Leap Into Spring! Carry of the Week: Double Hammock

The Carry of the Week for week 3 is the Double Hammock (DH).

The double hammock is a beloved back carry for older babies and toddlers. The pass that is spread across your chest distributes the weight evenly and helps in keeping all of the weight from being on your shoulders. That makes this a great option for when you know you will be wearing your baby for longer periods of time. This carry is done with a wrap that your base size.

Practice all carries, especially back carries with a spotter, over a bed or couch, or low to the ground until you are completely confident. A BWI meeting is the perfect place to learn new skills with the assistance of a Volunteer Babywearing Educator. In most cases it is best to be comfortable with front carries before attempting back carries. (BWI Babywearing Safety) We recommend waiting until your baby can sit unsupported to begin back carries. You should always try your first back carries with a spotter or over a soft surface such as a bed. However, if you have completely mastered front and hip carries and have successfully back wrapped another baby, it is safe to do back carries in a woven wrap with a baby who isn’t sitting unsupported yet. (BWI Back Wrapping Infants).

First up is a video tutorial with Maddy. She's using a wrap from our lending library, the Girasol Symphuo Columbia in a Size 6.

Please welcome back from vacation our photo tutorial VBE, Lauren!

Double Hammock back carry is a carry that uses a base size wrap and starts off center (usually about 18" from the middle marker).

Get your baby onto your back using any method you feel comfortable with, Superman or Hip Scoot are the most common.

Create a seat by tucking the bottom rail all the way to baby's knees and use strand by strand tightening on the wrap to remove any slack from the whole width of the wrap.

Once baby is on your back and you've made a seat, create a rebozo pass with the long tail coming under or arm and the short tail coming over the opposite shoulder. Pin the short tail between your knees as we will be working with the long tail first. 

With the short tail pinned between your knees, use both hands to use the long tail to make a nice, tight chest pass. You can strand by strand tighten to remove the slack throughout the width of the chest pass. 

After bringing the chest pass across the front of your body, spread it under your arm, across baby's back, and over your opposite shoulder to make the second pass. 

A nice L-pull will help to remove slack from the second pass. You can also strand by strand tighten here to get your chest pass nice and smooth.

Bring both tails down under your armpits, creating ruck straps.

Cross the straps behind your back. They should go over baby's first knee, then tuck under baby's opposite knee to pin the seat in place.

Tie a double knot in front.

Double hammock is a very supportive and popular back carry. There are many variations and finishes that give a different look and feel to the carry, including variations for shorter wraps!

Check back next Monday for a new Carry of the Week!

Leap Into Spring! Carry of the Week: Coolest Hip Cross Carry

The Carry of the Week for week 3 is the Coolest Hip Cross Carry.

The CHCC is a carry that pre-ties so you could tie this up before you leave the house and just have to pop in the baby once you arrive to your destination. This carry is generally done with a wrap 2 sizes smaller than your base size. 

The coolest hip carry is a hip carry with two passes that make an X that the baby's bottom sits in. The passes being spread over the back and from knee to knee make it very comfortable for baby and for you!

Here's VBE Maddy with our video tutorial:



Our photo tutorial VBE is coming back from vacation, so we'll see her next week.

Check back next Monday for a new Carry of the Week!

Cleaners and Carriers Don’t Mix

Due to a couple of recent events, we felt it was necessary to let all our members know what happens when cleaners come in contact with carriers and wraps.

Household cleaners even the “gentle” ones, fabric softener, facial cleansers, and other personal care products may cause damage to carriers.
Why is this a big deal? These cleaners not only have a cosmetic effect on the carriers, but they weaken the fabric and cause possible failure during use. We have a responsibility to our members to maintain extremely high standards for the condition of our carriers and any compromised carrier is removed from the library.
These removals reduce the variety of carriers available at meetings and for checking out.
When you join BWI of CVA and when you check out a carrier from the BWI of CVA library, you are agreeing to our Lending Library Policy. In this policy, we ask that you inspect the carrier before leaving the meeting. If you see anything out of the ordinary please let a volunteer know right away.
Also in our Lending Library Policy is a replacement guideline; If there is damage to the carrier while it is checked-out to you, you are responsible for its replacement.
These two carriers had to be removed from the lending library:

We take pride in the variety of carriers in our library and we rely on our members to keep our carriers safe while they are in our member’s possession.

Leap into Spring! Carry of the Week: Rucksack Back Carry

The Carry of the Week for Week 2 is the Rucksack Back Carry, also known as a Ruck.

The Ruck is many people's first back carry.

Practice all carries, especially back carries with a spotter, over a bed or couch, or low to the ground until you are completely confident. A BWI meeting is the perfect place to learn new skills with the assistance of a Volunteer Babywearing Educator. In most cases it is best to be comfortable with front carries before attempting back carries. (BWI Babywearing Safety) We recommend waiting until your baby can sit unsupported to begin back carries. You should always try your first back carries with a spotter or over a soft surface such as a bed. However, if you have completely mastered front and hip carries and have successfully back wrapped another baby, it is safe to do back carries in a woven wrap with a baby who isn’t sitting unsupported yet. (BWI Back Wrapping Infants)

A rucksack carry is a high back carry. You start by making a fabric seat for the baby and then pin the seat with the rails going over the legs on one side and under them on the other. You can use with a shorter wrap and tie it under the baby's bum, or with a longer wrap you can tie it in front. You have the choice to spread the passes across the baby's back for more support or keeping them bunched as shown in the video.

This carry can be good in hot weather as it is a single layer carry, but that also means it may not be comfortable for a long term carry. Generally, this carry will use a size or two smaller than your base size.



This week we only have our video tutorial as our VBE who does the photo tutorial is enjoying her vacation.



Check back next Monday for a new Carry of the Week!

Leap into Spring! Carry of the Week: Front Cross Carry

Some of the River City Babywearers decided to do a Wrap Challenge for the month of March. We decided it would be a good idea to do a tutorial on one of those carries for those that would like a little extra help and make it the Carry of the Week (COTW). We have tutorials for the COTW made by two of our Volunteer Babywearing Educators, Maddy and Lauren.

Our first Carry of the Week is Front Cross Carry (FCC).

Many people's first carry is a Front Wrap Cross Carry (FWCC). So what's the difference between a FWCC and a FCC?

Front Wrap Cross Carry (FWCC) starts with the wrap centered on the chest for a torso pass, bunched up and under the arms and then crossed in the back before bringing up and over the shoulders. Baby is placed in the torso pass and the wrap is then crossed in the front (over leg and then under baby's leg) with bunched or spread cross passes before bringing around to tie in back. This can also be tied under bum with cinched cross passes.

Front Cross Carry (FCC) starts with the wrap centered on the back, bunched up and bring underneath the arms. It continues with 2 cross passes in the front and then up and over the shoulders to cross in the back before bringing it around to tie in front. Baby is placed in and sits in the "x" created by the cross passes. There is an optional shoulder flip.

This carry is an excellent first carry for new wrappers and is wonderful for new babies as well. It's also a poppable carry, meaning you can wrap before you leave the house and "pop" baby in when you arrive at your destination! It's super great for on the go!

First up is a video tutorial with Maddy:

Now we have Lauren with a photo tutorial:

Find the middle marker on your wrap, and bunch the wrap together, keeping the top rail on top & bottom rail on bottom.

Bring the middle marker to the center of your wrap, keeping it bunched behind you.

Hold one tail between your knees, and bring the other tail across your chest to your opposite shoulder.

Repeat with the other tail. Both tails should now be crossing your chest, creating an X on the front of your body.

Cross the tails in the back to make another X on the back of your body.

Bring the tails back around to the front and loosely tie a double knot.

Find the cross pass that is closest to your body, and put baby's leg into that pass, so that the wrap is between baby's legs.

Spread that pass from knee to knee and across baby's back.

Put baby's other leg into the outside cross pass. This pass should also be between baby's legs.

Spread the second cross pass from knee to knee as well.

Once the passes are spread, untie the double knot and gently "bounce" baby into the carry. Tighten any slack as needed.

Pull slack from the back and retie the double knot in the front underneath baby's bottom.

Ta-Da! You have now wrapped a Front Cross Carry (FCC)

For this carry Lauren used a size 5 Tekhni Soteria Dawn from our lending library! Be sure to try this wonderful Repreve wrap out at one of our meetings!

Check back next Monday for a new Carry of the Week!