How Often Do You Babywear?

You may know this by another name… “Don’t You Ever Put Your Kid Down?” or perhaps, “You Will Spoil Him If You Hold Him All The Time.” Or maybe you know this one, “She Will Never Learn To Walk.”  Those people who would title this post differently are just jealous of the fabulous bond you have with your child that allows you to snuggle and cuddle with them as much as you can AND get lots of work done around the house… or check Facebook.. whatever.

When my baby was a newborn I wore him a lot. He did not want to be put down, so there were some days that the Sleepy Wrap was a part of my wardrobe that day and I popped him in and out as needed. Other days I was able to get a few minutes of my body to myself and go to the bathroom without a baby strapped to me. Every day I wore him at least 20 minutes for the walks to and from the nearby elementary school to take and pick up his older sister from school. But I wore him around the house a lot too. I also wore him every time I left the house. I would pre-tie the Sleepy Wrap and away I would go in the car, and pop baby in when I arrived, do what needed to be done and slip baby out and back into the car seat. He got a nice above knee view of the world and lots of snuggles and smiles from Mommy. I got my errands done without a fussy baby. When he was small, I always wore him snuggled on my front. Around 6 months I tried back wrapping with a woven wrap, but was not very successful.

I’m discovering that as my baby gets older we are doing less babywearing for a variety of reasons. One is right now we are not living within walking distance of my daughter’s school, so we must drive every day. I miss wrapping the boy up every morning and afternoon for our walks to the school. I’m hoping that changes soon, though.  As for around the house wearing. I’m doing somewhat less. The Boy is walking now, so he getting into everything and wants to be free from the wrap, most of the time. Sometimes, however, he is fussy and wants to be held, usually around dinner time. So, I’ve started wearing him on my back while I cook dinner, being very careful of what I’m cooking and where his body is. I’ve also started wearing him on my back while I vacuum. Not only is it good exercise, but it keeps him from crying while the vacuum is running. He is terrified of the machine if he is playing on the floor. I also try to get out and take neighborhood walks when the weather is nice out. Now that he is bigger, it’s harder to wear him on my front. He’s heavy and it’s hard on my back, even with a properly supportive carrier. We do a lot of hip carries in a ring sling (which is also getting harder with my certain sling I have) and have finally become better with back carries with the woven wrap and our new Boba Carrier

I hope that as The Boy continues to grow that he will still want to be worn and maybe he’ll stop pulling Mama’s hair during back carries as well.

Tell me: How often do you wear your little ones and how old are they?