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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This was Beco’s first BIG trade show in Las Vegas. Of special interest are the discontinued Obi carriers on the wall, the VERY popular Joshua Butterfly I on the left, and the Avocado Bird on the right! I love the tiny Echino Dove Mini Becos hanging up on the walls looking like little birds, and the bright color-blocked walls look fantastic!

Walk with me to 2006 when I bought my very first Beco. Back then, the world was a more simple place! Want a Soft Structured Carrier? There were really only 4 good options! Organic versus non-organic? Nope. Infant insert, nope. Integrated seat, foot stirrups, detachable umbrellas, or military grade parachutes? Nope, nope, nope, hahaaaaa!!!! These carriers were no muss, no fuss. Until Beco Baby Carriers changed the world of babywearing and blew the other SSC brands out of the water! I mean seriously, Beco’s 4th Generation carrier became so popular that Ergo decided to mark their territory and pulled patent on the poor unsuspecting 4G.

This was my very first Beco ever! It was the 4th Generation in the Spa print which Gabby had helped fit to Baby#4 and I earlier that day! He was 3 months old, and I had deliberated over which carrier to buy since he was born. He was a BIG baby, and that’s when I realized that I would need something more supportive that my ring slings which had worked great with my previous 3 babies! He actually cried the first time I put him in my new Beco at the Beco Head Quarters, but he quickly learned to love being worn in a SSC, and Baby #4 is still happy to be worn even at 3 1/2 and close to 40 pounds!

I guess Gabby Caperon was no longer just any ol’ WAHM! If Ergo was coming after her, she had earned her title as “superior baby carrier creator,” but now, she needed a new plan! With the remaining 4th Generations locked up (wouldn’t you just LOVE to get into THAT warehouse!) Gabby formulated a plan! Her new Beco Baby Carrier would be so different than Ergo that the former top dog in the baby carrier industry wouldn’t be able to come after her, and the babywearers would be forced to try it because it was so new, so different, so revolutionary!!!!

The infant insert was not technically a new concept. Gabby had discussed the insert with her friend who designed the German Manduca baby carrier, but the Y harness was a new addition that babywearers had never experienced before. Suddenly with the help of the integrated insert, moms didn’t need to learn to hip scoot, superman toss, or any of the other ridiculously named methods of getting your baby on your back that were part of every babywearers’ skill set. Now, you simply buckled baby in and popped on the Beco like a backpack! Anyone can do that! Plus parents could remove the baby carrier from themselves and re-buckle it on someone else! This was a fantastic new concept that rocked the babywearing world and made the Beco Butterfly a household name (in babywearing houses!)

The Beco Butterfly debuted with a bang, and a sizzle, due to a voluntary recall. I visited Gabby’s shop in Southern California the week the carriers began flooding back in to have their new safety buckles added. The shop was overflowing with packages, and in the middle of it all was the always calm, always smiling Gabby enthusiastically telling me about the upcoming design changes and fabric options! Not letting a little thing like a massive recall get her down, Gabby had already figured out how to make the Butterfly even better! And so, out fluttered the Beco Butterfly II showing off its loveliness and featuring just a few fabulous upgrades that made the Butterfly II unique in a market now flooded with Soft Structured Carriers: unparalled features, unequivocal beauty, one stop shopping for the babywearer who only wants/ needs 1 carrier, and that special fashion style that only Beco Baby Carriers possess!

Gemini will, I have no doubt, be just as lovely and just as sought after as the Beco Butterfly because with Gabby and her Beco Baby Carriers, there is only the BECO way to wear your baby – in style, in comfort, and in love!

*happy babywearing*

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