Baby wearing

After my post about our fabulous new carrier I thought I'd do a post completely dedicated to my love of baby wearing!

Elliot at 6 months helping me with dinner in the kitchen of our old Brisbane house, pre-renovation. Please excuse my daggy yard clothes, we were renovating a house and yard!

Smiley Elliot!

Our baby carrier collection numbers 5 (4 different types)!!! We have a BubbaMoe sling, an Ergo, 2 large swathes of material for wrapping and now a pouch sling. You can't have too many carriers can you? I've only just stopped wearing Elliot in the Ergo, but if he asked again I'd give it a go. Archie still gets carried in the Ergo, but hasn't been in the BubbaMoe sling for a while.

Slings/carriers just make babies so portable and makes life so much easier! 
Here is Archie at our friends' wedding at almost 4 months.

I've always been a big baby wearer, there are so many benefits for baby and many many advantages for Mum too. A friend once told me that babies carried a lot are more likely to have delayed development because they are never on the ground using their muscles. Well, both our boys walked by 10 months so there goes that theory!

Cutting some wicked moves on the dancefloor at the wedding!

Archie and Matt visiting Santa at our old neighbourhood Christmas party. It was Archie's first Christmas and he was 9 months old.

The following passage was found here, and it outlines just a few of the advantages succinctly.
Using a baby sling or wrap can make life easier for you and is good for your baby. Following are some of the advantages of "wearing" your baby (from The Baby Book by William and Martha Sears):

• It's convenient. You can breastfeed discretely in a sling while working, getting things done around the house, shopping or eating in a restaurant. If you have a baby who wants to be held all the time, this is an easy way to meet her needs while doing other things.
• It helps moms care for older siblings. Carrying your baby in a sling can give you the mobility to care for your older children.
• It helps some babies to breastfeed better. Some babies, particularly those who are tense or tend to arch their backs, breastfeed better while moving. Also, babies who are slow to gain weight (for no apparent reason) have been known to gain better if carried in a sling for several hours a day, since proximity to mom encourages babies to eat more frequently.
• It reduces crying and colic. A 1986 study of 99 mother-infant pairs (reported in Pediatrics) showed that carrying babies at least three hours a day reduces crying and fussing 43% during the day and 51% at night. Babies are happier because they have less need to cry, and parents enjoy their babies more as a result.
• It enhances learning. Carried babies have enhanced visual and auditory alertness, and increased "quiet alertness" times. Carrying a baby promotes cognitive development and speech development, since babies are exposed to more experiences and conversations.
• Carried babies are involved in their parents' world. They participate in life, rather than see it as a spectator.
• Carrying your baby promotes bonding and enhances parents' feelings of competence. A higher frequency of feeding and touching stimulates mothering hormones, and frequent carrying encourages and speeds the development of a mutual reading of each other's cues. 

My absolute favourite baby-wearing photo, me with both boys for a quick dash into the grocery. I'd promised El he could go in the Ergo but Archie was asleep in the car (and we HAD to go). 

It was an interesting shopping experience, more for the looks and comments than the actual wearing, it wasn't uncomfortable! 

A lady out the front made a passing comment that I needed a photo of that so I gave her my phone!

Elliot was 2.5 yrs, Archie was 8 months.

So why wouldn't you wear your baby? They're the ultimate accessory!