it's a wrap
I am officially a member of the tribe now.
fresh as a daisy at 5:30am
Unlike Harvey who was a bear to put to sleep but slept solidly after he went down, Zion is a fitful sleeper and during the day with all the toddler noise in the house it seems that he can only sleep well while being held by his mama. Not an easy thing given the aforementioned toddler. I wore the sling a lot, which Zion loves, but I was getting cramps in one shoulder from the lopsided weight bearing. So I called my mom and asked her to pick me up a Moby wrap. This brings the number of branded baby carriers in our house to 4: bjorn, ergo, sling, and moby. For people who say that babies don't need a lot of stuff, that's a little embarassing. The truth is, they DON'T need a lot of stuff, but man oh man do you just keep buying stuff until you find the RIGHT stuff.
So anyway, the moby. It works really well for carrying a fussy baby, if you don't mind looking like a ginormous hippy.
The concept of attachment parenting has hurt me more than helped me in my parenting journey. (did I just type parenting journey? I guess I am a hippy.) When Harvey was a baby I felt like a terrible mother whenever I put him down. So I waited until Dan could hold him to do absolutely anything... fold laundry, go to the bathroom, eat. As a consequence I felt totally trapped, panicked, and hungry all the time. I didn't really get over the feeling until Harvey got older and more independent naturally. With Zion I've tried to re-wire my brain to think logically; holding him is good, but so are clean dishes, so holding him and then putting him down to wash dishes is good too.
I am a little wary of touting the promises of babywearing. Every how-to-tie-a-wrap video ends with the reassurance like: "Now you're baby is tied to you and you're ready to go about your day doing work around the house or whatever you need to do!" Awesome... if your house work only involves picking up with one hand things objects that are already at eye-level. Don't try to get anything off a top shelf, bend down to pick something up, or do a task that requires bringing two hands together, like washing dishes. Two hands free is rather a mis-nomer if they can only come together a foot in front of your body.
Still, I've gotten rather good at the grand plie toy pick-up (the baby's legs need to swing over your midline, that's why you can't bend down like regular or you'll smush them) and it must be toning my butt in the process! And most importantly, Zion isn't crying because he desperately needs to nap and can't.
Harvey has gotten a little jealous from time to time about the baby wearing, and he often asks to go up in "Harvey's born" which he also calls "brown thingy"... I have indeed carried him in the ergo carrier from time to time this month (Harvey's confusing the brand names when he calls it his bjorn, but I'll let that slide) but mostly I just say no. It's a whine that is not easily sated. The only time Harvey got as much time as he wanted in the carrier and voluntarily asked to get down was when I walked the dog pushing Zion in the stroller and holding Harvey in the carrier. That was 40 minutes and 2 miles, and I prefer not to repeat the feat. At home, 10 minutes in the carrier does not fulfill any desire for Harvey, and only makes him whine for it more. So no uppy for you, mister. Which is all to say that these days I make my decisions on how to love my children based on minimizing the sound of whining and maximizing my hands-free time washing dishes. At least it's a method I can stick with!
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Hi Leah,
Congratulations on your new baby Zion! I'm leaving on a trip soon and Murray and I have a gift for your new baby that I'd like to bring over to you before I leave. Please reply to kardaniels@gmail.com or call me at 781-275-8092 to arrange something convenient. Can't wait to see Zion!
- Karen Daniels