Wearing Your Baby - How to Make and Use a Wrap

Adjusting to life with a newborn can be difficult. We like to think that a hundred years ago, women had their aunts and sisters and mothers over to help them run their household while they got to know their new baby. We do know that none of us have that luxury today. Adjusting to life with a newborn when you already have other children is even more difficult. Their needs didn't go away just because there is a helpless, tiny newborn in the house. Babywearing becomes a lifesaver for those early months.

Babywearing is great for you, the mom because you can:

Play with your toddler while caring for your newborn

Fix dinner while holding your newborn (babies get fussy during early evening, inevitably while you are fixing dinner)

You won't have to lug around a heavy, awkward car seat or bump a huge stroller up and down stairs or search for an elevator.

Babywearing is good for your baby because:

Held babies cry less. Less crying means they have more time to learn.

Babies spend more time in a quiet alert state when carried. Their senses can be stimulated and they can retreat when overloaded.

They become more securely attached to their caregiver, and emotional security is good for babies.

Living close to your body's rhythms is more like the environment baby has been for the last nine months. And living close to your body's rhythms can help the baby adjust to life in the brave, new world.

There are lots of babywearing devices out there: slings, ring slings, front pack type carriers (like Snugli and Bjorn), pouches and wraps. They each have their pros and cons, but right now I'm going to discuss using a wrap. I have two children, and I have found a wrap to be the most versatile, secure, comfortable way to babywear.

My favorite wrap is called a SPOC (Simple Piece Of Cloth) probably because it was the easiest and cheapest and most comfortable way I had carried my babies. You can make your own and it doesn't even require any sewing unless you are kind of picky like me and don't like unhemmed ends. My favorite SPOC wrap, then, is a length of material generally about 5 yards long and at least 30 inches wide. The material must be cotton gauze. Cotton gauze is not what you use for bandages, it is cotton material with a weave you can see through. It is most usually called "handwoven" , and does not have a right side and wrong side. If you are unsure of what to get, ask the saleslady at your fabric store to show you some cotton gauze. Get five yards of it. Hem the ends if you are like me and can't stand the thought of them unraveling.

Then go on your own babywearing adventure. A newborn and his mommy can be very comfortable in the front cross carry with a wrap. Here's how to do it: find the center of the material, and and put that about in the small of the back. Cross in the front and bring to back , creating a cummerbund of sorts. Take the two ends, and cross over each opposite shoulder, making an X on your back with the cloth. Reach behind you and grab the ends and bring up over your shoulders and cross in front, making another X on your chest. Take your baby and put a leg on either side of the X on your chest. Take some of that thirty inches of width and pull up the inner part of the X over the baby; do the same with the outer edge. Now baby is secure; you are carrying with both shoulders, so both hands are free to clean, chase a toddler, choose books at the library, cook dinner (being careful of course not to get too close to the burners with the baby), or whatever else you need to do; When baby cannot hold up his head, or if he falls asleep, you can pull the material up further and secure his head. The reason you have chosen cotton gauze to make the wrap is for its breathability; your baby can breathe just fine with the cloth over his face.

And that's just one of the carries you can use with a wrap to wear your baby. My second daughter lived like this until she was about four months old. Those first three months babies like to nurse and catnap anyway; babywearing with a wrap made that a safe and secure experience for both of us.