My Babywearing Journey

I have always wanted to be a mom. Since as far back as I can remember. My mom always tells stories about how she would find me nursing my dolls, rocking them to sleep at night, and taking them on every trip.

Image: Lyndsi (age 3) wearing her baby doll in a toy baby carrier.

Some people aspire to go far in their careers or travel the world but neither of those have been my goal. My main goal in life was to be a wife and a mommy. Although you can't prepare for motherhood, I did everything I could to get great knowledge for my future. I nannied, I took child development courses in college, and paid close attention to the great parents around me.

Fastforward to my wedding day... I was getting ready to marry the love of my life, the man I had been dating for 6 1/2 years. All excitement about that day and our future surfaced and I felt happier than ever before. My bridesmaids, mom, mother-in-law-to-be, and the flower girls were all at the studio to get our hair styled for the big day. One of my sweet flower girls was my soon-to-be husband's cousin's daughter (did you catch that?) who I absolutely adore! Her mom (husband's cousin) was there with her 3 children to help assist at the hair studio. Ready for where this ties in to babywearing? Her youngest child was 1 and she brought her baby carrier to wear him so she would be hands-free. My best friend even got to babywear him. Seeing the joy that came from both the wearer and the little one made my heart so happy!

Fastforward just 6 months after our wedding day... I take a positive pregnancy test! My husband and I have never been so excited in our lives; being parents was our calling and it was becoming a reality. I should fill you in that my husband and I are major nerds and research everything so you can only imagine all of the "Guess what I read" or "Did you know"s that we shared regarding pregnancy and parenting information. I loved researching about pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding. I watched every documentary accessible and wrote down/pinned on Pinterest SO much information! Once I felt confident about all of those topics, I worked my way into researching postpartum and attachment parenting. I found a lot of good information on kangaroo care and the importance of skin to skin for both baby and caregivers. This led me to researching babywearing! Everything about it got me super excited to keep my little one close.

I reached out to my husband's cousin and she added me to great babywearing Facebook groups and answered every question I asked her. She was the gateway into my babywearing journey! The first item that we purchased for our baby was obviously cute girl clothes but the second purchase was a Tula (the carrier his cousin had at our wedding). I starred at it daily and fantasized about carrying my little love in it. For my baby shower, hubby's sweet cousin gifted me an Ergo and a ring sling! Can you say best gifts ever? I soon after also purchased a size 4 Little Frog woven wrap. I was perfectly stashed and ready to have this baby!

I had a long labor and unfortunately battled with postpartum depression. I babywore my little lady for the first time when we got home from the hospital and she was 4 days old. FYI for my future babies, I will be bringing a carrier to the hospital and wearing soon after birth. That beautiful love hormone that we refer to as oxytocin was incredible when we were babywearing. Even better when we went shirtless and were skin to skin. I had watched numerous YouTube videos about how to wear all of our carriers and although it definitely took practice to perfect, having prior knowledge made me feel more prepared. My husband has always been just as excited about babywearing as me. Him and I "fought" and still "fight" over who gets to wear the baby! We seriously babywore almost every day, multiple times a day. I couldn't stand carrying the heavy carseat around everywhere, especially with my picky back.

Since hubby and I love babywearing so much, our stash kept growing! We added more woven wraps and a LILLEbaby. Some women have to convince their hubbies to buy a new carrier but my husband enables it. 😂  (crying laughing emoji)

Through babywearing, we have comfortably went grocery shopping, gotten housework completed, and went on numerous adventures (hiking, zoos, museums, etc).

I have since become a leader for our local babywearing group in hopes to share the babywearing love and spread awareness of the benefits of keeping your baby close. Nothing makes my heart happier than seeing a caregiver wear their baby comfortably for the first time! I have met so many amazing women, men, and children

through babywearing and that, my friends, is priceless!

Our baby girl is now 1 1/2 and we still babywear almost daily. Whether it's for nap time or to go on a walk, it's incredibly useful to keep our little close and safe. The bond that our family has built all through babywearing is unmatched. I'm grateful every day that we were introduced so early in our parenting journey and we've reaped the benefits from the beginning.