Wearing an older baby

I am the creeper who totally was wearing my baby in the Ergo at the grocery store and stalked another mom who was also wearing her baby in an Ergo. “Hey,” I said. “Isn’t babywearing the best thing ever?”

Luckily, she didn’t think I was a super freako. She just said, “I know. I have no idea how other people get through life without this.” Then we said nice things about each other’s cute babies and moved on.

This is the thing I say to all my friends when they announce their pregnancies: “Congratulations. You MUST get a good baby-carrier.”

Petra is getting big enough that the little frog-leg new-born carries aren’t working so well. She also has good core stability–I don’t need to have her where I can carefully protect and support her head. We’ve been experimenting with other carries. The internet is a great resource. So many wonderful moms have posted videos about this stuff on youtube–it’s amazing. Example: This mei tai hip carry. Petra likes it because she can chew on the strap more easily.

I was wearing Petra in  the ring sling at the grocery store the other day (this was a different day than the first grocery store anecdote. How do the rest of you get your shopping done??), and an older lady came up to me. “That’s so great,” she said. “We couldn’t do that back when I had my babies.” I thought this was sort of silly. I mean. You could do it. It’s just a piece of fabric, right? But I know what she meant. She didn’t have the resources that I do. She was probably in her late 60s or early 70s. I can ask the internet anything I want. I have all of human knowledge more or less at my fingertips.

Thanks to the internet, I learned how to put Petra on my back in the ring sling. It’s like suddenly having an extra hand. I can do the dishes while wearing the baby.