Once upon a Beco…

In a babywearing  land far far away, every parent wore their baby in a Beco Baby Carrier, and every baby was content, happy, and sweet!  In this magical land, every baby was carried until they could walk on their own, and exersaucers and jumperoos were piled by the 100s in dark dungeons and forgotten by the blissful parents and their contented babies!

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But before this was the norm, an evil witch ruled the land of babies!  She had cast a spell on all the babies’ parents, enchanting them to believe that the Baby Bjorn was the best baby carrier in the land.  Oh, how the babies’ parents’ backs ached, and their shoulders were so sore, and their necks hurt with the weight of their precious babies hanging from their bodies.  The babies couldn’t understand why their parents faced them out towards the loud, bright world…  All the babies wanted was to be cuddled, and snuggled, and held close enough to kiss! The babies wailed their baby wails, and shook their baby fists, but their parents were oblivious to their babies’ sadness.  But while the evil enchantress laughed at the parents wearing their babies in ridiculously uncomfortable baby carriers, and thought of her next evil plan which involved baby bucket car seats and fold ‘n go strollers, a babywearing princess heard the sounds of distress coming from her fifth baby and realized with a start that he was NOT happy with his legs dangling and his head falling this way and that.  She bravely fought her way out of the witch’s enchantment, took off her Bjorn and threw it at the witch, knocking the witch’s  magic baby bottle wand out of her hand and breaking the spell!

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With a gleeful yell, the babywearing princess summoned all the babywearing parents to the very top tower of the very highest castle where she had found a locked treasure chest.  With a magic key that she found tucked into her baby’s cloth diaper drawer, the princess opened the chest and out flew enough Beco Baby Carriers for all the babies in the land!  All the babywearing parents thanked her profusely as they put on their Becos,  hailing her as the Beco Princess and vowing never to touch a Bjorn again!  The babies all snuggled happily in their Becos, and lived happily ever Beco!

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*happy babywearing*

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Diana B. is an experienced mom, babywearing advocate, chicken keeper, gardener,  and Spanish food know-it-all!  When she traveled to Spain last month, she and her sister BOTH wore Beco Butterflies and took lots of pictures of their International babywearing  adventures!  Become part of Diana’s life by reading her blog, “A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa” and try your hand at winning a Beco by entering her contest!  Here’s Diana:

If you’re not familiar with the Beco Baby Carrier, it’s a backpack style carrier which allows you to carry a newborn up to a 45lb toddler on your front or back.

Designed by a babywearing parent, active sailor and rock climber, Gabby Caperon. Beco combines perfect ergonomics, excellent weight distribution and stylish design from top quality fabrics. Each carrier is handmade by a skilled seamstress in facilities which apply high social and economical standards. Sustainability and minimal impact of our production on the environment is important to us. We strive to provide the best quality, safe products and friendly customer service.

Reading the Beco story, designer and owner Gabby Caperon, produced the first Beco from her home as an at home mom.  She needed a more comfortable carrier to carry her growing baby and researched traditional baby carrying from other cultures.  She sewed her first Mei Tei and when she needed something a bit more sturdier she looked towards the innovation of a backpack.  I love it!  Brilliant mom’s creating with passion and love!

I’m so glad Gabby is sharing this product with the world because it was so useful on my trip.  I used it in the airport, buses, trains, touring, to market, and especially as a safe haven for my child as he slept on me.

One of my absolute favorite things about baby carrying is the closeness that it brings to your child.  Feeling their every breath, touch and movement is a constant reminder that my joy and my place in life, at this moment, is to be their mami.

I used my carrier to carry my toddler mostly on my back, however, I would rotate him to the front to sleep or sit in my lap on public transportation.

The Beco was really amazing on long train rides, as I knew my toddler was sleepy but… he’s rambunctious!  The Beco kept him strapped onto me where we chatted, talked, sang and slept!  It was great

The Beco Baby Carrier was also comfortable and easy to use.  The straps are padded and easy to adjust.  You can pull them down and tighten the strap.  The bottom support pad and strap kept his weight distributed evenly and I could carry him for quite a long time.  Below is one of many instructional videos.

This is my first backpack carrier and I am enjoying it!  Before I had this carrier, I carried Zekie in a moby wrap as a newborn and moved to a Baby Bjorn that was given to me as a baby shower gift.  He was already used to be carried by mami, but what I found so enjoyable is that he enjoyed riding on my back.  “Up high!”  “Up high!” Zekie would yell… so cute!!
I also enjoyed that I was able to carry my older son in it.  He enjoyed it as well!

After this trip, I told my husband as long as each of the boys could be in a carrier, I was no longer fearful to visit the Grand Canyon!  Maybe a future vaca is in order

The people of Beco were gracious enough to give my sister a Beco as well.  Anyone that reads my blog knows that my family and I are very close.  So it was so much fun being able to carry our babies together.  Ezra was five months at the time and enjoyed the closeness of sleeping on his mama.

The only thing that was difficult for my sister is that Ezra does enjoy being carried facing out.  Unfortunately, the Beco does not allow the baby to face out.  Maybe a feature they could add in the future?

Since coming home, I’ve had opportunities of using it at the farmers market, while gardening, at the pool, on walks, at a wedding and other everyday routines and events we’ve attended.  really it’s been my secret weapon to keeping a toddler from hitting the high road! As my hubby and I are praying about bambino number 3, it makes me even more excited to think about carrying him/her in the Beco!

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The Beco Gemini is on the LEFT, and the Beco Butterfly is on the RIGHT.

There is the option of crossing the shoulder straps with the Gemini which is a throw back feature to the Beco 4th Generation.  For nursing mothers, this option provides the perfect environment to discretely nurse your baby, and for front carries, the X straps can distribute baby’s weight much more comfortably than the backpack style straps.  Thanks to the buckle on each side of the front panel, each shoulder strap can be unclipped and refastened into the X position or a hip carry position.

Ready to order?  Shop here at the Gemini *pre-order*
$139.00

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The Boba Baby Carrier debuted in September 2009 with the first generation which did not include the hood, and although the Boba 1G can still be found, the detachable foot stirrups and removable hood validates the price difference in my opinion!  Having received the JPMA safety certification in March, Boba Baby Carriers can now assure parents that their soft structured carrier meets very strict quality, safety, & functionality requirements set by ASTM!!!  And Nap Inc, the parent company behind Boba and also Sleepy Wrap, is required to test 25% of their Bobas in a certified lab and have Random Retail Testing quarterly so moms like us can be sure that Boba is a safe choice for our babies!  Thanks, Boba!!!!

Featured on the Today Show as one of parent’s best baby carrier choices, I was thrilled to see Boba on the Liz’s iVillage list as a comfortable & safe toddler carrier!  While the press has been going nuts over the recall of bag slings, this was a refreshing news article focusing on fabulous carriers.  From a mainstream point of view, it was great to see Boba listed along with Moby Wrap and the Baby Bjorn!  Wooohoooooo!!!!

Available is a range of nature-inspired colors, Boba just made their first foray into prints with their Tweet fabric custom designed for them at Spoonflower, and we are hoping that this will be the first of many vibrant Boba Limited Editions!

This is an action photo of the Tweet and I think it may be even cuter in real life than in pictures!!!

Our Tweet pre-orders have all been filled now, but if you’d like to email me, I will take your information for the next round of Tweets!  If you are in need of a fabulous soft structured carrier NOW, order a Boba Chestnut, Walnut, Pine, Cedar, Aspen, or Willow for immediate & FREE  shipping!  And if you’d like to “borrow” a Boba to see what all the fuss is about, get more information about PAXbaby’s Sling Exchange!

Become an expert about SAFE baby products!  Read more about the JPMA official certification or the ASTM standards and regulations!

*happy babywearing*

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A woven wrap is a large piece of fabric that has very little stretch to it. These are ideal for back carries but work great for just about everything. My Storch is a 4.1 meter Vicki.

Graeme’s baby wearing journey hasn’t been as well documented as Connor’s.
Daddy doing the inaugural wearing in the hospital. Who says daddies can’t bond with exclusively BF babies?

A tradition it seems, here we are out to see Santa.

In March we planned a trip to a hotel with an indoor water-park. I knew I’d want to be hands-mostly-free in the pool so I researched a water sling. I knew I wouldn’t be using it for anything but wearing in the water and I wanted something that dried really quickly and was fast to take on and off. I decided on a Taylor Made Water Ring Sling, my first real ring sling.
A ring sling is a carrier that consists of a non-stretch fabric with two rings at one end that the tail end is then threaded through to make a pouch for baby to sit in.

Now that I have two kids, back carries in my woven wrap are pretty essential (I can’t even believe I was going to sell my storch!) I have wrapped Graeme on my back so many times I can’t even count. I’ve made little old ladies very nervous at the mall when I throw him back there and wrap him up all by myself (I let them “spot” if they are really persistent, but I make sure they know only to intervene if Graeme is falling off otherwise I get all discombobulated when they start picking up rails and stuff) and he’s napped back there while I photographed a wedding. Together we made a man blush when Graeme was on my back while waiting in line at the local Dairy Queen (never cutesy ask an infant if they get ice cream too, my response was “Well yes, in a few hours.” Never saw a man turn more shades of red than right then!)
This wrapping job looks a little odd but he was very secure back there!

Families who baby-wear together, stay together!

Recently I’ve added a mei tei to my carrier selection. It’s not a fancy one, just one made by another mama, but I quite like the Michael Miller fabric and the simplicity of it (especially since I have a bit of baby weight to loose yet before my Ergo fits right).
It’s a horrendous photo but since people like photos (and I wanted to show the print!) I thought I’d post it anyway. You can see where Graeme prefers to be!

After all of this I’d like to think of myself as an experienced baby-wearer but I know that there is still tons more to learn and I look forward to continuing this journey long into the toddler years with my children!
*happy babywearing*

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My guess is that someone has pointed out to these business owners the ergonomic value of baby carriers like the BabyHawk or the Beco leading to the release of the Infantino’s own Mai Tei product, the Wrap ‘n Tie, and Bjorn’s “invention” of a Beco Gemini – esque carrier complete with a waistband, padded straps, & the quintessential Baby Bjorn front facing out capability.  Here is what Bjorn has to say about their new Comfort Carrier:

BABYBJÖRN Comfort Carrier is an ergonomic baby carrier that provides the best possible support when carrying a bigger and older child for extended periods of time. The waist belt and the padded, adjustable shoulder straps distribute baby’s weight evenly onto your hips and shoulders. For extra comfort, the child can be carried using different leg positions and, as with all BABYBJÖRN Baby Carriers, you can carry your child facing inwards or outwards. BABYBJÖRN Comfort Carrier’s well-conceived design allows you to carry your child safely and close to you, and at the same time it’s hands-free.

Now, as a mom well versed in babywearing and the lingo of the babywearing world, I can see several key words that Bjorn is using to reel in babywearers previously critical of any carrier with the Bjorn label on it! ERGONOMIC, PADDED SHOULDER STRAPS, DISTRIBUTE BABY’S WEIGHT, HANDS-FREE.  Baby Bjorn has obviously been doing their babywearing homework, and they have discovered what features are most important to us.  However, this large manufacturer has made 1 very large error!  They have priced this new ergonomic Bjorn at around $200 retail, and that is a BIG mistake!  $200 could be spent on a gorgeous wrap conversion, a custom Mai Tei, or a legacy half buckle SSC that will go down in babywearing history!  But $200 spent on a China-made, Beco/ Ergo wanna-be with a Baby Bjorn label and a BRUS store receipt?  I don’t think so, Baby Bjorn!

How can you fight back?

By promoting baby carriers that we know, trust, and deserve to carry your baby!

Wear your WAHM made baby carrier with pride!

Pass out business cards to your favorite mom-owned baby carrier shop!

Urge your mommy friends to register for a GREAT baby carrier instead of a mediocre one!

Let a new parent borrow your own baby carrier and give a quick tutorial so that they can have a GREAT experience with it!

Smile at Baby Bjorn wearing parents, and slyly say “Did you know there is a carrier even MORE comfortable than that one!?!”

And most importantly wear your baby with confidence: let the whole world know that you are a BABYWEARER!

*happy babywearing*

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