Beginnings

Life has been really busy since moving to Florida. I cannot believe it has been months since my last post! My life in Florida has been a series of new beginnings. My daughter began kindergarten. My son began attending a new daycare. We began living in a new apartment. I began hanging out with new friends - especially new babywearing friends (includng my cousin, pictured below).

One of the things that has kept me the most busy is my teaching at the University of North Florida. This semester, I'm teaching three classes with a new-to-me curriculum. This new beginning has taken up a lot of my time and mental energy.

As an instructor, I often bring my life into the classroom. In particular, I often get the chance to bring my babywearing life into the classroom, both indirectly and directly. Indirectly, this semester I have used my babywearing as an example of belonging in a discourse community and I have formulated sample inquiry questions related to the study of babywearing practices.

Directly, I have introduced babywearing to my students by wearing my son to class when he was sick. This has impacted my classroom in a few ways.

First, I become a "real" person when I bring my life into the classroom. I have a life outside of class and when students realize this they become a little more forgiving and kind. They ask about my kids and that opens the door for me asking about their lives and they become more open to talking in class, which means they participate more fully in class discussions. My babywearing begins conversation.

Second, my students tell me how my babywearing inspires them to consider babywearing with their children in the future. And that's a huge win, I think! The seeds are planted for future babywearers - males and females. My students have asked questions about how to babywear, where to get information on babywearing, and where to buy carriers. My babywearing begins practices.

This picture was taken by a student.

Finally, my students have been inspired to write about babywearing - or a topic related to babywearing and attachment parenting. One student is even doing her analysis of a discourse community on the community of babywearers! My babywearing begins discourse.

The student who is writing about babywearing asked me a number of questions about beginnings, such as:
- How do people get involved in babywearing?
- How did you get involved in babywearing?
- When did you begin babywearing?
- When did you start getting involved in chatter groups?
- When did you begin your blog?
- Why did you begin the babywearing group in Bloomington?

Everything has its beginning. We all come to babywearing in many different ways. We enter into the conversations at different points. Sometimes we enter a chatter group after everyone has group lingo and inside jokes. Sometimes we enter a chatter group as it just begins and we are part of creating the group lingo and inside jokes. For example, I have been very involved in the beginnings of Bijou Wear. I joined the chatter group when it began. I own two of the first Bijou releases. And I volunteered at Bijou's MommyCon debut. These beginnings have shaped my role in the babywearing community.

We all have stories of beginnings. For me, it is exciting - and perhaps intimidating - to know that I am the catalyst for many people's "beginning" in the babywearing world. I hope that every single interaction I have that brings someone into this world is a positive and encouraging one. Because babywearing is meant to be positive and encouraging and loving.

How are you a catalyst for people's "beginning" in this exciting world of babywearing?

The color of my dreams

Babywearers can relate. Sometimes you see a color on a wrap that strikes you and you become obsessed with that color! For me, that color is the most perfect shade of pink. And the wrap that got me obsessed with this color is Pavo's Unicorno Pink Lemonade.  After I saw this wrap for the first time, I became obsessed with wanting a wrap this color.

(Pavo Form stock photo above).

The Pavo wrap was an exclusive at the New York Baby Show and, at first, was impossible to get your hands on. Then, when they started going up for sale, I was in the process of saving up for my move and couldn't afford to purchase it at market value. And I wasn't convinced that I loved the Unis pattern. At one point, Pavo and I were commenting about Pink Lemo on IG. I was saying how I dreamed of this color and hoped it would be woven in another pattern. They asked what pattern would I buy in Pink Lemo, but the conversation ended and I doubt Pink Lemo will be woven again anytime soon.

Still, I obsessed over this color!

THEN something amazing happened! I got a PM from Justyna at Ehawee Slings telling me I had won a wrap!!! A PINK WRAP! Not only a pink wrap, though, a wrap called "Flamingos Fly South." The name might seem innocuous to most, but to me the name of the wrap has so much meaning. I was told that I won this wrap just as I was packing to move south -- to Florida!

Two weeks before I moved to Florida, the wrap was shipped from Poland, which should have been plenty of time to get to me before I left Indiana. But it got held up in customs and arrived to Indianapolis and then Bloomington just days after I moved. Before I moved, my mail carrier informed me that all of my mail, including packages, would be forwarded - no problem. Well, the post office got confused and the wrap bounced from Indiana to Florida to Indiana and back to Florida. I thought for sure it would never arrive.

When I got a notice that it had finally made it to the local post office, I called and asked them to hold the package for me so I could pick it up. I did. The poor package had been through so much!!



I was afraid to open it. I could see straight to the beautiful bag holding the pink wrap I had been dreaming of. When I did open it, I found that it was perfectly fine! And amazingly gorgeous!



Even though I wanted to throw it in the wash right away, I didn't. I took my wrap outside for a little photoshoot - a before bloom shot. At first, the wrap was thin, very flat, and a little scratchy. After a wash, though, it puffed up nicely and softened up a bit. There is also a slight texture over the wings of the birds.

The first ups in a new wrap, especially one you had been anticipating for so long, are very special. My five year old, obsesser of pink, wanted the first up. She patiently let me do a double hammock. The chest pass went right into place without any struggle and very little extra tightening after completing the back pass. The second back pass glided across her back and spread nicely. Once tied off, the carry was rock solid.

I held my daughter for a twenty minutes while we watched a cartoon together. She cuddled me as I swayed her. It was so awesome. And extremely comfortable. After the show, I started walking toward the kitchen and my wee cousin ran up to us with a wrap in her hand and turned her back to me, waiting to be wrapped. So, I put her up in tandem with my new Flamingos.








The tandem was also very comfortable. Because Flamingos had wrapped so solidly, it held the second wrap and baby very easily. The toddler got a little antsy after abut 10 minutes and wanted down. This prompted my five year old to get down too.



 
 Of course, I had to put my baby boy up in our new pink wrap! I put him up the first night we had the wrap and we took a walk, but it was too dark to take any good pics. So these pics are from day two with Flamingos Fly South. And it's still love. The color of my dreams has arrived.

Tonight we got our first sleepy dust in the wrap. He napped for about an hour while I cooked dinner and wrote some of this blog. 

 

So, what do I think of this wrap? It's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. It is medium weight and has a slight texture. It was a little rough feeling at first, but it softened up after an initial wash and I'm sure will soften up more with wear. This wrap has a slight stretch that allows it to be pulled really tightly against baby. It has plenty of comfortable and breathable support. This is a great wrap. These birds come in lots of colors, all in limited runs. Ehawee is a new wrap company and I look forward to seeing what else Ehawee offers in the future.

I named a wrap ... and sent it to Singapore

Many babywearers geek out when meeting the designers and owners of wrap companies. I totally geeked out the first (and second) time I met Alisa Heytow DeMarco of Tekhni and JMoney of Pavo at MommyCons. In the babywearing world, the women (and men) who make the wraps we love are our celebrities. I for one enjoy speaking to designer/owners and geeking out about fabrics, colors, and designs.

It is even better when the owner of a wrap company you love is actively involved in the Facebook chatter group. Being able to interact with and talk about babywearing with the owner makes you feel like a part of the process. When you show off your baby catching some sleepy dust in a double hammock with an awesome chest pass and the woman who designed your wrap comments on your post, you get really excited!

Jaime Gassmann of Bijou Wear is one of those owners who is very active in the Facebook chatter group. For Bijou Wear, this group is called the Bijou Buzz. One evening, Jaime told me about a very special colorway coming out and she was struggling to name it. Being the rhetorician I am, I started throwing out possible names and one stuck. I got to name a wrap!!!

Introducing Bijou Wear's Cleo Vineyard, a Tencel®/Cotton blend in a beautiful Merlot color.

When you unwrap Cleo Vineyard, it feels a bit stiff and flat. But all it needs is one wash and a dry and Vineyard will bloom before your eyes!! ("Bloom" is the term used to describe how a wrap puffs up and gets thicker and softer after a wash and dry).

The design of Cleo makes for a nice texture. The flowers are surrounded by lines going in a number of different angles away from the flowers. The color of Vineyard is very much a Merlot wine color, but it changes depending on the light. This change happens because of how the Merlot weft weaves in and out of the cream warp. (The warp is what is placed on the loom first and the weft is what is woven into that warp).

The Cleo design has a very different stretch than other Bijou Wear wraps. I had heard of a wrap wrapping like an "Ace bandage" before and I thought I had felt that, but until trying Cleo Vineyard, I had never felt an "Ace bandage" wrap. Cleo Vineyard hugs the body tightly and stays in place, stretching slightly with your every move, just like an Ace bandage -- just check out this chest pass!

The wrap also hugged my baby. In these pics, I have my 20 pound baby in a ruck. The ruck held Baby Frankie tight and comfy. I finished this ruck off with the very elegant "date night finish" also called the "goddess finish." This was the first time I had a wrap elegant enough for this beautiful finish (I am using my base size +1 in these pictures).

I did not have Cleo Vineyard very long. I was sent the wrap to play with for a few days before sending it on to my friend in Singapore so she could introduce Bijou Wear to her friends in Singapore. I loved having Cleo Vineyard. The color is absolutely beautiful and the wrap qualities are amazing. I am constantly amazed by the beauty of Bijou Wear wraps.

So my friend had this tester...

So my friend had this tester wrap that she had been anticipating for months. It just so happened that the wrap arrived just days before I was to leave Indiana to move to Florida. As a sort of going away present, she met up with me so I could try it out and have our friend photograph.

The wrap is Poe Wovens' 100% cotton Naked Spangled. I don't have much experience with natty's (natural fiber, non-dyed wraps) and was really excited to see what this natty business is all about. I picked up Naked Spangled and, as I do, started pulling it in every direction and feeling the surface of the wrap. I thought, "hmmm, this wrap has absolutely no stretch and is very smooth with no apparent grip, I don't think this is going to work."

Standing in the living room were my two friends waiting for me to give the wrap a try and tell them what I thought.

So I wrapped with it.

I wasn't even sure what carry I was going to do or how I would finish it off. There I was in my friend's living room, all eyes on me. So I just wrapped, and this was the glorious result.

I ended up wrapping my baby in a double hammock with a sternum belt, a finish I don't often do because I find the sternum belt to hurt my chest. But as I started wrapping with the fabric, this carry and this finish just made sense. The passes just slid into place and hugged my baby. The fabric felt strong, but light in my hands, so I started twisting it and the sternum belt just happened. It was just the right width to look nice and, yet, not dig into the center of my chest.

And I got a little excited about the way the fabric felt, so I unwrapped my baby and wrapped him again, but this time in a FWCC (front wrap cross carry) with flipped shoulders.

Again, the passes glided smoothly and tightened very easily. I didn't have to struggle with wrap to get it to move into place. The passes laid across my back smoothly and the finished carry looked so very polished.

My verdict: this wrap is very deceptive. It might feel unimpressive at first, but it actually wraps quite beautifully.

I am so sad that this was the last time I got to geek out with these two awesome ladies about fabric and babywearing. Thanks so much Carrie (Beri Bee Designs) for letting me play with this wrap! And thanks to Cara (Cara Davies Photography) for these beautiful pictures. I love and miss you both!

The Great Move of 2015 ... and a Visit from Tetris Muse

So I've been a little quiet lately on all forms of social media. It's because we moved! And not like down the street, we moved over 850 miles from Bloomington, Indiana to Jacksonville, Florida. Lots of wraps visited me during that time and I have many blog posts to catch up on.

One tester was boxed up and moved with me -- Risaroo Tetris Muse size 6, the first Risaroo I have ever handled. Risaroo Tetris Muse is 100% cotton and a gorgeous blue. I couldn't quite capture the color in my photographs. This wrap held my 20-pound 14-month old on our first outing in Jacksonville and gave us some of our most tender babywearing moments - like the pic below. This picture is one of my all time favorite babywearing pics.

Our first outing in Jacksonville, besides the beach, was to MOSH - the Museum of Science and History. I wore Frankie in Tetris Muse comfortably for over two hours. The highlight of our afternoon at the science museum was seeing the animatron dinosaurs. Babywearing allowed my Frankie to feel safe when seeing the giant dinosaurs move, gnash their teeth, and roar their mighty roars.

Notice in the pic above how well this wrap lays across my shoulders. Also, notice how high Frankie stayed up on my back. This 100% cotton wrap held tight with absolutely no sagging. The wrap has very little stretch and has a small amount of grip. So it totally stays in right where you put it.

Tetris Muse made a pretty freshwater finish in a double hammock. In the pics below, again notice how smoothly the shoulder passes lay with this wrap. The wrap lays very flat against you, so you get clean, crisp finish.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know by now that I love the Poppins Carry and every wrap I test must be worn in a Poppins. I not only wore Risaroo Tetris Muse in a pretty Poppins, but I did something I rarely do in a wrap, I nursed my baby in this wrap! I often fear loosening a wrap and loosing too much slack and having to awkwardly hold my baby in what appears to be a bad wrap job. But because this wrap is super sturdy, I was able to loosen it just a little and have it still hold my baby while I continued to walk around the museum.

Another evening I pulled Tetris Muse out and threw Frankie up in a ruck. I think the 100% cotton Risaroo Tetris can totally rock a ruck.

The shoulder passes can be folded nicely to create reasonably thin straps and gorgeous pleats. Again, because this cotton is very sturdy and a little grippy, everything stays in place right where you put it.

For those who really like the geometric patterns, Risaroo Tetris creates a neat geometric look when wrapped. Check out this bum shot!

If you are looking for a sturdy, grippy wrap with a tiny bit of stretch and a little bit of grip that will hold a DH, Poppins, and ruck, then the Risaroo Tetris is for you. We sure had a lot of fun with it and captured some great babywearing moments in this wrap.

No Two Tencel are Quite Alike

So we know that two wraps can be 100% cotton, but in our hands those two wraps can feel completely different. And we know that 100% cotton wraps can have completely different wrap qualities. Sometimes those differences are due to the thickness of the threads, which can affect the weight of the wrap. Sometimes those differences are do to the weave, giving the wrap a stretch or a texture that affects wrap qualities. And sometimes those differences are due to the cotton fiber being used.

Tencel® is no different. But, if you're anything like me, you tried Tencel®, found it to be one way, and asserted that all Tencel® is that one thing. Forgetting that the many factors  that cause cotton to behave differently could cause Tencel® to behave differently as well.

My first experience with Tencel® was a Tula Lexington Boulder ring sling. I fell in love with how soft it was before even being washed. It held my tiny 5 month old tight against me. It molded around his body like a receiving blanket. It was wonderful! In my hands, Lexington Boulder had a slight texture that helps it grip the rings. It glided through the rings, but not so fast that it became slippery.

And then my baby grew. He gained height and weight and at around 20 pounds, the Tencel® started to sag under his bottom, causing the material to slip in the rings. I was constantly tugging at the sling to get it back into place.

Here's my tiny baby boy in our Tula Lexington Boulder ring sling. The cuddles were amazing!

And, if that wasn't enough frustration with Tencel®, I also had a Tekhni Adelphi Mist size 3 wrap that began sagging under my son's weight in every carry. No matter how much I tightened the rails, my son's bottom would sag deep into the seat, putting pressure on my shoulders and causing the carry to be very uncomfortable. Frankie was about 15lbs when I bought and sold the wrap.

I took very few pictures of this beautiful wrap. Here's a pic using it as a prop for Frankie's 9 month pictures.

I absolutely loved both the Tula and the Tekhni Tencel® wraps! They are extremely soft wraps and they are beautiful! They are also well made. I would recommend both wraps to a new mother wanting something soft to carry her baby in. I would suggest, though, that the Tekhni Adephi Mist be purchased in a larger size that allowed for carries with multiple passes to help reinforce the wrap. I think that would have helped. But at the time I knew very few back carries and I couldn't do much more than a ruck with a size 3 wrap.

I made the tough decision to sell both the Tekhni Adelphi wrap and the Tula Lexington ring sling.

And I swore off Tencel® for my growing baby.

Then, I met Bijou Wear and was sent a TENCEL® Blast Firecracker to test. I also played around with the Tencel® Windmills Lake Tahoe a friend of mine purchased.

I have already reviewed Firecracker and, as you know from that post, I loved it so much I kept it. Here's another shot of Blast Firecracker highlighting just how beautiful this wrap is!

Since my last post about Bijou Wear wraps, I have put Firecracker to the test! Just tonight I put my 40 pound, 5 1/2 year old up in Firecracker and walked around for a bit. I was so surprised at how easily I could wrap her and how well it held her! She did not sag and the wrap did not dig into my shoulders.

The passes on Bijou Wear's Blast Firecracker Tencel® stretch nicely over the baby/child and then stay in place. It is easy to tighten the passes - that is, I'm not fighting the wrap and sweating just to tighten my passes! The fabric is not perfectly smooth, but also not overly textured. The wrap creates a nice tight knot of medium thickness. 

I also had the opportunity to try Bijou's Windmills Lake Tahoe. Another Tencel® wrap with amazing wrap qualities. I spent a couple of hours with Windmills Lake Tahoe last Sunday. My first impression of Lake Tahoe was how it felt a little more solid and dense than Firecracker. This is likely due to the fact that Lake Tahoe has larger areas of solid color and fewer shapes in it than Firecracker.

Here's Windmills Lake Tahoe. You can see both the "right" and "wrong" sides to the wrap here.

Windmills Lake Tahoe has almost the same wrap qualities as Blast Firecracker. Both feel soft, mold around the baby's body, glide into place, tighten easily, and knot neatly. Windmills seems to need a little more breaking in and a tiny bit more muscle to tighten than Blast. Both wraps look beautiful and flawless on.

Both wraps are strong, which surprised me considering my past experiences with Tencel®. What makes Bijou's Tencel® wraps stronger than other wraps, I believe, is the way the wrap is woven with large geometric figures that help contain the natural stretch you find in Tencel®. That is, the wraps don't stretch continuously from one corner to another. They stretch just within the shapes and so they hold stronger. Blast stretches diagonally across the squares in an X shape. Windmills stretches around the entire circle of the windmill in every direction, but has little to no stretch in the solid areas.

BUT, I must caution that not all Bijou Tencel® is equal. And that's not at all a bad thing - the variation allows for each wrap to have it's own character. All the Tencel® Bijou uses is lovely, but it's not the same. Bijou Blast LP (the black and white Blast below) is woven with a silkier and smoother Tencel® fiber (the colored fibers are the Tencel®). I have only felt a piece of LP wrap scrap and it was so wonderful! I wonder how the silkier texture will affect the wrap qualities. I can only imagine that the passes will glide even more smoothly.

Also, the cotton used in Bijou wraps feels different than the cotton I felt in other Tencel® wraps. I would say that it is a firmer cotton fiber (in both Blast Firecracker and Windmills).

The moral of this story is simple: not all like fibers are equitable. Many factors determine the wrap qualities of a particular wrap. It's important to do your research, ask questions, and figure out what works best for you. Right now, Bijou Wear Tencel® is working for me!