, chewed away and passed out.  I can get things done, she feels like she got what she wanted (to be held by me) and I get a reprieve from having to lie in bed (which is a lot of my days since she sleeps a ton still).

We're not perfect parents, but we're parenting our child in the best way we know how.  Babywearing has literally saved lives (there have been cases where the babywearing kept the baby calm enough that the child's undetected heart defect didn't kill them).  We've heard that we'll spoil her picking her up all the time, never letting her cry.  But honestly?  She rarely cries, and when she does 9 times out of 10 it's because she's tired.  If she fusses, we distract her by singing songs or making silly faces.   Lately I've taken to shaking my finger and saying "no, no, no, no, no" which sets her to giggling.  She's a joyful child, and I believe that because she's worn, because she feels incredibly safe and attached to us, she is a happier baby.  And if she gets too spoiled that's my cross to bear because I stay home with her.

And I get time to do things I want, like read a 600+ page book in a couple days.  Yay!