We went swimming in our friend Darlene’s pool last week and she took some pictures of Annabelle and I in the water wrap. I tied it in a front cross carry, with the tie behind her back instead of under her legs. And Darlene put Audrey in their new Alice Bali Baby Breeze wrap!
It is true of all human babies that they must be able to breathe. This is true in arms, in bed, in wraps, and in cars. Always and everywhere.
Usually there is no difficulty. But in the case of a very young infant, especially premature or weak infants, extra care is wise as the baby may not be able to move their head to get a clear breath, or to move away any obstruction. They are entirely dependent and should ideally never be out of sight.
I love a baby wrap for keeping your baby always under your attentive eye. What you should be looking out for is that the baby’s face is always clear–not covered by cloth or blankets or anything else; and the baby’s neck is straight–not doubled over with chin close to chest.
Any recommendation that slings and baby carriers be avoided is not necessary when parents understand how to safely care for their infants in AND OUT of carriers. The rules for breathing are the same. Please comment with any questions you may have about this. I teach safe babywearing locally, and will be happy to let you know of any babywearing classes I may know of in other areas.
a few weeks old . . . face clear, head tilted upward
Double Hammock Carry in Neobulle Vert Anis (thank you, Dana)
I finally put up a page for the Double Hammock Carry. Photo tutorial now available, thank you dear husband for photographing!
I also have a couple of videos:
This one with my god-daughter Aurora, shows a toddler in a double hammock carry.
This one is my newborn in a double hammock (legs tucked in).
I love this carry, which is also called the Chunei Back Carry. It is easy, secure, gives the baby a view, and my all around favorite wrap carry. Check out the new instructions and give it a whirl!
And let me know if there’s anything that I need to clarify. I aim to serve!
I received this question:
A customer has a wrap that she likes but wants a Bali Baby Breeze and wants to know which size to get. Here are some things to consider:
The Bali Baby Breeze sizes are in half yard increments.
When you use your wrap, do you have much fabric left hanging? If you could do your favorite wrap-ups with less fabric, you can get away with a smaller size (measure the excess to make sure there’s plenty to tie with half a yard less fabric).
Alternately, maybe you wouldn’t mind an extra half a yard hanging down and you can get the larger size. Half a yard is 1.5 feet. If you had 1.5 extra feet, that would be 9 extra inches on each tail.
This is the Gypsymama Water Wrap post. Now available for YOU!
When Ada was a baby, I had fewer luxuries, but over the years we’ve acquired them slowly, and since we had all the baby things we needed leftover from Ada, this time we get to splurge on some of the baby things we wanted!
You know, like a nice wet bag instead of an old plastic grocery bag for wet diapers…
And a water wrap, for wearing Belle in the shower, pool, or at the beach! Awesome! Also, not so necessary with baby number one, but now that I have a five year old to keep up with, a water wrap for the five month old is so valuable! I love this thing:
Belle is watching and learning how to become a handful.
my beautiful family
safe and comfy at the beach
And it actually would have been VERY handy for baby number one, who was a never-put-me-down kind of baby, so I could have taken the occasional shower! I don’t really need to shower with Belle, because she waits patiently for me, but it’s a fun experience anyway:
One way to keep cool while you keep wrapping all Summer long, is to use less fabric:
By learning one or two great carries that don’t use much fabric, you can get away with a short wrap that layers across yourself and your baby fewer times. Fewer layers, means less hot!
☀️ Unlike some baby carriers, a woven wrap has no padding anywhere to make you sweat.
☀️ You can use a short woven wrap in just one thin layer like a Ring Sling, but you have more options for comfort to fit your body or your baby’s preferences.
☀️ You can do a comfortable back carry with a short wrap for your baby OR toddler – and back carries feel cooler for both of you!
Here are just a few short wrap carries you can try.
If you’re thinking about using a short wrap for Summer, experiment with these carries with your long wrap. See which ones you like best, then measure how much extra wrap you have to see how small you can go! For every 20 inches you can lose (10″ in each tail), you could go one size smaller.
I like a wrap that is 2 sizes smaller than my base size for a lot of short-carry options, but there are a few you can do with base minus 3 as well.
A size 2 wrap (under 3 meters) will work for most people to do a Traditional Sling Carry (TSC), which can be worn front, hip, or back, and for a few really good back carries.
This graphic will help you identify your base size – the wrap length you would use for full length carries.
For Summer, choose a wrap that is 2 or 3 sizes smaller than your base size.
Now visit my store to buy one of these beautiful and comfortable wraps. My exclusive Girasol wraps are easy to use – great for beginners and excellent for newborn through toddlers 🙂
Want more hand holding as you pick out and learn to use a wrap, or for learning more advanced ways of wrapping? I built my membership Woven Wrap Guild just for you! Check it out.
I don’t know when you’re reading this, but I’m hoping it was the help you needed today. I would very much appreciate it if you drop a comment and let me know if this was helpful or what help you are looking for.
Happy Wrapping!
❤️ Diana
The biggest complaint I’d hear about wrapping was getting too hot in Summer. So I got a gauze wrap and started using it almost exclusively. I found that it really did make a difference! The lightweight gauze is so thin, the airflow is much improved and my baby and I both stay cooler.
Now I’m selling Bali Baby Breeze–the most beloved gauze wraps on the market. So here are some tips on enjoying your BBB wraps this Summer:
Bali Baby Breeze Alice
Tina wrote:
“I just had a question about using a wrap here in Florida. My daughter is 12 weeks old and loves being in the wrap, except she sweats so much! When I take her out she’s soaked in sweat, and I was just wondering if that was ok? Is there a better blend of fabric recommended for the intense heat we have here in Florida?”
Timely question, and I wanted to address it for everyone. I’m in Florida too, and this is what I do with my five month old:
She and I get soaked with sweat all the time in or out of the wrap. When I nurse on the couch I have to peel her off me afterward! And any mom who uses a carseat or stroller can attest to how hot their babies get in those. Just make sure she is peeing normally, her soft spot isn’t unusually depressed, etc. All the usual precautions for Florida!
Front Wrap Cross Carry with straps bunched for fewer layers.
Abbreviated Front Wrap Cross Carry--short wrap tied under the baby's bottom instead of in the back.
Rucksack Carry
Belle is old enough now for me to start playing with hip carries.
I don’t know if I would even bother if I didn’t have a blog to keep up…I have never found hip carries to be as easy, comfy, or convenient as front and back carries. I’ll try to make myself do hip carries until I love them!
When Ada was little, the hip cross carry was about the only one in the running. Since then, some new inventions have become popular. This one is a variation of the Poppins Hip Carry. The Poppins Carry can be tied under the bottom with a shorter wrap, or have a second rebozo layer over the baby with a longer wrap. With an even longer wrap, you might do what I did: I have one rebozo layer, then took my long wrap ends and reinforced it with a cross over the back and between the legs, and tied behind.
Reinforced Poppins Hip Carry with blue Didymos Wrap
It worked well enough, but I didn’t care for the way the straps seem to frame one boob. It doesn’t seem to be a good look (and the drunken look on my face doesn’t help).
Later I tried it in a tummy to tummy position. Same carry, but she’s in front of me now instead of on my hip. This seems to resolve the lopsided look.
Reinforced Poppins Carry (tummy2tummy) with my 4 month old
Side view of the Reinforced Poppins Carry
The twist side view of the Reinforced Poppins Carry
The wrap spread across my back in a Poppins Carry
Sometimes a parent puts a little baby into a wrap carry and the baby disappears down into the fabric. This can be upsetting to the baby and, most importantly, is dangerous. You should always be able to see your baby’s face. Your baby’s head should be high on your chest (in a front carry). And your baby needs fresh air to breathe.
So here are some tips:
First, make sure you have your baby wrapped high and tight on your chest. You should be able to kiss the top of your baby’s head easily. My last post had some tips for tightening baby up to the right height.
Next, realize that your wrap is probably wide enough for a toddler, and that width may be swallowing up a little baby. I personally like a wide wrap with a little baby. The width is nice to have when you know how to use it. You can choose where to spread it, and where to bunch it. In the pictures below, the wide, alternating stripes of orange, green, yellow, and red, make it easy to see where I’ve bunched and spread the wrap.
The middle two stripes are spread, and the outer edges are bunched.
The upper half of the wrap is spread, the two lower stripes are bunched.
The lower half of the wrap is spread, with the top half bunched.
The wrap can also be evenly bunched over baby. The trick is to make sure that the tightness along the length (from your shoulder to opposite hip) is uniform no matter how it is bunched. And if you find that the edges (orange and red stripes in above wrap) are tight enough, check to see if the middle of the wrap is also pulled tightly, otherwise you may have too deep a pouch that your baby can sink down into.
Another thing that you can do to keep your baby above water, is just to poke out one of your baby’s arms. My tiny infant often slept against me with the wrap supporting her head while one arm and shoulder hung out. When awake, both arms can be out if the baby is supporting his or her own head.
Baby's right arm is out of the wrap.
Both arms and shoulders are out of the wrap.
First, put your arm around your baby in the wrap and hold your baby at the position that you want him or her to be held. While holding your baby right there with one hand, use the other hand to pull the fabric of the wrap tight so that it will hold your baby right there. After tightening and tying the wrap, when you take your arm away from baby, your baby should not sink lower or change position. If the baby’s position changed, you did not take all of the slack out of the wrap. Try again.
This holding and tightening is demonstrated here in a front cross carry:
Holding baby with one hand to find the slack in the wrap.
Pull on the slack for a snug fit.
I pull the slack all the way around to the knot and retie.
And I have a very serviceable video showing the same technique here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko2a_V3KmbY
One detail to note is that the width of the wrap can be tightened all together, as above, but one can also tighten just certain strands. The wrap pictured above has four colored stripes: orange, green, yellow and red. You could tighten just along the orange stripe, or any one of those colors, or more than one together. For example, the green and yellow stripes (the center) might need to be tightened if baby is sinking too far down, while the edges–the orange and red–might be sufficiently tight already.
You will know where to tighten because you are taking up all the slack until the wrap is nice and evenly snug all around your baby.
This post is just for Dannette, who wants to know how to wrap up her two year old. First, I recommend a back carry. By this age it gets unwieldy to wear them on the front and a back carry is more comfortable than a hip carry.
If your son is going to want to go up and down a lot, I recommend the Rucksack Carry, as it is the fastest to get up and down. It is also great for the Summer with only one layer of wrap over your toddler. This is the one I used when we were at the zoo when Ada was two and three years old. Her legs would get tired so up she’d go. A few minutes later she’d see something interesting and down she’d come. A few minutes later she wanted to be carried again…
The Rucksack can be done tied around the waist, which is the fastest and easiest method for me and I demonstrate it with a toddler in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58nFvouWcfE&feature=player_embedded
The Rucksack can also be tied Tibetan style which you can see if you scroll down to the bottom of my rucksack page: http://www.wrapyourbaby.com/rucksack.htm
Or the Rucksack can be done with a short wrap (rebozo), and simply tied under your child’s bottom, instead of brought back around to the front to tie. This way there is nothing going around your waist and you have less wrap to carry while your toddler is not up. Here we are with a Rucksack tied under the bottom at the zoo when Ada was two:
For longer wearing, say if you expect him to stay wrapped up for a hike, a grocery trip, or if you expect him to fall asleep, a multi-layered carry might prove more comfortable in the long run. Whereas the rucksack Carry supports your child with one layer of fabric, other carries that wrap around your child more than once often feel more supportive for a heavier child. Try one of these:
The Double Hammock Carry is my favorite with a little baby, but it is extremely supportive with a bigger child as well. The weight of your child is spread across your entire torso, waist, and both shoulders. In this video I demonstrate the DHC with a sleeping toddler: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h-QqZms9Qw
The Back Wrap Cross Carry is also very supportive, but the child may ride lower on your back, and not be able to see over your shoulders. It’s great for a sleeping big kid, and I demonstrate it with a four year old girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx_7rpzmDwY
Babywearing becomes more valuable when carrying your children becomes more of a challenge. Pregnancy is such a time. You may become tired more easily, but that fact does not keep your toddler or preschooler from needing and wanting to be carried. If you are going to be carrying your child, let the wrap help you out!
When my good friend Rachel was pregnant with her second baby, baby number one was two years old. They let me take some photos of them to demonstrate wearing a toddler in a back wrap cross carry while pregnant:
Two year old in a BWCC tied under pregnant bump.
Babywearing and hanging laundry while pregnant!
BWCC supports two-year old comfortably on her mamma's back.
That was two years before my pregnancy, and the only babywearing while pregnant pictures I can find of myself are me wearing Rachel’s second daughter. Aurora is in the tummy in the photos above, and on my back in the photos below. You can just see my belly starting to bulge with Annabelle-to-be, and this is the very same wrap two years later:
Wearing a two year old while pregnant.
Rebozo one-shouldered back carry.
There are two important things to know about wrapping while pregnant:
The Back Wrap Cross Carry is often a good one, as the crosses can be spread wide over the chest for comfort, the multiple passes over your child provides sturdy support for a bigger kid, and the wrap can be tied above or below the bulge.
Tying a rucksack tibetan style allows you to forgo any tie at the waist.
Back carries allow your child to be carried and cuddled against you, without giving you too much of a workout, and without jeopardy of squishing the baby growing around front. Additionally, the weight on your back can actually balance out a hugely pregnant tummy and feel very comfortable for some pregnant ladies!
Recently the Infantino bag sling was recalled after some babies died in the carrier. It is terrible that deaths had to occur before this dangerous product was recalled, and it is a reminder to all parents to treasure our children and to make sure we know how to carry them safely.
Whenever you carry a newborn you must make sure that the baby’s chin is not tucked against his chest as this closes the airway so that the baby cannot breathe. A person of any age will find it easier to breathe when the neck is not folded over, and the littler the baby, the more vulnerable to this problem.
When choosing a baby carrier, avoid ones that curl babies up so that this chin-to-chest position is possible. The bag sling–unlike traditional slings–has baby sunk down in a deep pouch in a curved shape and there is nothing to protect a newborn from this unsafe positioning, or from rolling to the side so that mouth and nose can be pressed against the side of the carrier.
A good pouch, sling, or wrap should always be worn so that your baby is held tight against you–not dangling off your shoulder like a purse. Even aside from the issue of safety, all the benefits of babywearing are gained by having baby’s body pressed against yours!
Newborns can be worn in an upright position from birth to avoid being pushed into the unsafe position. As most babies prefer the upright position, it is the way I usually teach new parents to wear their wraps anyway.
However, a cradle position can be used safely if desired. If your baby seems to sink into a deep pouch of the carrier, you are probably placing your baby straight down the center, or deepest part, of the fabric. Instead of placing your baby parallel to the sides of the pouch, you should put your baby in diagonally: baby’s head should be towards the outside of the carrier and baby’s bottom should be towards your stomach. By resting baby’s head on the outer side of the pouch, it is held up (your baby’s head will be higher than his bottom and legs) where it is unlikely to be pressed against the chest and where you can clearly see to ensure that it is not!
In other words, in the striped wrap below, if I had placed my baby parallel to the stripes she would be sunk down somewhere along the purple stripe with her head on my right on the purple stripe and her bottom and legs toward my left side, still along the purple stripe. This positioning would curl her body up. Instead she is diagonal to the fabric with her head on the outer gray stripe which is much higher and this keeps her body much straighter along her spine.
Note that this was an upright carry which got lowered and tilted for purposes of nursing, but because of the stripes I felt it was perfect for the purposes of this discussion!
Cradle carry with baby's head toward the outer rail of the wrap fabric.
You should always follow these rules while babywearing:
Any carrier that does not allow you to follow these rules is a dangerous place to put your baby. There are several other brands of bag slings that were not involved in the recall but have the same basic design and inherent risk. Here is a good video that can help you identify dangerous carriers: Proper Infant Positioning in a Baby Sling
Babies sink down into bag slings so that their heads can curl forward onto their chests--dangerous for a little baby!
Cradle carry with a Storchenwiege Wrap holding baby's upper body (head to butt) in more of a straight line so the chin isn't tucked.
Belle is three months now, and fourteen lbs! I find that I am not wrapping her legs in anymore. They are so long and strong that they no longer seem to be part of the bundle I used to wrap. Instead of a newborn ball, Belle is unfolding into a more humanoid shape!
Front Cross Carry with Mary EllaRoo
Current favorite carries are:
And I think maybe I’ll play with some hip carries today and keep you posted!
The Double Hammock Carry is a back carry done with two rebozo passes over baby. They are like hammocks because they do not cross between baby’s legs, but support baby’s body with legs sticking out from underneath. Well, a stray comment on TheBabyWearer inspired me to try doing the Double Hammock Carry with the crosses between baby’s legs.
Verdict? It was fine. Spreading the wrap across the torso is kind of silly, though, because the wrap is bunched up from under baby’s legs as it comes around your torso, and the spreading isn’t going to be tight and supportive as it is with the standard double hammock where the wrap comes around your torso above baby’s legs and is already spread wide and flat.
I didn’t find it uncomfortable or saggy with my little baby, but I doubt it would hold up for long with a bigger child.
The front of the modified Double Hammock Carry tied with a half knot.
You can see that the wrap crosses between her legs like a Back Wrap Cross Carry.
The wrap comes from under her leg to spread out over my chest.
Sometimes as I wrap Belle she stretches her legs out to push against the bottom of the wrap. Usually she’ll eventually bend her knees and sink down some and my wrap job may not be as snug around us as I’d like, anymore. It’s easy to reach through and just bend her knees so that she is in position and I can snug the wrap job. Here it is with a Front Cross Carry:
You can see that she is standing up in this Front Cross Carry.
Reaching in under the crosses to bend her knees.
Side view of reaching under the crosses to position her legs.
I’ve recently hit upon my new favorite nursing position. I guess I’ve been wrapping Belle with legs out more often. Now I’ve found that if I start in an upright Front Cross Carry, I can get a really comfortable and rock-solid nursing position (meaning truly hands-free) every time by lifting one of the crosses out from between her legs so that she leans sideways.
Let me explain, then I’ll post some pics to clarify. I loosen the wrap a little, then lift Belle’s body so her weight’s not on the wrap, then I pull one of the crosses down from between her legs and around her body so that both legs are sticking out one side. If I’m going to nurse her on my left side, then the cross coming over my right shoulder is the one that I’ll remove from between her legs. Now that cross will be coming from my right shoulder, around her body, and around my left hip. Her cute little legs will be sticking out on my right side, with the other cross still between them, and her head will be positioned at my left breast.
And I suspect that this is one of those cases where a picture is worth a thousand words so without further explanation…
Legs sticking out of one FCC cross.
At the nursing end of the Front Cross Carry.
Something about this particular position is very easy for me to get adjusted just so and does not require adjustments thereafter so I’m what you call a fan!
Sometimes when I’m showing someone how to adjust the wrap behind them, I run into this problem that they simply cannot reach as well as I can. So I had to learn a new way to wrap up a little baby in a high back carry. A way to do it without reaching high up my back.
Today I experimented with a rucksack. I found that I could do the entire carry, bringing the straps over and under the legs, while my 7 week old baby was very low on my back. Then a few bouncing tugs on the tails hiked her up to my neck. Voila!
I’m so good, I even had it together to make a video!
