Back Cross Carry (BCC), and DONE!

We did it! The odyssey is over :). We finished off with BCC, which I really liked at first, but then realized it is not great for a wiggly leaner. Max was in no mood to be wrapped today and he was all.over.the.place while I tried to get this tight. Minus the initial pass of BWCC, this just didn't cut it. Plus, even with better luck with it in the past, he always seems to be hanging off my back a bit too much with this one. I much prefer the hybrid of this and DH that I sort of invented. (Link to video is on my DH blog entry.)

So here are the pics, in Natibaby Pearl 4.1m:

You can tell this felt awkward by how I'm standing!

Assorted Fun Carries

These aren't on the last COTW sequence, but I've been feeling brave, so I gave them a try. Both are interesting. The 4R's chestbelt has potential uses in other carries, although I wasn't crazy about the "inverted double hammock" carry that it's attached to. The sling ring carry, which is another form of inverted DH, required me to put one pass under Max's leg, and I think I'd have to find a way to get a pass under both legs to feel like it was safe enough. But the sling ring definitely looked interesting, and it has great potential to be highly adjustable.

4Rs carry.

Inverted DH with sling ring. Looks like a weird sweater :)

Jordan's Back Carry (JBC)

Jordan's Back Carry didn't work as well as GBC or SHBC, and that's enough for me. Starting with a shoulder-flip pass made the whole shebang feel uneven, and I had a heck of a time fixing it. And otherwise, it's basically GBC. In fact, I made JBC work by reversing the order of the back passes (start with the over-the-shoulder pass) and wrapping both passes under his legs. Then I realized I had turned it into GBC again. Ha ha. I'm not sad; I just don't think this carry is that great.

 

 

Giselle's Back Carry (GBC) and Secure High Back Carry (SHBC)

These are variations on the same idea: Back carries that start with baby in a rebozo pass. Giselle's calls for ruck straps, while SHBC involves a chest belt (thereby "securing" the baby in place right away).

I used to have big problems getting the tension even in GBC, because one shoulder starts over and one starts under. But I think I tamed it this time! It was high and reasonably comfy. However, the way the straps loop tightly around the shoulders always causes my arms to tingle; it must hit a nerve. I tied off Tibetan to avoid that issue. It worked, but soon I was getting the between-the-shoulder twinges that I described with BWCC. :(

SHBC solved all those issues. I got really brave and tried it in the grocery store parking lot for the first time! It's actually great for public wrapping because of the safety of the immediate chest belt--it's easy to get baby on and off. I found a chest belt with my 3.6m BBSlen much more bearable than with my diggy osnaburg. I wore Max for at least half an hour without any trouble. I did feel like the shoulder passes were too loose, but the chest belt locked that extra fabric in place, so the looseness did not lead to Max sagging. I didn't get any pics at the store yesterday, but did a quick duplication this morning with my squishy 4.1m Natibaby Pearl. This one rocks a chest belt because it is so soft.

I'm pretty sure Max was much higher than this yesterday, but you get the idea.

Back Wrap Cross Carry (BWCC)

My previous attempts at BWCC were disastrous. I just don't like chest belts--they always dig my bony breastbone, and I don't like the restrictive "cap sleeves" that end up over both shoulders. This time, I decided to focus on two things: doing the ruck strap version, and getting Max up high. I hadn't realized before that it was possible to do this carry high, but saw some pics of older babies comfortably riding up high, rucksack-style, so I decided to try it. (Obviously, a small, floppy baby would have to sit lower, with passes going over his shoulders. But Max hates this, and if he isn't high enough to see over my shoulder, he leans ridiculously from side to side so that he can see around me, LOL.)

DH, for height comparison.

It worked! It's a really nice carry, one that I venture to say that I prefer to a ruck, and possibly even a DH if I don't figure out how to keep DHs from sagging. I walked the same course outside that I tried with the ruck earlier, and this carry only sagged a tiny bit (I took before and after pics to make sure!), and some of that is probably because I played around with two different tie-offs. I definitely prefer to tie Tibetan for this one, as the ruck straps dig otherwise. Plus, the tails look really pretty hanging down :)

BWCC

My only complaint is that I got a pinching between my shoulder blades, which I also get when I wear a high ruck. I think I might avoid this by wrapping tighter against my body for support (or wearing him lower, which might happen naturally as he gets taller).

EDIT: Hmm, now looking at these pics, he isn't actually all that high. Maybe the problem is that he's too LOW, and that's why I feel pulling on my shoulders. Hrrmmm....

One trick I want to remember for the ruck strap version of this carry is that I started the carry with Max in a back rebozo, keeping the second tail OVER my shoulder until it was time to move it below and do the over-shoulder flip. This is what made it possible to prevent sagging while wrapping. This video shows it.

Double Hammock (DH)

Down to the last few carries of COTW! I have to admit, I joined in the thread in time to try all of these, but I'll duplicate them here and see if the extra practice changes my first impressions of them.

Double Hammock is my favorite back carry. That said, it isn't perfect, and I've found it extremely challenging. My biggest problem is getting it tight enough. Max always ends up sagging, no matter what I try. So this time, I tried it with my 4m DIY osnaburg, because it is short, requiring a tight wrap job, and it's very grippy. I wrapped, then walked around the block to test saggy-ness. Unfortunately, my stiff, unforgiving osnaburg caused another problem I sometimes run into--the shoulder straps were quickly very diggy, even after sandwiching. So I modified as a walked, turning them into a chest belt. Then, the chest knot dug :(. Plus, in moving the straps around, major saggy-ness happened. I'm not sure how. I ended up tying under bum and dealing with it, but my shoulders were quickly tired out. Hmm. This carry has so much potential, but I can never get it quite right.

Chest belt...didn't like it too much.

I did recently "invent" a modified DH--really a Triple Hammock, with the leg crosses built in and the ability to tie off at the shoulder. The link is to a YouTube demo I made last week. I still have the sagging issue because it's hard to keep all those passes tight, but it is very wiggle-proof, supportive as anything, and it's nice to be able to switch the shoulder positions easily.

Mid-length Hip Carries

My first reaction to these is that they involve too much wrap/fiddly-ness to deal with for a hip carry, which I tend to think of as a carry that should be quick and poppable. (If I wasn't planning on the carry being quick and easy up/down, I'd definitely use a front or back carry instead--they are all more comfy for me than any of these.) But at least twice in the past few months, I've ended up with a long wrap, a fussy baby, and a long checkout line, without enough elbow room to put him on my back. In that case, a fairly quick hip carry that uses up a lot of wrap is really useful.

So, I tried Hip Cross Carry, Coolest Hip Cross Carry (i.e., the hip cross carry with a slipknot), Poppins Hip Carry (which, ironically, is not poppable), and Robin's Hip Carry.

First, my new solution to the long wrap/long line problem described above: Robin's Hip Carry. Basically, it's making a ring sling out of a wrap, minus the rings (although you could pre-tie this with a sling ring). It was pretty comfy. I forced myself to try carrying Max on my left hip, which feel totally backward to me for some reason. It wasn't too hard to wrap, even backward, and fairly easy to adjust on the go. I used my 4.5m Vatanai, but could have used a size 4 if I tied under bum. I preferred the feel of the lexi twist and tying in the back. Here's both:

Lexi twist/tied behind.

Tied under bum. Gonna crop my just-rolled-outta-bed hair out of this one.

Now, the worst one: Poppins Hip Carry. This was also majorly unpopular on the COTW thread, so I don't feel too bad. It seems really unnecessarily fussy, for not much extra support. I think it looks weird, too. Here's our attempt:

Now, back to the first two carries we tried, which fell somewhere in the middle as far as usefulness goes. They are both poppable, which seems like a big advantage for a hip carry. Here's the basic hip cross carry. I found it hard to adjust. The inner rail dug the heck out of my neck and was way too tight, while the outer rail sagged. The only way I could think to fix it was to loosen the whole carry and flip the shoulder, a la Simple Hip Carry. It actually worked OK then, but you can see in the back view how loose the rail would've been without the flip.

Much better: The Coolest Hip Cross Carry, which is exactly the same as above, but adjustable with a slipknot. It's really just a hip-located Semi-FCC, which I already mentioned that I love, so this one's a keeper. A big plus is that it's more supportive than a ring sling, which would be my usual go-to carrier for a poppable hip carry.

Kangaroo Carry

This carry has always been a bit of a nemesis for me, because I started wrapping with a size 4 and just couldn't get it right. So I learned semi-FWCC and used that for front carries instead. The challenge is learning to tighten the wrap properly, while holding the baby up so he doesn't fall. There's definitely a learning curve, but I believe the people who commented on the COTW thread when they say that this is a quick carry once you get a feel for it. It was much easier today than it was when I first started wrapping. That said, you can see that there's still slack in the pocket in these pics. It was pretty comfortable, though. I used my 3.6m BBSlen, as this carry is truly made for a size 4 wrap.

And finally, a reinforced kangaroo carry, where the passes are spread, go under the legs, and tie in back. My size 4 was just long enough when tied iin the tails.

Front Cross Carry and Short Front Cross Carry

Today's carry is FCC and its shorter-wrap variation, SFCC. I can eke out a FCC with a 4m wrap, and easily do SFCC with a 3.7m.

FCC probably isn't good for us right now because Max is a leaner and wants his arms out. It is poppable, which is nice, but I definitely prefer the PWCC we tried the other day. I chose to use our 4m DIY osnaburg because it's really grippy. Max could still lean right out, though. The Vatanai is wider and worked better in the SFCC, so maybe I just needed a wider wrap.

For some reason, this pic reminds me of a mug shot. LOL!

I had done SFCC before and found the lumpy overlapping rails quite uncomfortable, so I tried an interesting variation using sling rings. I used my 4.5m Vatanai for this one because it's thin and it worked great in the sling rings. It was pretty long, though! My conclusions on the sling-ring variation of SFCC:
* Fun if you use this carry a lot, but finicky to get used to.
* I was able to nurse but had to use mirror to adjust.
* Fairly supportive with thin wrap, but not enough shoulder cush. But I bet a thicker wrap would clog the sling rings.
* I don't like that fabric pulls tight from underneath, so I kept crushing my waist when tightening and having to move Max all over the place to redistribute. I ended up having to feed fabric under each of Max's legs to tighten.
* It's hard to figure out where to tug to adjust middle of passes when using the sling rings.
* Looks neat, though!

Front Wrap Cross Carry (FWCC) and Variations

This is another carry I had done quite a bit before, although today I realized I had actually been doing the Pocket Wrap Cross Carry variation. I loved this when Max was little but hadn't tried PWCC since then. I've tried FWCC a handful of times since then. I have difficulty getting it really tight with a woven wrap, as you can see in the photo. I walked around for awhile with him in FWCC and it was comfy, but my lower back would have tired after awhile because of how far away from me he was leaning. FWCC requires a long wrap. Mine is a long size 5 Vatanai Tibet, about 4.4m.

Then I tried PWCC with a woven for the first time. I almost skipped it because it seemed so similar, but I'm so glad I didn't. It was great! SO much tighter and more poppable than FWCC.Max seemed to like it reasonably well, even though it was so snug. It would be great for napping.

These days, I tend to prefer shorter wrap variations of FWCC. One is the FWCC tied under bum, or short FWCC.

Another good one (also a pretty carry) is the Semi-FWCC. I like to tie with a slipknot to make it easy to lower for nursing. Unfortunately, Max got bored while trying this one, so he's kinda low and cockeyed in the pic. This is a good carry; just not doing it justice in the pic.

Finally, the Half-FWCC is nice and supportive with the crossover in the back, so I like it better than a ring sling, even though baby's position is similar. I like to slip-knot this one as well. It would be pretty, if I hadn't decided to use my 4m DIY osnaburg. Not pretty :).

Incidentally, I did the carry below accidentally. Apparently it is possible to do a FWCC tied at the shoulder. Might be nice if you're using a really long wrap, so you don't step on the tails.

I think FWCC is one carry where I prefer every single variation to the actual base carry! 

Torso Carries: Back and Front

The next COTW is torso carries, but I decided that there are so many variations that it needs to be split into two "days." First, we tried back torso carries...because they seemed scarier and I wanted them out of the way! I should mention that of all the carries we have and will try, these seem the most hardcore. It's like performing with no safety net. Most of these carries lack support over the shoulders and/or between the baby's legs. For a test-tube-shaped mama like myself, and an inveterate leaner/leg straightener like Max, I knew we'd be defeated before we began. My main goal for these carries was to get them secure enough to take photos. That meant I'd done the carry correctly, although--as I discovered--it didn't necessarily mean that my technique was any good! I used our 3.6m Turkish Delight for these, which is grippy but thin. Well, except for the Kanga, which required a beach towel!

To sum up, we tried:
* Kanga - the first one we tried. It's really neat! I love that you can do it with a beach towel (in fact, it's recommended--a wrap is too long and slippery.) It felt reasonably secure and I'd love to get comfy enough to walk to the pool like this!

Now this time, his legs are supposed to be like this--no karate kick here. He felt much more supported than in SBCC.

* Back torso carry - REALLY hard. It's the hardest part of double hammock, TWICE. And that's the whole carry. Not so good for a baby who likes his arms out, either.

 
* Reinforced back torso carry - Only slightly less awful, because it goes between baby's legs, so while Max could still flip out the back, he couldn't pop his butt out and fall out the bottom.

Ummm...yikes.

It looks less scary from the side.

 * Double Hammock Rebozo/Back Reinforced Torso Rebozo - Also pretty neat--I love being able to DH in a size 3 or 4 wrap! I wore Max to the mailbox in this one. It felt OK until he started trying to stand up; then I realized I hadn't made a good enough pocket. Also, I'd overcompensated on this carry, pulling the second hammock *really* tight, and practically applying a tourniquet to Max's legs. Need to focus on tightening the TOP rail next time. I will use this one again, though.

This one seems like a pretty carry.

The problem with all of the carries was definitely my inability to get the wrap tight enough, which has been a common theme in all my wrapping. It eventually leads to a sinking baby and sore shoulders. Or, in this case, a sore lower back and walking kinda hunched forward. But I think I may return to some of these on a regular basis (if Max lets me!), not so much to actually use them, but to remind myself how tight I should always be wrapping, even when using ruck straps allows me to be lazy about it.

On Day Two, we tried front torso carries...Unfortunately, it turned out I could only find a tutorial for the Front Reinforced Torso carry. There is also a front torso carry that is simply wrapping directly around you and tying off, but I couldn't imagine it would work any better than the back torso carry above, so I skipped it.

This Front Reinforced Torso carry was surprisingly comfy, but would certainly have sagged in very little time. I don't think I could have made it much tighter. I wonder if carries like this were intended for smaller babies, or for needing to restrain a baby while sitting down. This is my 4.0m DIY osnaburg wrap.