Everyone else is doing it, so why can’t we? Yep, it’s a year in review for the Baby Carriers Downunder blog.

My fave photo from 2009 - yes, I do have the most gorgeous wearee ever

January 2009 kicked off with a couple of sling meets, in Melbourne and Sydney. Sling meets are a great way to keep the kids busy during school holidays, especially as they usually happen in parks rather than busy indoor play centres.

February was when we got stuck into more regular writing. There was the very entertaining It’s Time to Get Serious: Zombies; a run-down on babywearing retail with If these slings are so cool, why can’t I buy them at KMart?; and Babywearing and Post Natal Depression.

By March, the weather was starting to cool down in the southern parts of the country, but Australia being such a big place it was still nice and warm up north. We had a mix of the serious - How do I start - with TWO babies? - and the not-so-serious - Could Angelina Jolie be a tandem babywearer? Yep, we had a bit of a tandem babywearing theme for March. Whether it’s twins, or a toddler and newborn, lots of parents carry more than one kid at once out of practicality.

In April, we discovered why wrappers are really cool froods, how to breastfeed hands-free, and spent the whole month sharing the love - with a series of posts talking about babywearing when the wearer isn’t the child’s parent.

May was Newborn Babywearing Month on the blog. One of my favourites was Can we please go home now? A personal story about leaving NICU with a premmie (or two). I also loved the glimpse into another culture in Kandy, about babywearing in Sri Lanka.

June saw a week in the life of a wrapper. My fave was a great example of Extreme Wrapping - Day 4, wrapping on a moving bus. Coming up to the end of financial year, there were also some great babywearing economy posts like Babywearing Affluenza and How to buy: pre-loved slings and carriers.

There were more great personal stories in July, like the famous Paulus’ Babywearing Birth Story, and Steph’s plan to support her high needs baby with lots of babywearing.

Australian weather (and climate has a big impact on what slings we wear) is quite varied in August: cold and rainy (even snowing) down south, warm and dry up north. We covered advice on how to wash your stash, and a WOE (wrap once every day) challenge - my fave is the ruck.

September, the start of Spring, was huge! We had International Babywearing Week from 21-28 September 2009. There was also the mother all sling-meets at the huge Homebirth Rally in Canberra on Monday 7 September 2009. But among the advocacy and community spirit, there was still time to blog the personal - like Steph’s posts on babywearing in hospital.

I think we were all a little exhausted in October and November, or perhaps just getting out in the nicer weather, because the blog was much quieter. But there was a cute post with photos of mei tai used as a swing harness. And WOE challenge became WOEvember.

We got back on track a little more in December, with a beginner’s guide to using pouches, and a series on travel and babywearing.

Got any ideas on what you’d like us to cover in 2010? Do you have New Year’s babywearing resolutions? Or perhaps you’re doing an end-of-year destash and declutter? Did you have a personal babywearing hightlight in 2009? Post your comments below!

Thanks for bearing with us. I’ve shovelled my way out and I’m back to blogging!

 Stay tuned for babywearing while injured (ask me how I know), slip knot tutorials, high needs kids, more on breastfeeding hands free, the mother of all slingmeets and plenty of other exciting babywearing blogging!

As you’ve probably noticed, we’re running a series on breastfeeding hands free. This is a “bookmark” post with links to all of our hands free topics and will be updated as we add to the series.

Breastfeeding hands free, instructions by carrier:

• Ring sling
• Mei tai
• Long wraps: Part One
• Long wraps: Part Two
• Short wraps

Have you got the skills and time to do a breastfeeding hands free post? Have we not covered your favourite carrier yet? Are you a size larger or smaller than average? Do you or your nursling have special circumstances that need to be taken into account? We’d love to feature your know-how on the blog. Please drop us a line in the comments section!

That’s right, it’s words and pictures here at BCD blog now! Do you own a camera? Do you own a carrier? Do you have a kid somewhere around your place? Then get snapping now!

The competition is going to be a monthly endeavour at the blog and we want to see all your best babywearing photographs. The prizes are phenomenal. Get this… wait for it… the grand prize is our uneneding admiration and the (virtual) honour of being BCD’s prime photographer! Runners up will receive slightly less admiration and honour, but still a large amount of it nonetheless.

OK, so we’re poor here at BCD blog. We don’t do advertising because we feel it’s important to be an independent voice, so we don’t have a prizes budget. But we do have a lot of admiration to go round.

This month’s theme is new to babywearing. Feel free to interpret the theme broadly and let us know what you come up with. If you have a photograph, upload it to the BCD flickr page and send an email to sacredchickens [{at}] rocketmail [{dot}] com - we’ll put it up on the blog. At the end of the month, the blog mods will come up with a shortlist and it’ll be up to our readers to vote on a winner.

Remember that in order to enter the competition, you must have the permission of the parents of the child you’re photographing and anyone else in the photograph. You must also own the rights to your photograph and understand that they will be hosted on BCD blog.

Get snapping!

April sped past pretty quickly here at BCD blog. There was the Carnival of Breastfeeding, we shared the love in words and pictures and I confessed my addiction to FSOT. We paid homage to Douglas Adams and learnt how to back carry in a pod.

May is full of more fun times: specifically squishy newborn wearing fun times! May is newborn babywearing month and we’ve got posts on the how-tos of wearing a newborn, safety, babywearing after c-section and a whole lot more. We’ll also be continuing with our breastfeeding hands free series, because there’s nothing a newborn likes to do more than chow down!

We also have something very special to announce tomorrow, so check back in for more in May!

March sped by here at BCD blog pretty quickly. We talked alot about wearing two, from a Dad’s perspective, how to start wearing twins, wearing different aged siblings with mei tais, SSCs and wraps. We also discussed the basics of ABCs, ring slings and wrap marketing. Tummy time and sling time, plagiocephaly and craniosyntosis, we talked about the differences in these terms and where babywearing can and cannot help. Of course, here at BCD, we like to be helpful and informative, so we also gave you the low-down on guerilla babywearing and what to wear during an alien invasion, two not entirely dissimilar concepts.

This month at BCD blog, we’re sharing the love. We’re talking about babywearing by people other than parents. Aunts and Uncles, daycarers and grandparents, family friends and older siblings: these loved ones can wear your baby too. We’ll be sharing photographs, personal stories, tips and tricks. We hope you’ll stick around and perhaps pass the links on to other people who love your baby. Perhaps a whole new bonding experience will open up for your child and the other people who love him or her.

Stick around for April, everyone, because we’re also making wrap hammocks, talking about special needs babywearing and all the crazy fun we try to fit into BCD blog on a regular basis.