MSM: Billi's stash

I am a Cancer, born in July.  Cancers are very loyal.  A short time ago my stash was almost entirely Natibaby.  That was my brand.  Then I got a Pavo.  Suddenly all my Natis were gone and I now have several Pavos.  Oooops ;)

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After a few months of suffering from "buy all the wraps!", I am now in destash mode and many of these are for sale.

So here is my stash as it stands right now in order of most used to least used:

 

Tula standard semi wrap conversion of Didymos Chestnut.    I love this carrier for quick ups where I don't want to wrap for fear of getting my wrap dirty, etc.  Now that I've finally learned to back carry in it, I love it even more.  It's so easy to use and comfy for both me and baby.

Size 7 Natibaby Shiny Sky linen cotton blend (bottom wrap).  This is one of two wraps released on Riel's birthday.  I wasn't going to buy it because I bought the other wrap that was released on his birthday, but it came up on the swap for a really good deal.  It has become my everyday wrap, the one that I can wear when cooking, cleaning, or painting with my 3 year old because I'm not afraid to get it dirty (since it didn't cost me a ton).  It's great for fwcc and fcc.

Pavo Gotham Steel 4 all cotton (all Pavos are 100% cotton except Etini Flax).  This is my newest love and believe me it is LOVE.  This is the perfect ruck wrap.  It's so supportive and I love the design.  I am currently ISO more colourways of Gotham (size 6+).

Pavo Hearts of Stone 7.  This is the first Pavo I fell in love with and I was so happy when a sweet mama agreed to sell it to me on a short payment plan.  Hearts of Stone was released during the first round of Pavo Hearts, along with Hearts of Ice and Hearts of Glass.  This wrap is thin and soft.  When I finally learn  how to double hammock, it'll be in this wrap.

Pavo Etini Holly 6.  This is actually the first Pavo I purchased.  Around Christmas time everyone was going crazy for Holly and Pointsetta.  They were HSA.  A lady was selling her Holly and was holding a draw to purchase for retail.  I entered thinking there's no way I'd win.  Well I won!  So I had no choice but to take the plunge into Pavo.  I'm so glad I did.  This wrap is part of the thintini collection.  It is so thin and moldable.  It has such a shimmer you'd swear  there was linen in it.  This is my fancy/elegant wrap and my only complaint is that I'm afraid to wear it half of the time because I'm afraid to get it dirty.

Natibaby Robots 6 Linen/Cotton blend.  My 3.5 year old is obsessed with robots.  I bought this to be his legacy wrap even though he's never been wrapped in it.  It's super soft and floppy.  Before the Pavos came along, this was my prized possession.  I still love it, but it doesn't get as much love as it used to.

Firespiral Bronze Birch Trees 7 Irish linen/cotton blend.  I have a thing for nature-themed wraps (I have owned two Nati Forests, as well as Deers).  I also have a thing for orange and bronze, so when this wrap was released I had to have it.  But I have a love/hate relationship with this wrap.  I love the look and feel of this wrap but hate that it cost me way too much in customs fees on its way over from the UK (the wrap itself wasn't cheap; the customs fees were like adding insult to injury).  I might be holding a grudge against it as I haven't wrapped with it much yet.

Pavo Jaded Hearts 5.  This was an impulse buy.  Pavo released several colourways of Hearts in quick succession during their second round of Hearts releases and they were just sitting there on the Pavo site.  I couldn't just let them sit there.  So I bought Jaded, thinking I needed some green in my stash.  But a 5 is a weird size for me.  It's too small to do a lot of multi pass carries but too big to be a shortie.  So out it goes.

Natibaby Blue Deers 6 Wool blend.  Love this wrap.  I was afraid of wool because it makes me itch, but this wool blend doesn't.  Its so soft and "springy" for lack of a better word.  Great for squishes and bigger babies. 

Natibaby UFO 6 Cotton/Bamboo blend.  I bought this because I wanted to try bamboo.  Plus I was in my loyal Nati phase.  It's soft and shiny but it's not love and I don't reach for it much.  It'll be for sale soon.

Didy Jeans Hemp 7 Hemp/Cotton blend.  This wrap was made on my son's birthday so I bought it to be his legacy wrap.  It is beastly and big and so far I've been too afraid to wrap my squish (well not quite anymore) in it.  I think it will be my toddler wrap as it is super wide.   

Pavo Hearts of Glass RS.  Before I knew Pavo was doing a second release of Hearts, I was desperate for a Hearts wrap.  I really wanted Hearts of Stone but hadn't seen it come up for sale.  When Hearts of Glass came up on the Pavo Society, even though it was the wrong size (a 3) and the wrong colourway, I bought it immediately.    Two days later Hearts of Stone came up so I bought that too.  Since 3 is also an odd size for me, I had this converted to a ringsling by the lovely JoAnn of Blue Hibou.  Now that I've found the Tula love, I'm using my ringsling less and less for quick ups so this will likely be for sale soon too.

India Jani Tiil Blanco ringsling.  Handwoven and super cheap, I bought this to be my summer/beach carrier.

                                    

Pavo Taj 7 Cotton/Mercerized Cotton.  My first Pavo stalking and I didn't think I'd actually score.  I did and now I'm stuck with a natty wrap that I'm too afraid to wear (don't want it to get dirty).  I'm sitting on the fence between sending this baby for a colour bath or selling it.  Its BNIB, never even been fully unfolded.

Natural Mother Productions Full Buckle conversion of Natibaby Haven.  When I decided I wanted a WCFB, I knew they were hard to come by.  This came up on the Canadian Swap for a great price so I immediately snatched it up.  Unfortunately, a few days later a wrap conversion Tula in a print that I had always wanted (Didy Chestnut) came up for retail and I managed to nab it.  So now I'm selling this NMP FB.  Its a great carrier that is extremely comfortable.  The straps criss cross for an even more tailored fit.  I really like it, but I really don't need two standard size buckle carriers.

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Are you interested in contributing to the BWA Blog?  We'd love to hear about and see your stash :)  Send your write up and some pics to billigrrl@hotmail.com to be included in an upcoming MSM post.

CoTW: Shepherd's Carry

by Meg Deresti

Welcome to the carry of the week, the shorty love edition.

Short wraps do take some practice, but I love them because they are cooler, faster to tie, and easier not to drag on the floor.

For the carry of the week this week, I would like to show you one of my favourite short woven wrap carries, Shepherd'ss Carry. It’s a great short carry, kind of reminiscent of Double Hammock because of the chest pass. I’ve been showing it to mamas who are pregnant lately, as it is a fantastic carry to keep all the weight up above your belly. It also doesn’t have ruck straps so its great to have full arm range of motion. Its generally done with your base -2 size, so usually with a size 2, 3 or 4 wrap. I’m using the lending library's size 2 DIY 100% linen wrap here, which is a touch small for this carry, but I wanted to show off the awesome dye job by Jo Ann Bonnick of Blue Hibou. It’s also pulling up more than usual, because this wrap is a little bit grippier than I’m used to.

I am also in desperate need of a photographer and perhaps models to help me make the library wraps more attractive. If you’ve got skills you would like to volunteer let me know!!!

The pass sequence goes like this:

With short tail over one shoulder, form a rebozo pass, then a chest pass pinning the short tail to your chest, and another rebozo pass to your other shoulder.  Secure with a square or slip knot.

Here is a tutorial I like. Faith ties off with a slipknot, but I usually just do a square knot. I think I’ll be trying the slipknot more often now though!

http://youtu.be/9SQfzGsP0Eg

P.S. If you like this carry but aren’t sold on the bulky knot or the way the chest pass feels on your chest (like its being pulled up), look up Double Hammock Double Rings. If I could keep track of my rings it would be my very favourite carry, but I always seem to be losing them. It’s also awesome to pin down pesky arms quickly if your little angel decides to turn into a hair pulling maniac at 11 pm and you haven’t slept in forever and are at your wits end. Not that my little angel ever does that. . .  I use medium sling rings for my medium weight wraps.

I can’t find a video I love for this carry, but check out this daddy wrapping!

http://youtu.be/jKISQc3v7lM

Show your support and be entered in to a giveaway!

Show your support for BWA by joining the Friends of Babywearing of Algoma.   Your $30 donation entitles you  to unlimited sling borrowing privileges and a chance to win this wrap scrap teether.   More details below!

Did you know that one of the main reasons the volunteer board formed BWA is so that we could spread the babywearing love in Algoma by making a sling lending library available to parents in our community? One of the biggest barriers facing parents in our area who want to babywear is a lack of available resources.  Local retailers just dont stock a wide variety of carriers.  A sling library allows us to help community members find a carrier that will work best for them by allowing them to try the variety of options that are available from retailers online.  Ideally, a sling library should have a few of each type of carrier available.

BWA's library has grown considerably in the short toime we've been in existence, largely through generous donations from local babywearers and the babywearing retail community.  There are still some areas of our library that are pretty thin and in need of appropriate carriers to round out the library.  We are looking to get a Tula, a size 4, 5, and 7 wrap, and a hemp wrap, to name a few items on our wishlist.  To see what's currently available in our library, check out our sling library facebook page https://m.facebook.com/BWASlingLibrary.  If there are items you'd be interested in trying that aren't in our library, let us know and we will try to acquire them. 

So how can you help us grow our library?  You can become a member of the Friends of Babywearing of Algoma. A donation of $30 gets you unlimited access to our lending library for one year (otherwise there is a $5admin fee per borrow).  Your $30 donation helps BWA ensure the carriers we have are properly maintained and helps us fund the purchase of additional carriers.  As an added bonus, for the month of March only, if you join the Friends of BWA before the end of the month, you will have a chance to win this hand made wrap scrap teether made by yours truly (Billi Gridale-Briski, BWA Secretary and Blog Manager) made from Girasol Symphuo Rojo DW scrap and a maple ring.

If you join on or before the March meet up (March 23) you get two chances to win!  Already a member of friends of BWA?  Don't worry, we arent forgetting you!  You'll be entered in to the draw too!

So how can you join the Friends of BWA?  Simply send your $30 donation via PayPal to babywearingofalgoma@gmail.com or contact any board member to arrange to pay by cash.

COTW: Double Hammock

This weeks Carry of the Week is Double Hammock (DH), brought to you by Emily Rivard.

Double Hammock is my all-time favourite way to carry my baby. It is the second back carry I learned and the one that allowed me to fall in love with babywearing. It has a chest pass that helps support weight across your torso and relieve pressure on your shoulders caused by typical ruck-straps.

The most difficult part of DH for me was learning to get the pass up over baby’s bum and high over his back. I found that the pass kept getting caught on his fluffy cloth diaper, and I often felt like a T-rex because my arms just wouldn’t do that. I eventually stumbled across a woman who had experienced similar problems in her early babywearing days who gave me a gem of advice, “use your arms the way that you would to towel off your back after a shower”. That absolutely clicked for me, and I found that my arms could actually do that.

Another common difficulty in mastering DH is getting the chest pass nice and tight. This makes the carry more comfortable and is the key to a great experience. I found that using the short rail as leverage to pull the chest pass tightly all the way through made a big difference.

I’d like to challenge you to try Double Hammock a few times this week. I think that you’ll find it becomes one of your favourite carries as well.

Here are a few of my favourite video tutorials of this carry:

Babywearing Faith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnNIMyk-WjI

Wrapping Rachel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYvZNx45isE

MSM: Meg's Stash

Hi! Here's a glimpse of what we use for wearing our babe around the Deresti household.

Size 5 Didymos Standard Blu/Nature striped, 100% cotton was my first woven wrap. It was the wrap I learned on, and it's probably the longest wrap I’ll own. It was given to me by a friend, and is soft, floppy, and forgiving.

Size 4 Didymos Millefiori Natural, 50% cotton, 50% silk. I bought this wrap about 4 days before my wedding off the Canadian Swap from a mama who express shipped it from Edmonton. I was hemming and hawing about what Helen should do during the ceremony, and at 5 months old, I knew she really wouldn’t be happy without being close to us. I’m so glad I wore her. She was fussing and crying the whole time we were getting ready, but in the 10 minutes before I walked down the aisle, she fell asleep on my back, only waking briefly to listen to the vows. It was probably everyones' favourite part of the ceremony, as no one was expecting me to wear her, and many people had never seen a wrap before. I don’t wear this wrap much, but there is so much sentimental value attached, I will have a hard time passing it along! Its a good wrap: soft, a little bit grippy, easy to wrap with.

Size 2.5 Didymos Lila Hemp Indio, 60% cotton, 40% hemp. I knew I wanted a shortie for a while, and I ordered this a few weeks before Christmas off the swap and stalked the mailman carefully. He finally arrived! I was so excited to try it out, but before I could open the package I had to run upstairs to deal with a diaper. Unfortunately, my husband came home unexpectedly just then, and swiped my wrap away, to be hidden until Christmas. Oh well, it just made opening it on Christmas morning that much better. I love it. After owning this, I don’t think I’ll ever purchase a wrap longer than a 3 ever again. I’ll keep my 5 for a new babe eventually, but for back wrapping, hip carries, and the occasional kangaroo, shorties are where it’s at. We use it every day. I like using it with rings to tie off if I have them handy. The previous owner washed and ironed it to help soften it up, but really didn’t use it. Its breaking in nicely and is only getting softer.

Retro Bikes Toddler Tula. I bought this mostly for daddy, but I use it occasionally. Its still a bit big for Helen, but we sinch the bottom of it with a bandanna so she doesn’t overspread her legs. It’s a good carrier for sure!

CoTW: Front Wrap Cross Carry

This week's Carry of the Week is Front Wrap Cross Carry (FWCC).

 

I remember the first time I saw FWCC (it was also the first time I saw a woven).  I was at a crowded event and I had Hudson in the Moby wrap.  I ran into a woman who was in my mom and baby yoga class.   She had her baby in a beautiful woven in fwcc with the cross passes gathered at the sides.   It looked beautiful and made me feel like I was slumming it in my plain black Moby (not really).

I love this carry not only for how pretty it looks but also for the snuggles it allows.  For my fussy guy, this is our go to carry when he needs cuddles.  As long as Riel will allow it, I will wrap him regulstly in FWCC.  

 

This is a great beginner carry and its great for squishes.  You will need a 5+ wrap for this carry, depending on your size (I use a 6).  

Photo credit: Billi Grisdale-Briski

 

Wraps: top left - Natibaby UFO, bottom left - Pavo Hearts of Stone; right - Natibaby Gears Grassy

 

Check out Babywearing Faith's instructions for FWCC:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gJEIYTQRTk

Meet the BWA Board

Photo courtesy of Jo Ann Bonnick

 

 

Hello! I’m Jo Ann and my son, Joel, is 11 months old. I’m the President of Babywearing of Algoma.

 

Before my son was born, I knew all of the things I wanted for him, babywearing included. I researched carriers and thought they were too expensive (haha), so I did some more research and found a few mamas who had made their own. I’ve been sewing since I was a little girl and knew I could do one for myself. So I did. Along the way, I also decided to start making my own diapers. This led to me making some for other people, all this before my son was even born! I met a couple of mamas local to where we were living at the time that were using woven wraps. I thought they were beautiful! Thus began my research into wovens. I still thought they were sooo expensive, so I traded some mamas handmade diapers for my first two wraps. Thus began the spiral into where I am today.

 

Reading about and seeing all the gorgeous wrap conversion carriers brought me to sew up my first wrap conversion (again, trading diapers for the wrap I made it from).  With more research, I discovered a small community of WAHMs that made and sold wrap conversions to help them stay at home with their littles longer. I joined the Baby Carrier Industry Alliance to start things out right, keeping up with all the rules, and began converting wraps for other mamas. I now have a thriving wrap conversion business that keeps me busy when my son is sleeping. My first handmade carrier is now part of the BWA sling library and I have more wraps than I care to count!

 

In the previous town I lived in there was a very small community of babywearers. We started a local babywearing group, but it really struggled to get off the ground because it was such a small town. While we were still living there, I had advertised one of my babywearing pouches for sale on my Facebook page and surprise surprise! the mama that bought it turned out to be from Sault Ste Marie! We had just found out my husband got a job here and we were moving in November! Meg told me about the local group of babywearers and before I even went to a meeting, we were chatting online. Everything else seemed to fall into place and I ended up as President of our awesome group.

 

I love how accessible we are becoming to the public and I love to see babywearing in the ‘wild’. Its such a positive experience for any caregiver and baby, fostering a sense of security and closeness. I really believe happy babies are created from the kind of feeling both the parent and child get from that kind of closeness, and I love sharing that with other moms and dads.



 

 

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Danielle

Hi all, I’m Steph, Vice-President and Treasurer of BWA.  I have one little, a fiercely independent little girl named Olivia.  She will be one next week (where did the time go?!).

 

When you decide to start your little family you are suddenly immersed in this whole other world. There are names for every parenting style, you have to decide how you are going to feed your baby, what’s going to go on their bum, where they’re going to sleep, and so so many more things.  Babywearing was something I knew I was going to do from the second I starting looking into what kind of parent I really wanted to be.

 

I added a HotSlings pouch sling on my registry and thought I was golden! .. And then she was born.. All of these awesome things I thought I had decided and knew all about turned out to be partial truths or not fitting for us. Olivia hated the pouch sling with all the hate a newborn can muster. Obviously these babywearing moms (that I desperately wanted to learn from) were wrong .. babies don’t even like to be worn.. right?  Wrong, totally totally wrong. I reached out to local moms during late night nursing sessions and I found a small handful of moms who knew a lot more than I did and they started steering me in the right direction - linking me to facebook groups, inviting me and Olivia over for “playdates”, etc. 

 

At three days PP, a local mom messaged me and said I could HAVE her gauze wrap as she didn’t like the way it wrapped - if I wanted it, it was mine free of charge. OF COURSE I WANTED IT! So I scooted out to grab it and rushed home to my baby and put that wrap on the couch for the night. It was intimidating - what if I dropped her? What do I do with all this fabric? Where does it all go? So I headed back to the internet and reached out again, and after chatting and spending about ten hours watching YouTube videos - I had Liv up. I DID IT. I fell in love with wrapping my girl right then and there and set out on my acquiring and churning adventure. I’ve bought and sold a few carriers since then, and have a couple of wraps on hand now. I am not a mom with a massive stash but I LOVE what I do have.
I am so grateful to the women in our babywearing community.  I have learned so much through them and very much look forward to growing with them. We may be a small community, but we are steadily growing and have set out to spread the babywearing love here in Sault Ste. Marie.

Photo courtesy of Emily Rivard

 

I’m Emily Rivard, Recruitment Officer for BWA. I have 3 kids - my 7 year old stepson Gage, my 2.5 year old toddler Kai, and 10-month old baby Liam. I stumbled onto babywearing while researching cloth diapers on the Diaper Swappers forum when I was pregnant with Kai. I was intrigued and loved the idea, but my husband was still a student and I just couldn’t justify purchasing the Easycare 01 rainbow woven wrap I’d fallen in love with. I started researching DIY options, and made myself a ring sling and a mei tai and found myself immersed in an excellent community of women on Facebook (all of whom lived thousands of miles away).

 

Shortly before getting pregnant with Liam, one of those women contacted me and asked for my address. She was going through her stash and decided to “pay it forward” and send a couple of her wraps to mamas who didn’t have one of their own. I was in love. Almost a year later, a few days before my birthday, another mama in that same group messaged me to tell me that she was selling her Easycare 01 rainbow. I was so excited and quickly convinced my husband that it would be the perfect birthday present. I found another local mama who was interested in babywearing and paid forward the wrap that I’d been sent previously.

In order to find that local mama, I posted in our local mom’s Facebook group. I discovered that I was not the only babywearer in town! There were 2 other local moms who loved wearing their babies and keeping them close, and a handful more who were interested in it. Slowly, the interest in babywearing increased and we had a small group of moms and babies who wanted to get together and pet each other’s wrap and have a playdate where we could share our interest. Our group has since snowballed into the Babywearing Of Algoma we know and love. As Recruitment Officer, I still keep my eyes open and am constantly looking for babywearers who aren’t yet benefiting from our group.

Photo courtesy of Meg Deresti

I’m Megan Deresti, wife to Frank, mother to Helen, and Lending Library Coordinator for BWA. Helen is my first baby and at 11 months, she is amazing. Frank and I started wrapping her in a Moby Wrap when she was just a few days old. I loved wrapping, but as the summer approached, I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the heat of the stretchy material. I mentioned my interest in finding a woven wrap to a friend who just happened to have a woven wrap in her closet that she never really used. She very kindly gave me my first wrap, a Didymos Standard Blue/Nature striped wrap, size 5. I dove in head first. Helen and I spent hours over our bed, in front of a mirror, watching youtube videos.

 

I proudly and happily wore her for a few months before I became aware of the community. I never really saw any other woven wrap wearers around, and I was always too shy to dive into deeper conversations from the few passing comments I got from other moms. I bought Frank an Ergo after Helen got too big for the Moby and while trying to sell it online (or trade it for a woven), Emily found me and very thoughtfully invited me to an early babywearing meeting. I am so glad she did.

 

Babywearing and the babywearing community have been a really important part of our lives. We love the closeness and comfort babywearing brings. It makes my attachment parenting instincts so much easier to implement. I didn’t have very many local mom friends before meeting the babywearing community here, these wonderful women have also made cloth diapering and nursing to sleep seem far more mainstream - it has been great to have other moms to troubleshoot with. I joined the board because I really feel like having a lending library is a huge asset to our community. I would never have splurged on a woven wrap had I not been given one to try. Now, 4 wraps in, I know that they are well worth the investment.

 

 

 

My name is Billi and I am the BWA Secretary and manager of this blog.  My first born son, Hudson, is now 3.5 years old, and I have a 6 month old boy named Riel.  

I was very slow to get in to babywearing, but I blame it on a lack of local resources (something BWA is trying to change!).  When Hudson was born, a friend from Southern Ontario (the same friend who got me into cloth diapering and attachment parenting) recommended I get a Moby wrap.  I thought $60 was a lot to pay for a piece of stretchy fabric (little did I know...), so I made one.  It didn't work well (wrong kind of fabric) so I bought a used Moby.  I loved it.  It made bringing Hudson along with me as I went about life very easy.  

Hudson was a very easy going baby and soon learned to crawl and that was it - off he went. When baby number two arrived, I was in for a shock.  Riel is a high needs baby. He needs to be  in my arms at ALL times.  Well this just wasn't going to work.  How was I supposed to take care of my busy 3 year old when I have this non-sleeping, fussy baby in my arms all day and night.  The same crunchy friend that suggested the Moby now suggested I get an Ergo, a carrier she said would make hands free even easier than the Moby.  So I got an Ergo, and had my first taste of confidence being mom of two.  Yeah, I got this.  I could comfort Riel while still having my hands free to make play doh transformers with Hudson.  

The Ergo was quickly sold to fund a Tula (heard it was a better carrier so wanted to try it), and since then several wraps have come and gone, and now here I am a board member of BWA and owner of a considerable stash of baby carriers.  Along the way I've learned so much, but I've had to search it all out.  BWA wants to normalize babywearing here in Algoma, and to provide the resources necessary so that busy parents don't have to spend hours searching for info on the how, where, and whys of wearing your baby. Stay tuned for next weeks feature on BWAs' growing lending library and how you can be a part of it.