Wear Your Baby, Michigan!

A few weeks ago, my husband participated in an conference for people in the stereo / hi-fi audio hobby. They rented out two floors of a hotel and each room had either a vendor or hobbiest displaying their stereo system or selling wares. My husband had a room and was quite busy with it, but still wanted to take his daughter around and listen to some music with her - one of their favorite bonding activities.

So, we headed out there on Sunday to make a day of it and the only carrier I brought was a short rebozo length wrap (a very simple piece of cloth). My daughter is 18 months old and I expected her to be on her feet most of the day. Boy was I wrong. On the drive over, she fell asleep, so I carefully got her out of her carseat and arranged her in the rebozo still sleeping on my hip. She slept through the check-in process and then started to wake up with all the commotion. Then I was so glad she could stay attached to me, because there were a lot of big, loud (mostly men) that she didn’t know. She was glued to me - if not for the rebozo, my arms would have gotten quite tired quickly.

She calmed down and enjoyed herself quite a bit, then it was time for lunch. They had a salad bar type thing in the hotel, so we went to eat. Well, she just wanted to run over to a water fountain and would not sit still. So onto my back she went! I tied the rebozo differently and she was safely perched so she could watch (but not help) me get our plates of food.

After a bit more listening, she began to get tired, and with all that noise, there was no way we could expect her to nap. So I tied her on in a hip carry low enough to nurse and started walking around the very peaceful atrium of the hotel (complete with running water for white noise!) She was asleep quickly, and I found a comfortable couch to lay with her and rest myself.

I got more comments about the piece of cloth and every time I had her carried in a new way, everyone was amazed it was the same cloth! I can’t imagine how we would have made that day work without it.