our babywearing experience so far

I love wearing Nate in slings. It's such a close and cozy way to transport him around, especially when we take slow walks in the woods with the dogs or when we travel into town. 

Nate enjoys it too. If he is cranky or frustrated, I can put him into a baby carrier and he calms down, usually falling asleep after some gentle motion. 

But Nate used to hate, I mean really hate, being put into a baby carrier. He would scream and shout and protest. We were determined though, and kept putting him in the Moby wrap, taking him out when he started crying minutes later. And then, one day when he was 6 weeks old, I popped him in the wrap to do some stuff in the kitchen, and he fell asleep for over an hour! It was magical. My love of babywearing really began to grow after that day.

6 weeks old - first time asleep in the Moby wrap

When Nate was around 5 months old he started to get too big for the Moby wrap, which is made from stretchy material. His legs and torso were strong enough that he could arch his back and pull away from me, which was not only dangerous but also a strain on my lower back. This is when I found my local sling library and started trying different baby carriers. 

We started with the Storchenwiege Baby carrier first. We liked this carrier, but the top straps wrap around and tie instead of buckling together so we wanted to try a full buckle carrier too. So we then tried the Boba 3G and fell in love with it!

Storchenwiege baby carrier

Boba 3G

We took the Boba 3G to London and it was so comfortable to wear him in it all day long. I knew as soon as I handed it back that we were going to have to buy one for ourselves. The Bobas are really expensive and I hesitated to spend so much, but we will get so much use out it that I thought it was worth it. I like the fact that it is super adjustable so my husband and I can both use it easily and it also has a newborn setting so that if we ever have another baby we can use this carrier from birth. The Boba 3G also comes with foot straps, so we can continue to use it until Nate is 45 pounds...which is until he is like 3 or 4 years old!

I have also been trying other types of slings just to see what they are like. Most recently I loaned a Natibaby ring sling from the library. It was really good for putting Nate in while I was doing stuff around the house, but because it's only on one shoulder I don't  think I would use it for long trips. 

Natibaby ring sling

Next I want to try a full woven wrap, similar to the Moby wrap but with non-stretchy material which is much more supportive. I have a few in mind that I want to try so I will let you all know how I get on with them.  

nathan - 6 months old

Today Nate is 6 months. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. From being a super tiny squishy newborn  he is now sitting up on his own, playing with toys, babbling and interacting with others. Look at him here playing with Nana Val yesterday (so cute right?)

And 3 days ago he cut his first little tooth on the bottom right. It's just a little jagged piece peeking out from the gums, but it's there! It has been causing him a lot of discomfort and I think the left one will be coming soon too. It's frustrating to see him in so much pain when there really isn't much I can do but give him cuddles and the odd dose of pain reliever. Poor little lad. 

At 24 weeks we started weaning Nate onto solid foods. I am still breastfeeding him and I am fortunate enough to be able to take a year off work, so I hadn't been stressing too much about weaning him any earlier than 24 weeks. In fact, I hadn't really thought much about the whole solid food situation until I went to a weaning workshop in December. After speaking with some friends I decided to follow Annabel Karmel's weaning plan, which is based on traditional weaning, using purees and spoon feeding. I thought it would be easier to do what my friend's were doing so we could support each other. Nate had other plans...

On our first day of spoon feeding he hesitantly took a little bit of the puree, then grabbed the spoon from our hands and decided he wanted to feed himself.

We continued to try and feed him homemade puree food over the next few days, but Nate just did not want to be fed by someone else. He would purse his lips, turn to the side and protest. It was quite obvious that he would be more suited to a weaning plan where he was in control of feeding himself. I did some research on baby-led weaning and decided to try that instead and we have been doing well ever since. Nate has now fed himself toast, cucumber slices, banana, avocado, papaya and porridge fingers. He is clearly an independent and tactile little man and I'm very proud of him. Baby-led weaning is a messy and slow process, but it is so rewarding to see him learn how to feed himself. 

Cucumber

Toast

I have been enjoying wearing Nate in slings more as he is getting older. It's nice to hold him close while still be able to have my hands free. If he is fussy, I can pick him up, put him in a sling and still get things done. And we keep each other nice and warm on these winter days. Here we are out with the Moby wrap the other day.

I recently joined my local babywearing group and was pleased to find that they run a sling library. It costs £10 a year (bargain!) and I can loan out different slings to try for 2 weeks at a time. I currently have on loan a Storch baby carrier from them which hubby and I are enjoying. We took it out on Saturday in the snow and Nate fell asleep in it. He looked so peaceful. 

We are going to London in a couple weeks to register Nate at the American Embassy and to get his US passport. We plan on only taking a sling with us which will allow us to negotiate the busy trains and tubes with less hassle.