It's Going to Be Historic!

That's a lie. The last few days haven't been historic at all unless you are simply counting the fact that they are not HISTORY! Thank goodness. Tuesday through Thursday around this house is pretty intense. I work 6am-4pm both Tuesday and Thursday and Wednesday is the only day of the week that we get to spend as a family so it usually is spent catching up or doing something as a family out of the house. With that said, we have some catching up to do!

I have all of these awesome topics I want to talk about while we are taking this journey together. And it's about time we talk about the history of babywearing. This topic isn't just something that I randomly came up with. It's a topic close to my heart because of how many comments I hear saying that it's a new fad. I may have mentioned this before but I have a friend who is really into pole dancing lately . She makes pole dancing beautiful and emotional. She is about as passionate about pole dancing as I am babywearing and the one topic we can both get heated about is when people call our passions a new fad. NEITHER are new or fads. Both have been around for centuries! I won't go into the history of pole dancing but I'm sure she would be happy to tell you all about it if you asked. This is also why I love her. 

History of Babywearing

There are a few things I learned while researching this topic. First of all, you will probably hear references to hippy day babywearing as a blanket discussion about the Snugli. That's because the Snugli was really the first carrier that was mass produced in the United States and it's been around since 1969! The woman who designed and sold this carrier got the idea from her time in the Peace Corps. If you want to read more about her story feel free to visit here. The interesting this is that the company ended up going in a direction that she didn't love so she moved in to a carrier called the Weego. Most of us avid babywearers know that Snugli is still around and although maybe not the most ergonomic product, is fairly widely available and used. 

I'll make the statement again. Babywearing has been around for centuries. Here is a brief history of babywearing to start with.  There are articles talking about early humans wearing their babies as modeled after chimpanzee's and yes I'm jumping around but I think most of us have seen the pictures of Native American's wearing their babies in a large leather structure. Strollers weren't actually used or invented until the late 1800's so people had to get around with their babies somehow. Out of necessity, many cultures developed forms of babywearing in order to meet their every day needs and meet their babies needs. This included carrier with pouches, scarves, woven material, blankets, etc. Here is a great article that talks about this topic more in depth including pictures. It's kind of fun to look back on these old pictures of women caring for their children! Babywearing slowly declined as the stroller took off as it was the new and exciting invention. Babywearing also started to be viewed as the poor people's way to carry their child and people did not want to be associated with being poor.

Interestingly enough our BWI leaders had a discussion with a local church pastor regarding this topic. She shared with us that babywearing is a common occurrence in her community as they serve a lot of immigrants and lower income community members and it's just a way of life for them. It continues to be the way of life for many countries outside of the US as well with probably the best known group being associated with the entire continent of Africa. Here is a neat pinterest page with pictures from babywearing around the world. The plus to that link is that you don't have to actually read anything.

In my family, we don't have a history of babywearing or so I originally thought. My family does two things when I push the envelope (which I may or may not be known to do). They try to be supportive but they also lean back into what they know and may react with confusion and questioning. I figured that most people would just think I was weird and since I live in Austin with all the hippies and my family is in Michigan with all of the conservatives I'm ok with that. At least I don't have to defend my actions every day like some people I know in the midwest.

My mom and I discussed this topic before I even had Hannah and oddly enough after some discussion she realized that SHE had been a babywearer! I haven't seen a picture that I could share but she made her own backpack like carrier and even had my name embroidered on it. After hearing that she passed it on and had no idea what happened to it I became excited and disappointed and told her SHE could have developed the ergo and we could be millionaires! Yes, my mind went to money and not babywearing, sorry that's just how my mind works. My favorite part of this is that because strollers are such an accepted and normal part of our baby rearing practices here in the US and despite the fact that my mom was a babywearer because it was something that was intuative to her, she still always makes sure there is a stroller ready and waiting for us when we come to visit. We haven't used that stroller yet but I still love her for making sure we are covered.

**One more article that I just came across a few days later and HAD to share! It's pretty awesome and even breaks down babywearing into the cultural aspect!
http://www.parentingwithpresence.net/index.php?pageid=4908

What Have We Been Up To?

Now we need to catch up! Tuesday through Thursday have been pretty light babywearing days. I will note that I typically babywear around the house more than my husband. On Tuesday I worked all day and came home to take over parenting duties so Will could head upstairs and nap before having to go into work for his one night shift a week. Hannah decided she didn't want to wear pants so she was walking around in just a diaper and top. I don't blame her, most of the time I don't want to wear pants either. All this to say that it was actually pretty chilly  here and I needed to take the dogs out before they were put to bed. In my laziness to make her wear pants I just wrapped her up in a carrier and tied a blanket on. We were all happy. So Tuesday, we actually babywore for maybe 10 minutes tops. 

Wednesday was spent putting together Hannah's new toddler bed. It's pretty awesome. Since we knew we would try to have more babies we went with a traditional crib for Hannah. We follow her cues and she has gone all exorcist on us every time we try to put her in her crib lately so we found this toddler bed that turns into a full size bed frame once they grow out of it. AWESOME! Will spent the morning putting it together while we played and did baby things. Then Hannah took a 3 hour nap, yes 3 hours! After she woke up we had to run to the bullseye for supplies and that was the only time on Wednesday that we wore her. So again, very little babywearing on Wednesday. 

Yesterday I was again at work. I will note that Will is having a really hard time getting Hannah to sleep in her bed or take naps. It's pretty frustrating for him and they are going to have to work it out on their own because there is nothing I can do for that situation other than support him in the process. So Hannah refused her nap again yesterday. As we were talking on my drive home he told me that she fell asleep. At first I was in shock thinking she fell asleep on the floor. I'm actually anxiously waiting for this moment to happen. But then he told me he took a picture for me. Yes, I have actually convinced him to participate in this process and he was wearing her and she fell asleep on him. She took a 40 minute nap on his back. He's such a great dad. As soon as I got home she woke up, we ate dinner and then we went to bed!