It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of babywearing, and I have a number of devices for toting babies around. My favourite is the amauti Michael had made for me in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, but it’s one I can use only in winter. Which lasts long enough around here, anyway!
Jade’s starting to get a bit old to be carried everywhere, of course. She enjoys going out in the stroller when we’re out for walks, but often she spends more than half the walk on her own two legs. Often she likes to run off into tall grass or bushy trails where no stroller would dare go. She takes after her dad that way, I guess.
I’ve experimented with various wraps and slings, but I have to say that so far my favourite is my Storchenwiege wrap. Slings are simpler to use, but you can’t beat the flexibility of a wrap. When Jade was born, I tried making one out of regular cotton because I didn’t want to spend what seemed like a fortune on something that appeared to be so simple; my make-shift wrap totally and completely sucked because it didn’t have the kind of give this wrap does.
Anyway, I don’t want to sound like a commercial, and I know there are other great wraps and slings out there, but I’m bringing it up because yesterday the wrap came in very handy. I thought Jade’s wrap days were over, to be honest, but she was having a series of small seizures yesterday evening that had her very emotional.
Oftentimes when she has a little seizure, she comes out of it and simply carries on with what she was doing, as if nothing had happened. (Indeed, it’s quite possible that she has no idea that anything did happen.) Other times, she gets sleepy. And sometimes she gets cranky and emotional, and I can tell she’s uncomfortable and feeling out of it. She can’t tell me how she’s feeling in words, but she cries and wants to cuddle and is very upset if I try to leave her for any reason.
Like, for example, if I’m in the middle of barbequeing a steak and frying potatoes, and I’m trying to go attend to them. Which is what I was doing last night when Jade absolutely would not let me put her down without freaking out. Since Michael’s still on the road (on his way home now, though — hooray!) I couldn’t call on him to take over the cooking.
So downstairs I went with Jade in my arms and dug out the wrap from the back of her closet. I put her in a backpack carry (which Michael is demonstrating in the photo below, although he doesn’t have it tight enough, which is why he’s bent over). Jade cuddled right up to my back with a doll in her arms. When I went to check things out in a mirror to ensure she was secure (it’s been a while and my technique is rusty) she actually peeked her head out and giggled, a rather drastic contrast to the hysterical goings-on of a few minutes earlier. I was able to finish cooking supper this way, and got the table all set and medications ready. When I asked her if she was ready to eat, she said, “Mmm hmm!” agreeably and sat right down and ate with gusto.
You may have heard of kangaroo care. This is the practice of carrying babies around close to the 
mother’s (or father’s) body, with skin-to-skin contact. Apparently premature babies who get kangaroo care tend to gain weight faster, learn to regulate their breathing sooner, and are released from hospital earlier than preemies who spend all their time in incubators. Jade’s far from being a preemie, of course, but it is interesting what a calming effect it still is for her to be carried close. Thank goodness for babywearing.
