The first winner of my photo contest is Melissa. Thanks for contributing to my project with your example of things you can do in a wrap! The pendant you chose is on its way to you for your prize. Anyone else have something to say about the freedom wrapping grants to parents and babies? Two more winners will be chosen, and I am still accepting submissions!
Details here: http://wrapyourbaby.com/blog/2011/07/where-has-wrapping-taken-you/
When your little one grows enough that he or she is no longer content always nestling against your chest, pulling one of your baby’s shoulders and arms out of the wrap keeps him close while giving him a little more of a view of the world that is beginning to catch his attention. This age (3 months, in the picture) wonderfully combines the cuddly closeness of babywearing with the burgeoning awaereness and absorption of the world and your activities. Before you know it, your baby’s sharp eyes will be taking in everything, whether it’s a natural wonder or how to pay for groceries.
Education isn’t just for big kids–it is a constant process for any human being and the younger you are, the faster you’re learning! It’s no coincidence that my love of wrapping my babies progressed to a discovery of the unschooling philosophy!
Keeping your baby close in your wrap means that your baby is learning from your every move–whether his muscles are learning balance from your muscles, or he is taking in the delicacy of human interaction. When you see an old friend, how does your breath, heartbeat, and body language change? How does your voice sound, and what expressions do you make? How about when you interact with a panhandler in the parking lot. Baby notices the differences and is learning all the time, effortless for both of you.
How cool is that?
Now that I’m traveling fulltime in my wrap, I’m inspired by all the places it’s easy to get to with a wrapped up baby. You know, like the middle of a creek:
And isn’t it remarkable, the number of things you can accomplish with a wrapped up baby. Like feeding your older kids, or vacuuming. Even using the computer.
Wrapping makes life easier, and I want every new parent to know it. So I’ve decided to make a slideshow of photographs that demonstrate this. I need YOU to send me your pictures. Where have you been, and what have you done?
From all the submissions I receive, I’ll choose not one, but THREE people to receive a really gorgeous glass mother pendant like this one (or another from my store):
Send your photos to me at diana@wrapyourbaby.com
Send as many as you like, but they should show a baby/child being worn in a wrap (not other carriers):
I won’t use every picture, but please include this line in your email: I give you permission to use this picture (or these pictures) in promotional material.
Our dear friend Robby took us to the most beautiful national park yesterday: Grandview in West Virginia. He also brought his camera so I have a great shot of me, my baby, and the heavenly forest surround. I also have a slightly less picturesque shot of my husband with our one year old beside a breathtaking and treacherous ravine.
So, when wearing your baby out on hikes or other outdoor adventures this summer, I think my family photos can provide an easy to remember babywearing endorsement:
Wrapping makes it easy to hike and nurse!
See what can happen if you don’t bring a wrap?
We’re crossing state borders regularly now, and so far we haven’t escaped Summer. Most of the country is HOT right now! Mothers of babies are, perhaps, destined to be a little warmer than the rest of the population. Like pregnant women, it is part of the package: we trade uninterrupted sleep and bodily autonomy for the joys of motherhood.
Well, growing a baby in your womb is hot work, and producing milk on demand is hot work, and holding a hot little bundle of joy is hot work. The last thing you want is to wrap all that warmth up in a thick piece of fabric!
What to do?
My suggestions: thinner fabric, and cooler carries (less layers). And when all else fails, how about taking your babywearing into the water?
Keep your baby’s comfort in mind, too. Make sure neither of you are getting overheated. If you need to, find an indoor playplace to replace outdoor playground outings. Stay hydrated. Use a hand held fan. There are lots of options, and here are a few more ideas for staying safe and comfy in warm weather.
What tricks do you experienced babywearers have for staying cool while staying close?
Not content to go on supporting a life we don’t love ecstaticly, we are making a BIG change. My husband just quit his day job doing construction, even though construction pays the bills. But that’s the thing—we’re getting rid of the bills, too. We’re trading in work and bills for a life of freedom on the road, traveling, making music, spending our time together and showing our kids everything that’s wonderful in this wide world.
I can not tell you how excited I am. We’ve lived in this city for eight years and all three of our children were born here. Two of them have never been out of the state! June 17th, that’s all changing. That’s the date we drive away. It’s not a vacation, it’s a new life.
We don’t plan to do it forever. We have a long term dream of owning land and homesteading somewhere beautiful. The idea to travel was born of my husband’s music—this is a tour to sell his recently released album Son of Ojito.
Maybe a year. We’ll see how it goes. And we’ll also be looking out for our dream land as we go.
I am excited for Wrap Your Baby, too. Stripping our expenses as we are gives Wrap Your Baby an opportunity to really support us. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with a labor of love, but even better if it can buy groceries, I say! And that’s the point of this change. We want to live on the things we love. If music and babywearing can support our family, how cool is that? Utopian, even!
I’m going to chronicle our adventures at FreeRangeDreams.com where I hope by spelling out how we’re making it work for us, that we might get cogs turning in other people’s minds too. No other family will want to do exactly what we’re doing, but I hope to inspire some ideas about how to live an unconventional life of your choosing. I might even run contests: make a drastic and wonderful change in your life and win a prize! What do you think of that?
Are there others out there living wild and woolly? Will you leave a comment to tell me about it?
The Gypsymama has magiked up three new wraps, each as stunning as all her others. She is a remarkable woman, and for those who don’t know, she is responsible for the Bali Breeze wraps: breathtakingly beautiful works of batik art on gauze for the thinnest, coolest, babywearing around!
Bali Breeze Hope: same wrap job shown below
From her right side . . .
. . . and her left!
Although, most of the credit for the new rainbow wrap Hope has to go to Wendi Stemmons, who designed it and submitted it to the Gypsymama’s design-a-new-wrap contest. The public spoke, and Hope was born. This is my favorite of the three new colors and I think you’ll agree it’s a stunner! But lovers of gray or purple will swoon for Lily, and the pink-brown pairing in Lana has caught many a covetous eye. Aint it great to live in an age of such a wide color selection for wraps? The space program is cool, too, but really, there’s a wrap that matches almost any mother’s dream, and that’s nothing to cough at!
Bali Breeze Lily
Bali Breeze Lana
So, while Hope is my favorite, I believe it’s one of the other two that has been the most popular. Which is your favorite? Or is your dream wrap as yet just a dream? Feel free to describe your perfect wrap in a comment–I’d love to know!
For those that are wondering, I do have the itch to blog many wonderful things now that I have a newborn. And I am doing lots of wrapping, including nursing in the wrap and tandem wrapping with my 18 month old. But I’m so busy and my hands are so full all the time, it’s been tough to get to blog. I probably would manage anyway, but on top of that, I haven’t managed to recharge my camera batteries SINCE CASSIDY WAS BORN! And, btw, he is almost 2 months old. So!
I just can’t bring myself to blog about squishy newborn wrapping without pictures. It’s such a . . . waste.
So, sorry, for the lack of blogging. We’re in a big transitionary phase just now, after which I plan to have my act together and my ducks in a row. No, it’s not a duck act.
I’m going to end off this apology blog and do a couple of real ones now because I have some pictures to go with them. Not pictures of the baby, sorry. My husband has taken some with his phone, though, and when we have a chance to breathe for four seconds IN A ROW, I’ll get him to send them to me and do some retroactive blogging. Deal?
I learned so much and my heart swelled twelve sizes as I read through the comments on my Be Nice To Mommies post. There was so much profound truth to be found in this collection of fifty-some motley experiences!
Marley won a free wrap for her essay (copied in full below), but I benefited from reading every one of the essays, and I can tell I’m a nicer person just for having read them! What I learned:
It turns out that mothers–all mothers–need support, not correction. She knows what’s best for her family, and when you can believe and respect that, then you are in a position to help HER realize it. If you approach other families with the intention of helping them, rather than the intention to change some specific practice, then you have a chance of making a real difference. Be a friend, whether it’s to your sister-in-law, your college roomie, or a stranger in the mall, approaching as a friend will reap the largest rewards. Katie recalls that in one of her desperate mothering moments, her mother advised her thusly: “You know what to do. You’re his mommy.” Katie goes on to say, “It’s hard to explain what that advice meant to me. She had confidence in me even when I didn’t. She knew I could make the right decision. And that even if I didn’t that we’d all learn from the experience and we’d all be okay.”
And simply by being a loving person, and interacting with your own children with ever-present love, causes those around you to want that. Lisa wrote of the person who influenced her parenting, “She showed me how to respect my baby as the person that he was instead of wishing that he could be different.” And Kelly says that the person who influenced her ” taught me that becoming a parent is something honorable and that children are sent to teach US, as much as we are to teach them. She has taught me that in giving through parenting, we are actually receiving, because we develop qualities within ourselves that help us reach our true, whole human potential . . . She has taught me how to love like a river.”
Marley’s essay shows how valuable it is to simply set a good example. Let your loving and happy family be what inspires change in others and in the culture. Realize that the only way people change their minds is by their own initiative. You can be the inspiration, but you can’t change their minds for them:
When I found out I was pregnant in December of 2009, we were so excited! So excited we went out and bought a crib, pack of disposable diapers and wipes, and a couple soothers. I had this idea of what having a baby was in my head. Bottles, sposies, strollers and crying. I was confident because I had watched all of my young friends have babies, and besides seeing them change a diaper or put a bottle in their child’s mouth, it didn’t seem like something I couldn’t do.
Fast forward to the following July and I am three weeks to my due date. My cousin who is nine years older than me invited us to their house for her two year old son’s birthday party. Walking into her house, it was so warm and her little man was such a competant and independant child.
At dinner he drank unassisted out of a cup and asked for help to go upstairs to use the potty. After dinner, my cousin slipped away, and I looked into the living room and GASP, she was breastfeeding him! The look on her face was of pure love as he played with her necklace.
That night I went home and began to really think about what kind of parent I wanted to be to my unborn son. After seeing my cousin, I couldn’t imagine being like my friends from back home who layed their baby in a chair with a propped up bottle. I started to research breastfeeding and stumbled across http://www.drmomma.org That website changed me, my partner’s, and my son’s lives for the better.
Thanks to my cousin just being an attached and intuitive mother, we are now cloth diapering, intactivist, bedsharing, baby carrying, part time EC-ing, babyled weaning, extended breastfeeding fools! I can’t ever imagine making my son cry it out, or missing out on the bond that breastfeeding has given us. Grumpy chap? Throw on the wrap and go for a nature walk! Not to mention not having to change a poopy (cloth!) diaper in months!
I have never told her thank you for what she unknowingly did for our whole family. I couldn’t imagine where we would be if not for my cousin on that one summer day. I am so thankful and grateful, and I’m sure my now nine month old son is too!
***adding the link for ordering (go ahead and order now): http://www.wrapyourbaby.com/ERpreorder.html
If you are planning to buy a wrap in the near future, here’s a short but sweet opportunity to get a whopping 20% discount on a great summer wrap!
After shipping out all the orders from my Mothers Day Sale, I found that I’m low on EllaRoo wraps and I began preparing to place an order. Then it occurred to me, why not offer a big discount to any of my customers who want to pay in advance and it will be especially worth your while because you can choose from a wider selection of colors than I normally stock in my store!
EllaRoo has twenty different wrap designs and only a handful are commonly found sold in US stores. My order with the distributor is your opportunity to pick from ALL TWENTY of their current designs! You can view the available color choices by clicking here.
I need to place my order pretty quickly, so if you want to take advantage of the discount you must order and pay for your wrap tomorrow, Monday, 16 May. It will take approximately three weeks to get from Europe, to me, to you after I place the order, so you’re looking at early June for delivery.
Come back to this blog post tomorrow for the link to the sale-price Ellaroo wraps. I’ll add it right to the top of this blog post.
Wrap Your Baby store