I love wearing my 9 month old while I take my older children to the park. It's great for pushing my kids on the swing. I don't have to worry about what my baby is doing. My baby loves the park. He loves to explore the grass or go down the slide (usually assisted by his big brother). When it's time to go home it's great just to scoot him onto my back and off we go!
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Here are some tips on how to get a small baby higher on your back in a mei tai.
* Tie the bottom straps of your mei tai above your natural waist - just below or even above your breasts. * Load your baby onto your back - if your baby is around 5 months you can hip scoot them. For a smaller baby you can roll your baby over your shoulder - keep one hand on baby at all times and always stand over a soft surface. *Holding your baby with one hand pull the mei tai up, pull the straps up then pull and bounce, then tie the straps as desired - easy! This is a wrap conversion mei tai made from an Didymos Eisblau (ice blue) Indio. I love the colour of this so much! The whales on the hood are made from Natural Linen Indio. I enjoy experimenting with new ideas so this mei tai has a wide wrap like strap (but not as wide as the flared strap) with some padding in the centre. You can easily tuck the extra fabic under the strap if you don't want the extra width. I've only has this for a few days but I like it so far. It works well for front carries as the wide strap spread out across my back feels really comfortable. It feels quite similar to my usual padded strap in a back carry.
Upadate: Loved this strap in a front carry but found it a bit diggy in a back carry sometimes (maybe because eisblau is quite a thin wrap). I ended up changing the sraps to flared style straps. I need to tweak the design and give it another go - definately has promise though! I love how this wrap conversion turned out. It is from Zara Tri-Green and has a detachable hood. The shoulder straps were requested by the mum I made this for. They are extra wide and lightly gathered where they meet the body. They look very comfortable. I'll have to make a mei tai with these straps to try it out for myself. (Although it may take me some time - I wish I had more time to sew!) Just for fun - here are the scraps left over from this wrap conversion - most of them are very small. There is certainly no room for error in wrap conversions!
I don't generally babywear while pregnant but sometimes I find it very useful. I live only a short distance from my older daughter's kindergarten so my two and a half year old finds it an easy walk and is usually happy to do so. Recently she went through a stage where she refused to let me put on her shoes and I was not willing to let her walk in her socks! She was also refusing to hold my hand when we crossed the road meaning I had to pick her up, which made it difficult to hold her sister's hand. At first I wrestled her into the stroller (which for some reason she also objected to - normally she doesn't mind as long she can get out and walk sometimes). She cried all the way to the kindergarten and back. I didn't like that so I decided to try babywearing next time she was in a contrary mood. I chose to use a wrap conversion ring sling. She didn't want to go in but calmed down quickly once she was there. I wore her for about 30 minutes and found it comfortable. Once we said goodbye to her sister she wanted down and happily walked back with me to our house. The next time I tried a mei tai with the straps tied over my bump. I normally only wear mei tai's at my waist as that's what I find most comfortable but with a baby bump that's a bit hard! With the straps tied high I felt there was too much weight on my upper body (it might work better with a smaller baby) which I didn't like - but her weight was distributed well as I didn't have any aches or pains afterwards.
My daughter has liked walking since then. She even puts her arms out for me to put on her jacket and she is happy to put on her shoes - as long as she can choose. I haven't worn her since but I think next time I will try tying the straps under my bump and see if I like that better. What have your experiences of babywearing while pregnant been? I'd love to hear your stories! I usually wear my mei tai 'apron style'. This is where you tie the carrier around your waist like an apron. The print you want to show when the mei tai is worn will be towards your body. This is the method I describe in my instructions. When sitting in the mei tai the baby's bum will sit below the top of the waistband in a pouch made by the mei tai. There is another method you can use to tie your mei tai around your waist - the non-apron style. Tying this way distributes baby's weight differently. More of your baby's weight will be distributed towards your hips. You can tie around your waist or at the top of your hips. To tie this way hold the mei tai with the print you want to show facing towards you and reverse side facing out. Then flip the waist band under once and tie around you waist. Put your baby in the mei tai with your preferred method and tie on as normal. The whole waist band will sit below your baby's bum (see picture below) allowing it to direct more weight towards your hips. Tying non-apron also lengthens the body which allows you to get more use out the mei tai if your baby has grown too tall for that size. non- apron style - baby's bum sits above the waistband another example of non-apron style An exampe of apron style - baby's bum is below the waistband. You can't see any of the waistband under baby's bum when the mei tai is worn.
Here a few action shots of my latest mei tai. This is the first wrap conversion I have made. I used Didymos Colour Grown Waves (dyed dark brown) and a piece of 'Pineapple' made by BB slen for the panel. I was worried I had chosen the wrong wrap to use as it felt less substantial than the mei tai's I usually make but when I tried it on to take some action shots it was super comfy!
I have almost finished this reversible mei tai. I need to add the waistband and some other finishing touches. It's hard to find time to sew during the holidays but nice to have all my children around (most of the time!). I'll post some more pictures and list the mei tai on the site once it is finished.
My husband was carrying our four your old when our toddler asked for a ride too. I tied the toddler on front in another mei tai. My husband said he could feel the weight but was not uncomfortable. The toddler did sag after a while I think because it was hard to tie the mei tai tightly enough, maybe because I had to cross it quite high on my husband's back. If both girls would like a ride at the same time in the future I think it would be better to tie my toddler on the front first and then the four year old could be tied on with rucksack straps. My daughters only want to be carried when they want to now so it's hard to experiment - so if you have any experience with tandem wearing I'd love to hear from you.
It took longer than expected to get my kids organised to go out for a bush walk and my toddler was sleepy so I took along my newest corduroy mei tai. We walked for about an hour and the mei tai was comfy the whole time.
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AuthorI love to sew. I have five curious and active kids who keep me busy! Archives
May 2024
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