I Love Babywearing

I love wearing James.  I know this terminology sounds strange to some, so I checked out babywearinginternational.org to get a definition to help clarify:

"'Babywearing' simply means holding or carrying a baby or young child using a cloth baby carrier. Holding babies is natural and universal; baby carriers make it easier and more comfortable, allowing parents and caregivers to hold or carry their children while attending to the daily tasks of living. Babywearing helps a new dad put a fussy newborn to sleep. It allows a new mom use both hands to make a sandwich. It lets an experienced parent or caregiver carry a baby on her back and wash the dishes, do the laundry, take a hike, or weed the garden, all while keeping the baby safe and content" (Baby Wearing International).

We've been wearing James since he was two days old.  We started wearing him with the Boba Wrap.  You can see some pictures of us loving on James in his early days here.  We wore him using this wrap until he was about 2 months old.  You can certainty use this wrap for much longer, but I decided that I wanted something that was a little easier for me to put on and off in the parking lot when I went shopping, so we decided to get the Boba Carrier.  The Boba Carrier has been the best investment we've made thus far in our parenting journey.  James loves it and we love it.  I could go on and on, but I'll summarize a few reasons why we feel so strongly about babywearing:

• James is content 98% of the time when I wear him.  He has never been an unusually fussy baby, but in the early months, he was fussy quite a bit, and the carrier always settled him.  Now, if he's bored playing on his own, I can throw him on my back while I do housework or cook dinner.  When we go shopping, I can take as long as I want.  As long as we're walking around the store, he's happy!  
• I don't have to worry about other people touching him.  Especially when he was a newborn and we were in the middle of flu season, it was great to have him so close to me.  Sometimes strangers will reach into a stroller to touch a baby without permission, but few strangers will reach into a carrier that is next to your chest.
• He sees what I see.  In the carrier, he's at my eye level and can see what I see.  He's so close to me and I can talk to him about what we see all the time.  I also love kissing him on his head.
• It makes skin to skin time easy.  Skin to skin time is especially important in the early days with a breastfed newborn.
• It's easy to travel.  I prefer walking in trails rather than walking on pavement.  Wherever I can walk, I can take the baby because he's attached to me.  I don't have to think about odd terrain and a stroller.  

Basically, I think that babywearing makes parenting so so much easier.  Here's a homemade video that cracks me up explaining why babywearing is so awesome.  It is a parody to the popular pop song, "Call Me Maybe" - Watch it here.

One of my great friends, Lisa, wears her son, Joseph, a lot too.  We are both in love with our Boba carriers and James and Joseph usually walk together at least once a week in their Bobas.  Lisa's mom was so gracious to take some pictures of us before we went walking last week -

 If you ever want to talk with me about wearing James, let me know - I'm very passionate about it and I'd love to help you get connected with a great carrier / wrap.  And I'm not any expert by any means - I still have so much to learn, but I can help you get started :)