Baby Sling

I got this baby sling on etsy.com and I love it. I thought it would be nice for taking her to the grocery store, on short errands where I don't want to lug a stroller around, or for just carrying her around when I'm trying to make dinner or something and she wants to be held. Great idea, right? Except that the first time I put her in it (after watching and studying several youtube video demos) Camryn went ballistic. I'm not talking just cried for a little bit or just didn't really like it. I'm talking face purple, screaming her guts out, banging her head against my chest ballistic--expressing to her mother in every way, shape and form she knows how GET ME OUT OF HERE. She was in total hysterics for the rest of the evening--even after taking her out of the sling. Ironically, one of the selling points of the sling is that babies carried in slings cry less.

After several more tries, and much convincing from mom (countless repetitions of "Isn't this fun? We like the baby sling. Ya, this is great huh?") we have successfully spent significant amounts of time in the sling without a tantrum. I may even take her to the library in it today, we'll see.

So here are my thoughts on baby carriers. The woman selling them was saying that while it's not as popular here in our western culture, in many cultures carrying babies around like this is very common. Babies like it because they are wrapped up tight close to their mother and to them it's similar to being in the womb. They are said to cry less, develop better, etc. And if you think about it, in primitive cultures mothers have little choice but to carry their baby with them everywhere they go (think hunter/gatherer, African bushmen, Eve) Isn't it interesting then that we have invented all sorts of things to make it possible for us to not have to hold our babies? We've got car seats, rocking swings, bouncy chairs, strollers. Places where we can put the baby down and hope that they will be calm enough that we don't actually have to pick them up and care for them ourselves.

Which brings me to breastfeeding. If you haven't heard, new babies are very demanding little humans. If you didn't know, newborns need to be breastfed every 2-3 hours (day and night). So the way God arranged this whole thing, a baby needs to be nurtured by their mother ALL the time. It's a little frustrating sometimes but amazing, really, that the way God arranged it, caring for my baby isn't something that can be passed over to dad when it's 2 a.m. and I'm REALLY tired, or passed over to grandma if I want a vacation. My baby needs me to nurture her in a way that only I can. Every 2-3 hours. That is until the invention of formula. And the breast pump. And binky's and bottles that sooth the baby by tricking them into thinking they've got the real thing. I really don't want to offend any mothers who formula feed, breast pump, or work while their child is in someone elses care. I know amazing mothers who do all of the above and I will be doing those things too when necessity demands. But I just want to throw it out here as food for thought that our society has gone to an awful lot of trouble to eliminate the necessity of a mother being close to and being the primary nurturer of her children. In the not too recent past and for most of history, most of those options weren't options.