The Babywearing Community, Friendships and Wrap Testers

Babywearing has been such a huge part of my life the for the last two years.  Zoey just turned 2 and I am starting to feel really sad because I fear our wrapping days are about over.  She has recently been more interested in night time snuggles, but going uppy in stores is now a thing of the past.  She wants to be down to run around, but will settle for riding in the shopping cart.  I miss my shopping trips with my little snuggle buddy on my back.  Maybe she will go through a phase where she likes it again!  I haven't completely given up on it, but I am starting to try to destash down to just my favorite wraps and trying not to buy anymore.  Although I did order the The Pavo Society exclusive Penumbra Veronica.  Pavos Penumbras are still probably my all time favorite wraps and Veronica is one of my favorite colors.  It is a gorgeous shade of blue.  See pictures below.  After ordering Veronica Penumbra, I decided I could finally part with my Veronica Etini.  I loved it, but it was a size 7, which was just too much wrap for me with a toddler.  I am not sure if I would ever really love a 7 regardless of baby size.

I have mentioned The Pavo Society before, but I just can't talk about the babywearing community without mentioning how much I love The Pavo Society.  It is the fan page for Pavo textiles.  The owner's of Pavo were kind enough to let their fans vote on which wrap they would like to see made as an exclusive pre-order (i.e. NO stalking required!!)  It's not really exclusive in the sense that you must be a member of The Pavo Society to order.  It was up on their main webpage to pre-order for a about a week.  But really, why wouldn't you want to be a member of The Pavo Society??  It's a great place to share all those babywearing selfies, meet other moms who understand why you really want 5 wraps that each cost $300 and won't judge you for buying them.

I met three local ladies through our local babywearing meet up group that have become great friends over the past year.  I am so glad babywearing brought them into my life.  Our friendship started through our common interest in wraps and Tulas, but it has grown into so much more!

The babywearing community also includes lots of handwoven wrap weavers, who are occasionally looking for testers.  Don't be that person begging every weaver to let you be a tester.  I think that hurts your chances rather than helping them.  I think the best way to be selected as a tester is to find a few weavers that you love (it will probably be easier if they are newer, less established weavers).  Join their fan groups.  If you own one of their wraps, post lots of great photos of you and your little one in different carries.  Write reviews and post in the fan group and in some of the other handwoven chatter groups.  Weavers pay attention to this type of behavior.  They want their testers to be experienced and be qualified to write accurate, detailed reviews.  The more wraps you have tried, the better!

I had the honor of being a tester for the awesome Jessica from WA baby wraps.  I was a tester for one of her first hemp wraps.  It was a size 3, which is not one of my go to sizes, but Zoey and I still found some carries we loved and gave that wrap a good work out in the week or so we had it.  The colors were gorgeous.  It needed some more breaking in, which is normal as most hemp requires a good bit of breaking in, but is well worth it!  We were early in the testing group, but you could already tell that it was going to break in nicely.  It was amazingly supportive and still cushy on my shoulders.  It had good grip to keep passes in place, but was also moldable enough that doing a Poppins Hip carry wasn't a nightmare!  (Which for me Poppins can be with certain wraps.)   Zoey and I had fun doing a quick photo shoot to share spam with the WA baby wraps' fan page.

The Babywearer

In case you haven't heard of it, you should go check out thebabywearer.com.  It is an awesome forum for all things babywearing!  I love the Wrapper's Paradise group.  Each month there is a thread tracking what you have worn that month.  I try to do this most months.  I love that it helps point out to me the wraps that just aren't getting any love.  Sometimes my heart is blinded by how beautiful a wrap is, when maybe it is just a terrible size for us or just not the right fit for us in wrapping qualities.  This monthly tracking has really helped me to make some hard cuts.  Sometimes I feel like I am turning into a wrap collector more than a babywearer.  And that is okay!  I will probably always be a wrap collector, but I don't want to collect 15+ wraps.  So I need to know what works for us and thebabywearer.com has really helped me out with this process.

The Babywearer site also has tons of geekery albums and tutorials.  It is great for the beginner and advanced wrapper.  The people I have met through babywearing both on thebabywearer.com and on facebook have been so sweet.  I have made some great friends through babywearing, who I believe will continue to be close friends even once the babywearing days come to a close.

Where does the time go?

Wow!  This past year has really flown by.  Between work and a super active toddler, I never seem to find any "me time" to write these days.  I still love babywearing, unfortunately, my toddler does not love it as much as me.  We still have some fun uppies, but they are no longer hour plus sessions.  She now only wants to go up for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, unless we are out hiking or on a long walk.

Sometimes we go a week or two without wearing and I get really bummed.  I start to look at my stash and wonder if I need to start selling it off.  I don't want to of course, but how long can you justify a 15+ wrap stash if you only wear for half an hour or so a week?  But then just as I am getting ready to bite the bullet and let go of several of my lovelies she will go through a phase where she wants to go up more often and I will decide to keep them!  Due to the complications of my first pregnancy, including pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome, my husband and I have decided that Zoey will be our only child.  So with no future squishes in my future, it is clear that my babywearing days are dwindling down.  For now, I choose to make the most of the ups she gives me!  I love my little princess and I love snuggling her in our beautiful woven wraps.

KHR Shades of Hope in FWCC

Kokoskaa Royal Quill Tacca in FWCC

Zatgebo Purple Kauai in Double Hammock

KHR Blue Steel in FWCC

Linuschka Lotus handwoven in FWCC

My ever evolving stash.  Starting in bottom right corner with Erna im Wunderland and continuing through to our current stash in the top left corner.

Current stash!
Lots of Pavos, a few handwovens, a couple Kokoskass, an Oscha, and a Firespiral

My First Custom Handwoven Wrap: Zatgebo Purple Kauai

As I am sure it is no secret from reading this blog, I love babywearing and woven wraps.  Handwoven wraps take things to a whole new level of awesomeness!  And custom handwoven wraps up the ante even more.

There are several woven wrap makers that I follow on Facebook.  A few of my favorites are Zatgebo, KHR, Stewed Rhubarb, ETLA and Uppymama.  Well a few months ago Zatgebo announced a wrap inspiration contest on her Facebook page.  You could submit a photo along with the style of wrap you would like made from the photo.  Her fourteen year old daughter would be selecting the winner.  So, I tried to think, what did I like when I was fourteen?  What would I have found inspiration worthy all those years ago?  For me, one of the most inspirational scenes in the world both then and now is a beautiful sunset by the ocean.  I looked through lots of beach sunset pictures, until I found the perfect one.  It is from a beach that my husband and I visited on a trip to Kauai several years ago called Poipu.  When I sent in my email for the contest, I explained how much I loved the ocean and how I hoped to return to this beach with my daughter, Zoey, and would love to have a wrap inspired by this beach to wear her in on that return trip.  Imagine my surprise a few days later, when Wendi (the owner of Zatgebo) posted my picture on her page!  I was the winner!  I was going to get my first Zatgebo and it was going to be my very own custom designed wrap!

The process of working with Wendi was awesome.  She mocked up the wrap from my inspiration photo.  She did a few different versions and I selected my favorite.  This was difficult because they were all gorgeous!  She helped explain the differences that the different weft colors would make in the appearance of the wrap.  Wendi made five pieces of my custom wrap.  I purchased three pieces of it.  I originally selected a 4.8 meter piece with a black cottolin weft in plain weave.  The warp is Egyptian cotton and amazingly soft.  Wendi selected the other weft colors and she did a great job.  I also had a 4.3 meter piece in twill weave with navy American mercerized cotton weft and a 3.4 meter piece in twill weave with pink Egyptian cotton weft.  Wendi also made a piece with periwinkle weft for her personal stash and a  ring sling piece with a gray weft.  To say that I love these wraps would be a bit of an understatement.

The inspiration picture.

The mock-up

Okay, so now that I have went on and on about how gorgeous these wraps are, you’d probably like to hear something about the wrapping qualities right?  Well, okay, I can do that because these wraps do not disappoint on that front either.  Zatgebos do not have tapered ends.  This was my first experience with a wrap with blunt ends.  I think this does make it wrap a touch shorter, but this is something that I have quickly gotten used to.  The 100% Egyptian cotton shorty with the pink weft is the softest wrap that I have ever felt, yet it is still a very solid wrap.  I have mainly used it for a ruck tied in front and various hip carries.  The ruck stays in place even with just a single knot in the front.  It is very cushy on my shoulders and very supportive.  The long wrap with the black cottolin weft is just amazing.  This wrap makes the most comfortable double hammock of any of my current wraps.  It is very cushy on my shoulders and has just the right amount of grip for me.  I find it easy to wrap with, my passes will glide into place, but it has enough grip that it holds even if I tie off with a single knot.  I wore my 19 pound, 9 month old for over an hour on a hike with our two dogs and she felt weightless.  I'm definitely smitten with this wrap!  I just recently parted with the gorgeous navy twill weft in a trade to another awesome handwoven wrap.  Before I let it leave, my husband did a photo shoot of me and Zoey in it.  I mainly wore her in a FWCC for the shoot.  This wrap is truly amazing.  This is the thickest of the pieces that I owned and is extremely cushy.  I wore my daughter for over an hour in a FWCC and we were both happy in it.  By the end of the photo shoot, she had settled in for a nap.  This rarely ever happens for us in front carries anymore.  

Double hammock in black weft, plain weave

FWCC in navy weft, twill

Ruck tied in front in pink weft, twill

And Then I Discovered Pavo!

My first woven wrap as I have told you was Kokadi Erna Im Wunderland.  When I purchased it, I thought I’ll only buy one or two of these wraps.  Who needs more than a couple baby wraps?  Oh what a silly question that seems like now!  Over the first couple months of babywearing, I realized that I would like to have a shorter wrap to experiment with as well, so I bought a size 4.  I also found a couple more size 6 (my base size) wraps that I liked.  I had a beautiful little stash of five wraps and I thought I was completely satisfied and could stay away from the babywearing swaps and temptation to buy more, but then…then I discovered Pavo!  J

One Saturday in November, I went to a babywearing workshop hosted by a babywearing group in a neighboring city.  These ladies were so sweet and a wealth of knowledge about woven wraps and carries.  During the class, I did my first back carry.  It was a ruck, tied in front in a beautiful wrap that I had never seen before.  It was a rusty orange color.  Coincidentally, orange seems to be Zoey’s favorite color.  I think this is because her pacifiers are orange, but she gravitates to the orange toys first.  If you give her a stack of blocks, she wants the orange ones!  I didn't think too much about the wrap that evening until my husband showed me some pictures he had taken at the workshop.  I really liked the way the wrap looked on us and I had loved the wrapping qualities of it during the workshop.  So I decided to message one of the girls who helped us learn the carry at the workshop to find out what brand the wrap was.  She said it was Pavo Clementine Stripes.  I had heard of Pavo before, but had heard that the wraps sold out very quickly and were re-sold for double or triple retail.  So I had never bothered to even really check out Pavo.  I am not sure if those facts were ever true.  This is not the case for most of their wraps now.  The selling out in minutes (or seconds) is true, but with the exceptions of certain very highly sought after wraps like Klee and Sparkleberry, the resell prices are not double or triple retail.  I spent a few weeks searching for Clementine Stripes and ended up finding one for right around retail.  During my search for Clementine, I discovered a group called The Pavo Society on facebook.  Through this group I discovered the wrap that I fell in love with and that is still my favorite machine woven wrap, Penumbra.  Penumbra comes in three colorways.  I now have Syzygy (black and fuschia) and Shadow (black and silvery/white).  I am not sure which colorway I like best.  I would hate to part with either one!  My love affair of Pavos, quickly doubled my wrap stash.

Pavo Etini Coal, Pavo Penumbra Shadow, Pavo Penumbra Syzygy

 

Penumbra was one of those highly sought after wraps that I have mentioned.  It was going for considerably more than retail when I first started searching for it.  I tried to be patient, as I didn’t want to pay a lot and then have the value drop shortly after I purchased in case it wasn’t love when I received it.  I put out in search ofs on the facebook groups and checked out the prices on every one posted, which was not a lot.  It seemed no one wanted to part with these gorgeous wraps!  I finally caved and went a little above my original target budget to get Syzygy.  I wasn’t disappointed.  It was instant wrap love!  A few weeks after that, a girl who I had chatted with from the Pavo Society group saw a Shadow listed at a great price (only a little above retail – which really is a steal for this wrap).  She messaged me to tell me about it.  I knew I really shouldn’t buy another Penumbra less than a month after I bought my first one, but the price was so good and Syzygy was love.  So I rationalized that it could be a Christmas present to myself and I bought it.  Thus, began my love and stalking of Pavo wraps.  I now have lots of Pavos and they are by far my favorite brand.  They are not only beautiful works of art, they have amazing wrapping qualities.  I fell for the beauty, I've stayed loyal for the qualities. 

Our first back wrap

 And our first Pavo that came to live with us.

Getting Back to Running: Color Me Rad 5K

This is off topic from my usual babywearing posts, but I wanted to share a quick update about the awesome 5K I ran this weekend.  It’s called the Color Me Rad 5K.  This is a very fun, low-key, non-timed event where you run 3.1 miles going through 5 color stations.  We were coated at yellow, pink, orange, blue and purple color stations.  The color is made of corn starch and food coloring, so it is completely safe if it happens to get in your mouth.  Although, I can say from experience that it is not the best tasting stuff around!

As you know, I had a baby in July 2013.  I am close to my pre-pregnancy weight, but still trying to work off those last 5 lbs or so that just don’t want to go away.  Before I had Zoey, I considered myself a runner.  I just haven’t found the time or motivation to do a lot of running since I had her, but this race was finally my motivation.  It looked like a lot of fun and was very close to my office so over the course of several weeks I started talking up the run and eventually convinced 5 of my lovely co-workers to do the run with me.  Some ran, some run/walked and some walked, but all had a great time.  I didn't run it fast, but I got back into doing training runs and I remembered just how much I love running.  I love to share running with others because it is such great exercise and I love the sense of accomplishment I get after completing a race.  I feel so proud of myself for setting a goal and accomplishing it.  I love being able to share that feeling with others!  Here’s to hoping the Color Me Rad 5K will be my push to get back into running on a regular basis.

Here are a few pictures of me and my friends at the race.

Celebrating finishing the race!

The Before Shot!

And the After Shot!

Getting Out of the Carry Rut

So let’s be honest, new moms are extremely busy people.  We find something that works for us and our schedule and we tend to do it over and over again, exactly the same way.  I have definitely fallen into this pattern.  This is great for some things, like the bath time routine and the bedtime routine, but it can get a bit boring for other things like which wrap carries I am going to use.  I am a full-time working mom, so I don’t get to wear Zoey nearly as much as I would like now.  I have found that my fastest front carry is a front wrap cross carry (FWCC) and fastest back carry is a ruck.  So these tend to be my go to carries.  They are also very comfortable for us and happen to work well for a lot of the size wraps that I have in my current stash, but this can get a bit boring.  So I wanted to challenge myself to use more carries and to learn new carries and not just rely on our old faithfuls.  Around the same time that I was coming to these conclusions about the carry rut I was in, I saw a post in a facebook group called 30 Days 30 Carries Wrap Challenge.  Again, let’s go ahead and be honest, this working mom is likely not going to manage to do all 30 carries in 30 days, but I decided to save the list and work through them all in my own time.  I was also able to persuade several members of my local babywearing group to take the challenge with me.  It’s always fun to see other moms trying out new carries and new wrap sizes as well!

Here’s the list of carries:

The first carry is one of my go to carries, but I still decided to start with it.  Here we are in our FWCC.  Daddy also likes this carry, so we have a picture of him in FWCC, too.

I thought I would share why we love this carry so much.  First of all, it is very quick to wrap her up in this carry.  I can pre-wrap a portion of this before I pick her up and that helps on days when she is in a particularly grumpy mood (we are going through teething, so those can be more often than I like to admit!)  It is somewhat versatile for our walks.  I typically start with the cross passes not spread over her body, but if we are out for a walk and it feels too cool out, I can spread these passes for another layer of warmth and support for her.  Also, if she falls asleep in this carry, I can spread the cross passes to support her head as she naps.  This is a great beginner carry to learn how to make a seat, to tighten your rails and build on for learning other carries.  It worked great for us when she was 2 months old and is still working great now that she is almost 9 months!

We will be working through the rest of this list over the next several weeks!  I’ll be back to share my progress!