Anyone ever heard of “baby carrying” (also sometimes called “baby wearing”)?

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There are so many benefits of baby-carrying! It promotes positive attachment patterns, its comforting for the child to be close to the Mom, hear her heart beat, etc., it promotes baby’s ability to regulate their own body temperature efficiently, it allows Mom the freedom to move about with ease and to use her hands (cooking, typing at the computer, folding clothes). It’s also totally natural! Although most people today see it as “new-age” or “hippy-ish,” this was how ALL of our ancestors used to handle having infants (check out this article).

It’s also something I was 100% dedicated to….when I thought we were having one child. When I found out we were having 2, those plans flew out the window.

But in the past few weeks – given the time to wrap my head around the whole “2-for-1” babies thing (heh) – I’ve come back around to the idea of baby carrying.

Actually, now it seems more practical than ever! Imagine grocery shopping. How the heck do you navigate a grocery store with TWO infants in car seat carriers and still have room in the grocery cart for food? Not possible!

Enter….baby-carrying.

Now, I can wear one baby while the other is in its car seat in the top of the grocery cart, leaving the entire basket empty so I can fill it with food, diapers, etc. Perfect, right?

I’ve even read that some baby carriers can work with TWO infants. One of those is the Moby wrap. Check out this woman carrying her twins in a single wrap:

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So I decided to order one. When it arrived (the day after my fancy-pants support belt arrived), I immediately wanted to try it on and see how it works. Basically, the moby wrap is a long piece of fabric that you tie around you in various ways in order to hold the baby. It’s quite versatile in that you can carry the baby facing  in (toward your chest), facing out (toward the world), on your hip, etc etc etc. It’s a little pricey considering its just fabric (about $5oish or so), but I had a Target gift card, so I went for it!

Here’s what it looked like on my first try:

I spy my support belt in the bottom of this photo! : )

It’s a little difficult to handle all the fabric, and the wrapping isn’t super-intuitive, but after playing with it for awhile it became much easier. Now, granted, my wrap looks nowhere near as safe and supportive as the woman, above. But, I think much of that is due to the fact that I’ve got a giant belly in the way! Hopefully after the girls are born it will be easier to maneuver the fabric around me in the correct way. And if it only really feels comfortable to carry one baby at a time, I’ll stick with that. Not trying to win any awards or anything for most babies carried on my chest! I just think it will be a great, convenient way for me to get around with two infants since lugging around 2 carseats everywhere we go doesn’t seem super-practical.

Of course, if I stick with the one-baby carry method, I’d like to switch the girls out each time I carry (e.g., I carried Brooke last time, so this time I’ll carry Bailey). How will I keep track of that???? That’s a whole other question! Maybe there’s an app for that! ; )