Our Library is Growing!

Between International Babywearing Week, donations from vendors and companies, and two purchases, our lending library is growing!  Here's a look at what we've received in the past few weeks.

Soft Structured Carriers

Tula - We purchased a Tula since they've become quite popular and are really comfortable.  We're thinking of purchasing a second Tula so more people can try it.  What do you think?  If you're interested in trying the Tula, you'll need to go to the next Rigby meeting.

Boba - Boba donated a 3G in Glacier to our library.  A perennial favorite, we can never get enough Bobas around here!

Pognae - Pognae was a Platinum sponsor for International Babywearing Week 2013 and sent many carriers to BWI and we got one!  It's unique zipper panel will be lots of fun in the summer.

Action Baby Carrier - Action Baby Carriers just changed ownership and they're reaching out to groups to help promote their carrier.  One just arrived to Kristen's house this week and is still new in the package!  It will be at the Idaho Falls meeting this week to try!

Ring Slings

Sleeping Baby Productions - SBP also helped sponsor International Babywearing Week!  We received a beautiful brown 100% linen ring sling.  It's already been checked out and is currently loving a sweet baby.

Bara Barn - We recently purchased a Bara Barn ring sling to add to the library.  It's a sling made from a wrap.  It's thin and supportive.  We chose a beautiful blue color so it would be gender neutral enough for all of our babies.

Wraps

Girasol Drop - Slingomama, a babywearing vendor in the Netherlands, donated this beautiful 4.6 meter wrap to our library after Kristen won a drawing.  Girasols are amazing wraps for learning to wrap and especially for tiny babies.

Girasol Symphuo - Heart-Hugs donated this shorty wrap to us when we purchased the Tula.  Jenni, the owner of Heart-Hugs, loves to help babywearing libraries grow.  We really appreciate her generosity!  It's a short wrap and is a diamond weave which is very different from anything else in our library.

Mei Ties

Kozy - A favorite brand of mei tie.  Kozy was another IBW sponsor and sent us a blue camo print mei tie.  Perfect for the dads!

Other

Sling Rings - Another Platinum IBW sponsor!  Sling Rings sent us ten pairs of rings to play with.  These rings are designed specifically for babywearing.  They are made from aluminum, are safety tested, and contain no seams that could pull apart during use.  One of our wearers is using them to learn different wrap carries.  I like mine for a no-sew ring sling.

What Else?

As if nine new carriers and ten pairs of sling rings wasn't enough, we are going to continue upgrading our library!  We are working on selling a few unused carriers to fund newer styles.  Also, there are a few more donations we are expecting from IBW.

If you have any carrier suggestions, please let us know!

International Babywearing Week Celebration 2013

We all love babywearing, that's why we're here!  This week is International Babywearing week and we celebrated at Marie's house last night.  Our event started quietly, with Marie teaching us about various carrier types.

Delight, Sara, and Kourtney watching Marie demonstrate carrier styles.

Marie, wearing Grace in a Wrapsody Bali Breeze, explaining the difference between a stretchy wrap, here a Moby, and a woven wrap.  James is in the bottom right corner wondering why all the little girls are playing with his toys.  (I don't know why Marie, Grace and James are sideways, I'm not that technically literate.)

Our calm Babywearing 101 course soon turned into this:

Mamas of tiny babies started dumping ring slings onto the floor in an effort to try all the various shoulder styles.  The pile started small, but eventually grew to contain every ring sling in the library.

The ring sling pile started small but grew rapidly.  No further pictures were taken.  There simply wasn't time!!

We checked out six ring slings last night to families with very young babies.  It was so amazing and heartwarming to see all the happy mommies leaving with their babies in slings.

Wrap lover Brittany, on the right, even got in on the ring sling action as she helped Sara learn to adjust the rings on a Didymos ring sling.

Delight checked out our brand new Sleeping Baby Productions brown linen ring sling.  She was one happy mama!!

I meant to snap a picture of Marie's living room floor prior to cleaning it all up, but forgot.  Imagine every carrier from both the Rigby library and the Idaho Falls library spread across the floor by helpful preschoolers and toddlers.  That's how much fun we had last night!!

Thank you everyone who attended our babywearing celebration!  We as your babywearing group leaders love what we do.  We love watching your face go from stressed to peaceful when your newborn falls asleep on your chest.  We love watching the joy you feel when you leave our meetings with a new carrier and new knowledge.  We've been there.  Babywearing has a special place in our hearts!!!


Our library would be empty without the amazing carrier companies who send us free carriers or sell us discounted carriers.  Marie is modeling a Wrapsody Bali Breeze AND a brand new Pognae, both donated to our library by the companies who make them.  This year we were lucky enough to receive many carriers in celebration of International Babywearing Week.  In addition to the Sleeping Baby Productions ring sling above and the Pognae, Kozy sent us a fabulous blue camo mei tie and Sling Rings sent us ten pairs of rings to try.

 Thank you for babywearing and celebrating our love of babywearing!

Meet the Leaders: Kristen Hurt

Kristen Hurt was raised in Pennsylvania and moved to Idaho in 2006 to attend ISU.  She fell in love, got married, and became an Idaho resident.  Her babywearing obsession began when her oldest daughter was seven months old.  Kristen missed singing and wanted to join her church choir but the baby was too wiggly for that to work.  At her first babywearing meeting she borrowed a beautiful ring sling and has been hooked on the babywearing lifestyle ever since.

When daughter number two came along, Kristen learned to wrap and has been wrapping for hours a day ever since!  She recently became a Volunteer Babywearing Educator (VBE) through Babywearing International (BWI) and is now helping to lead meetings in Idaho Falls to help everyone else learn to wear their babies!

Kristen lives in Ammon with her husband, two step-sons, two daughters, and two dogs.  She currently teaches part-time for the Idaho Digital Learning Academy and for Idaho State University.  In her spare time she volunteers with several community and school organizations with one (or more) babies wrapped on her.

Sick Baby Snuggles

Raising kids is HARD!  We all know that.  Watching your child sick or in pain is even harder.  Last month my fourteen-month-old daughter, Ella, became dehydrated after getting a stomach virus.  A trip to the pediatrician determined that she needed IV fluids to keep her hydrated and out of the hospital.  This wasn’t Ella’s first adventure with IV fluids.  A year ago when she was ten weeks old she was hospitalized for four days to be hooked up to an IV.  Apparently she likes to get poked with needles every August!

As an avid babywearer I rarely carry anything besides a wrap with me when we go out.  We don’t use strollers often.  I think my kids should be exhausted at the end of an outing and when they ride in a stroller they aren’t!  My kids are old enough that the diaper bag stays in the van and we return to it as necessary.  So, I’m standing in the pediatrician’s office with my toddler and Ella thinking, “Wait, I have to carry this bag of IV stuff with me everywhere?  How am I supposed to wrap her on my back?!”  

We pretty much exclusively back wrap and the thought of not doing that while she was sick crushed me.  Then it dawned on me, there are other carriers I can use and front wrapping is not a crime.  Sheesh.  I laughed at myself and the nurse looked at me as if I was crazy.  (I might be.)

We hoofed it out of the ped’s office and over to the IV office.  I grabbed my trusty ring sling that was miraculously in my van and held Ella for an hour as they tried to find a vein.  Eventually she was taped up and ready to go home.  The ring sling was great because her arm rested over the top and the IV tubing never got twisted, kinked, or otherwise knotted.

Eventually the ring sling was too covered in sick baby goo to continue its usefulness.  I resorted to my husband’s Ergo Performance since he was out of town and not using it.  Ella enjoyed the Ergo since she didn’t have to support her weight at all.  She sunk into my chest, pulled her IV arm in and quickly fell asleep.

Not long after her nap, Ella worked her magical sick powers on the Ergo and we switched to wrapping.  A front wrap cross carry tied under her cute little bum worked for an hour or so until she covered that wrap with goo.  Thankfully we own many wraps.

The moral of this story for me is that I need to be more flexible with my wearing preferences.  Yes, I prefer to back wrap but it wasn’t practical for me this week.  Wearing Ella helped her feel my love and warmth while she was ill.  It helped me pay attention to my toddler instead of putting her in front of the TV for three days.  And, hey, everything is getting washed for the first time in who knows how long so now my carriers are all pretty and fluffy again.

Ella is all better from her virus and is back to climbing too high and eating all the chicken she can find.  Please don’t judge all the bathroom pictures too harshly.  My husband was at training while Ella was ill and mirror pictures are better than sideways “selfies”!

Updated Summer Meeting Times

Idaho Falls meetings will be on the 4th Friday of the month at 10am. The location is at the home of Katie (one of our Idaho Falls Leaders) address: 4824 Stanfield Lane, Idaho Falls (crossroads: Hitt & 49th).

Rigby meetings will be on the 2nd Monday of the month at 6:30pm. The location is at the home of Marie (one of our Rigby Leaders) address: 470 Annis Hwy, Rigby (in between Stockham Blvd and 2nd North).

Rexburg meetings are taking a break for summer (just like the students). They will resume in the fall. Please feel free to attend the Idaho Falls and Rigby meetings.

Please like our page on Facebook for reminders of meeting times and locations.

We hope to see you at a meeting! Happy Babywearing

Seasons of Babywearing

There are so many seasons in life.

There are times to be young and free. That feels like spring to me. Just warm enough to be perfect most of the time with a few storms here and there. Before we know it spring morphs into summer.

Ah, summer. Too hot most of the time and yet, perfect. Ice cream, long walks at night and fireworks!

Then, we hit fall. Harvest and beauty of everything green turning golden. Of course, it is also a season of preparation as we all know the snow is close by.

Winter. For some, this is time to play and enjoy and for others it is just a season to get through and wait for the sun to return again.

Parenting has seasons like this.

For me, babywearing also has seaons. Short, precious seasons.

A year ago, I thought I had reached my winter of babywearing. I started packing away the carriers and preparing for new seasons and different adventures.

Things change.

(This is the "Kimber" wrap available from Wrapsody Baby.)

I guess one more spring won't hurt me.

Of course, this time I treasure it more. I know (seriously!) this is my last spring, summer, fall and winter of babywearing. Every moment is bittersweet. My dear little baby has already outgrown clothes and I'm finding my favorite newborn carriers are being tucked away for another mama to use someday (soon I hope). Every time I tuck my little guy into a wrap or a mei tai I give him a little kiss because I know these moments end all too soon.

These moments with our babies are too short. The seasons fly by. My daughter will be a teen in a year and a half. My other sons are no longer the tiny babies I toted around, they are these big, tough boys who help in the garden and open the door for me saying, "ladies first".

This is it for me. Every hug, drooly smile... I see all my babies in the eyes of this last, wonderful baby.

Seasons change for all of us and this time to hold our little ones close will be gone before we know it.

Please, take some time to treasure it. Take pictures to remember it. Write down these moments so one day when your little babies hand you your grandbabies you can tell them how fast it will go so they will learn what took you too long to realize.

Summer is almost here, both in season for me and in babywearing. I'm going to soak in the sun.

Rigby Babywearing Meeting

We are having a Babywearing Open House in Rigby on Monday, March 11th from 6:30 to 8pm.  Please stop by and check out a carrier, ask questions and learn more about babywearing.  We are meeting at Marie's house 470 Annis Hwy, Rigby.