We like acronyms down here and we love to wrap. We also know how hard it can be to learn. Welcome to the Wrap Once Everyday Challenge. Jess has organized it brilliantly and outlines the challenge below. Meanwhile, I apologize for being over a week late in getting it to blog!

The challenge set for this month is to wrap once every day.

There Are Only Two Rules:

1. Give every carry a try!
2. Post (minimum, there is no maximum) 2 photos for the entire challenge to the google group. It does not matter if the photos are dodgy, as photo critique is a great way for others to help you out with a carry you may be experiencing issues with.

Timeline of Events: August

1st (Front Wrap Cross Carry) FWCC
4th (Back Wrap Cross Carry) BWCC
7th Ruck
10th (Reinforced Ruck/Ruck tied Under Bum) RR/RUB
13th (Hip Cross Carry) HCC
16th (Kangaroo Carry) KC
19th (Secure High Back Carry) SHBC
22nd (Jordan’s Back Carry) JBC
25th (Poppins’ Hip Carry) PHC
28th Rebozo
30th FAVOURITE CARRY LEARNED

There will be a post on blog for every carry with tips, tricks, tutorials and links. You can join the chatter, ask for help and amire the photographs here.

This is the first in a series of posts aimed at helping parents with special needs. Here, we look at babywearing with a shoulder injury.

You’d like to wear your baby or older child, but red-hot pain is holding you back. Depending on the extent of your injury, it may be possible for you to wear your child while supporting the healing of the afflicted area. In this post, I’ll take you through babywearing with an injured shoulder(s). It’s an area of personal experience for me. My right shoulder has had (at various times) bursitis, tendonitis, a thinned distal portion of the rotator cuff, dense calcifcation in the tendons, possible cartilage damage and “changes to the tendonopathy of the region”, whatever that means. I didn’t understand much of the preceding, but my GP summed it up nicely when she looked at the xrays: “this shoulder is stuffed“.

If you have any injury, shoulder or otherwise, it’s important to define exactly what the problem is. I’m going to divide the possible problems into two areas: reduced range of movement and reduced ability to weight-bear. Each of these can occur independently or together, but the consequences for babywearing are quite diffferent.

Reduced Range of Movement

A reduced range of movement can occur for many reasons, but the main consequence for babywearing is difficulty in getting the child into the carrier in the first place. In this case, the simpler the better. In my experience with shoulder injuries, long wraps were disastrous- passing fabric to and fro was very painful and practically impossible. Simpler carries and carriers like short wraps, mei tais or SSCs were easier to get on with less pain. Ring slings and pouches may also be an option if only one shoulder is injured and you can bear weight on the uninjured shoulder.

When wrapping, your strategy depends on what portions of your range of movement are affected. Carries starting with a chestbelt may provide support while you wrap through your available range of movement. Alternatively, back carries tied under the wearees bottom may be impossible.

Lifting a child onto your back may be difficult in itself. It may be worthwhile reviewing other options if your regular method doesn’t work. Superman tossing is my usual method of initiating a back carry, but when lifting my arm above my head was intensely painful, lifting 9kg of baby didn’t seem sensible. The hip scooting method proved to be an acceptable compromise.

Reduced ability to bear weight on the affected shoulder

Let me be very clear: if it’s painful to wear your child, it may be wise not to do so if you want the affected area to heal. However, if wearing is important to you, there may be ways to get around the problem if you are unable to bear weight on the affected area. There are several options:

1. Avoid the area altogether. If you have two injured shoulders, it may be well worth looking into torso carries and carriers, which will eliminate any weight on your shoulder. These include torso carries with long, short wraps and straight-strapped podaegi. If you have a single injured shoulder, you have the additional option of one-shoulder carries in a short wrap, ring sling or pouch and modifying certain wrap carries (such as the BWCC with chestbelt) to avoid the affected shoulder (this was my personal favourite for extended carries. If anyone wants to know how it’s done, hit me up in the comments section!).

2. Reduce the weight on the affected area by distributing it to other parts of your body. Depending on the extent of your injury, you may still choose to bear weight on the affected shoulder(s). Carriers such as SSCs, chunei and mei tais tied tibetan or with straps crossed in front will distribute weight to your hips and across your chest, reducing the weight on your shoulders. Wrap carries with chest belts, tied tibetan or tied at the waist will do the same.

3. Teach your partner to babywear, put your feet up and wait to get better. More seriously, you may need to re-evaluate your babywearing goals. In my case, it became apparent that attempting to tandem wear 20kg+ of children at once was no longer the best option. I bought a better stroller and put babywearing on the needs-only list for awhile. It doesn’t make me a bad person! And, as a result, I’m now able to lift a coffee cup without wincing.  It was one of my better decisions!

Hopefully, this post gave you some ideas for babywearing with a shoulder injury. Look out for our next installment on babywearing with a back injury.

Have you continued to babywear with an injury or disability? What were the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? Leave a comment and let us know!

OK, I’ll admit I’m an addict. When I was pregnant with my second child, I looked forward to two things: the end of morning sickness and newborn babywearing. I hadn’t worn my eldest child as a neonate- we got our first sling when he was about 4 weeks old, so I was looking forward to the experience.

Our daughter was delivered on Sunday night. By Monday morning I was hungry and it was the first time in about 30 weeks that I didn’t feel like I was going to see breakfast twice. I was thankful to be doing this the second time around. No need to leave my baby in an unfamiliar tupperware container while I went to find food! No need to drag the cart that carries the tupperware container all over the postnatal ward! Just pop the baby in the sling and continue as normal.

And then I dropped cereal on her head.

But it was nice to have a cuddle and even to breastfeed her and be able to tend to my own needs at the same time.

Our baby had a nasty case of reflux. She spent her first six months utterly miserable unless she was carried. Some of our best tips and tricks on that can be found here. She had an intense need to be upright all the time and we found a tummy to tummy position in a ringsling great for those first two weeks.

After that, she got bigger and still wanted to be upright. A short wrap was our next most-used item in the stash. I found the hip cross carry, tied with the cross in front and the newborn tucked into the folds of the cross, froggied,  to be a great, poppable carry. It’s just as quick to tie as a ring sling and was more supportive since some of the weight is distributed to the waist.

Once she was two weeks old, my partner was back to work. It was time for the back carry! More on that in another post…

Have you worn a newborn? What worked for you? What concerns did you have? Leave a comment and let us know. If you are wearing a newborn or intending to, don’t forget babywearing safety!

Oh how do I love thee, Size Three? Let me count the ways: seven, give or take a few.

Short wraps are versatile. They’re generally considered to be wraps size three and under (from about 2.1m to 3.2m in length or so). They’re much easier to use than most people think and you need one. Here’s why…

Rebozo Carries

Front, back and side (hip) carries: the classic one shoulder rebozo carries (instructions here) have all the functionality of a ringsling if you use a slipknot for adjusting the tension of the rails. I’ll freely admit to finding the slipknot more difficult to tighten than a ringsling, especially as the wearee gets larger, but I often use a square knot and treat the wrap as a pouch of sorts- it’s not adjustable, but it’s pretied and fast.

If you need to learn how to tie a slip knot, see the video here.

Rucksack Carries

This carry has so many variations, it’s hard to know where to start. Personally, I find them great for both big and little kids. Like rebozo carries, they’re fast to get on and have the advantage of being two shouldered. Variations include Ruck Under Bum (RUB), ruck with chestbelt (an excellent and fast alternative to ruck finished tibetan with a longer wrap), ruck Tied In Front (TIF), ruck with lexi twist, any combination of the above depending on your size and probably a few more.

An alternative to the ruck is the strap carry, excellent for toddlers and very cool in summer.

Kangaroo Carry

This is a great carry for tying around an already sleeping baby. It’s one that took me a while to learn, but it was definitely worth it. It has the material advantage of being a two-shouldered front carry which distributes the weight of even quite large children very evenly across the back. Really just a ruck tied with the baby in front, it has a number of the same variations.  Photographic instructions here.

But wait, there’s more…

So far, I’ve discussed the most common carries used with short wraps, but there are a number of lesser known carries that you really need to know about!

Torso carries with a short wrap. It’s sometimes very useful to have your shoulders free of your wearee’s weight. Whether that’s due to shoulder weakness from injury, a break for your shoulders or to hang washing, a torso carry is an excellent carry to have in your arsenal. Depending on your size and the length of your short wrap, it can be done in the kanga style, similar to the way it’s done with a beach towel, or using this method which ties at the waist and is very supportive without digging into the breasts.

The Short Cross Variation. As far as I’m concerned, this carry is the greatest thing invented since short wraps themselves. Similar to the Front Cross Carry (FCC), it’s a pretied, poppable, two-shouldered front carry. In other words, we have a poppable alternative to the kangaroo carry that’s much easier to tie. Wonderful for quick trips, if you are learning to use a short wrap, this is a must!

The Hip Cross Carry (HCC).Another pretied hip carry, this one is quick, poppable and easy to tie. Instructions are at Elly’s How-To Rebozo Page.

Other Reasons to Love Your Short Wraps

Wraps aren’t just wraps, they’re change mats, blankets, burp cloths, scarves, shawls, emergency toddler leashes, zombie garottes, swings, (short) hammocks and more. A short wrap folds down much smaller than, say, a size 6 wrap. As I’ve tried to show, they’re just as versatile as longer wraps.

Some of the carries listed above, however, are quite hard to learn- especially if you’re new to wrapping. If you’re thinking about getting a short wrap, my suggestion is to start with a length of ordinary cloth of the right width and length for you and learn a few of the carries - see how you like them. In my opinion, the easiest carries to learn with a short wrap are the rebozo carries (with square knot), the strap carry, HCC and the short cross carry variation. Once you’ve mastered these, venture into the realm of the ruck and kangaroo carries which are a little more complex to tie.

Do you own a short wrap? Would you like to? What carries do you use? Which variations? What are the best short wraps for you? Leave a comment and let us know!