wears the baby?

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Me and half the other women on the planet love to wear our babies!

Babies are so warm and snuggly and delicious and right in kissing range in the sling, they sleep better and cry less, and,according to the book Our Babies Ourselves,are less likely to develop colic if carried from day one.

When Ari was a newborn the sling was like a great magic trick... "Exhibit A: Crying baby, Exhibit B: Sling. Put Exhibit A into Exhibit B and count to 10 and VOILA! No more crying baby! (the babe hadn't dissappeared, just the crying.)

I'm not much of a "stuff" person, but I'm becoming a bit of a sling junkie; I have a bunch and I use them all- a mei tai, a wrap, a pouch, a couple ring slings and lots of plain ol' scarves. When Ari was tiny I wore him in the pouch most of the time (he really wasn't put down at all for the first 3 months!) He looked so sweet in there, like a little pea in a pod, and we had so many people peek in at him and say just that. As he got a little older he prefered to be carried upright and so I used the wrap a lot. I am currently in love with the ring sling for carrying him on my hip, and the mei tai for the back (we're working on that one- he feels so far away!)

When I travelled I noticed lots of babywearing, and I was really drawn to the idea of carrying my baby in this way. Although it is clearly old hat in much of the world, baby wearing is pretty new in the west it seems. My parents (old hippies that they are) never had access to much in the way of slings- they had a frame backpack for my brother (9 years my junior) and one of those green corduroy "snugglies" for my sister and I. I tried one of these out (you can find them at nearly any second hand store,) and it was terrible! Even with my tiny newborn it cut into my shoulders and felt unsteady. I did find an article in one of their old Mothering Magazines about how to tie a wrap, so there was some info out there, but it was not in peoples consciousness yet- at least not in my parents white hippie consciousness.

Now its pretty common to see a baby in a sling- at least in these parts. Of course the stroller is still all pervasive, but no one gives me any strange looks when I wear my baby. In fact I've had so many positive comments and women asking me where they can get slings like mine that I've considered distributing them or teaching babywearing classes.

And the more I read about babywearing the more sense it makes to me that we need more of it in our society. Babies in slings are part of their families world and daily live in a way that babies in bucket seats and strollers are not. They can be taken most anywhere, can sleep out and about, are up where the action is (and not where the exhaust pipes and doggies are,) they can snuggle into the sling when overwhelmed or look at their mama's face to see what to make of all the new stuff they are taking in.

Don't get me wrong. I'm no purist. I put my boy down sometimes and I even have a (gasp!) mechanical swing that he sometimes hangs out in for a bit. He likes to roll around on his blankets and for some reason one of his favorite places to be is the change table. But I love wearing my baby whenever I can. And it seems most of the world is with me on this one.