Wear Your Baby, Michigan!

I’ve had several friends tell me things lately like “I can’t believe she will just sit in there like that, my son/daughter/baby/etc would never have done that at her age, they are just too active/independant/stubborn/etc.”

Interestingly enough, my daughter is all of the above.  Her hands and feet rarely stop moving, she throws fits (I mean really fits, kicking and screaming, yelling, etc when she doesn’t get exactely what she wants) at 9 mos of age and she has been what I consider pretty “high maintenance” from day 1.

But she has also been worn from day 1.

Without babywearing and breastfeeding her I am convinced that I would have had a difficult time really bonding with her.  I would be extremely stressed from all the crying and tired from all the in arms carrying.

I know that when nothing else makes her happy, when nothing else will help her calm down, when nothing else stops the crying, when nothing else will get her to be still, even sometimes offering to nurse doesn’t do the trick………I can put her in a sling or carrier and she will snuggle up against me and start to relax into me and we can have that quiet time together.

Most people don’t realize this because when we are out and about she is almost always being worn so she appears so calm, happy, relaxed, etc.  My family or our close friends from out of town that have stayed weekends at our house know what I mean…they’ve all made comments about how “she sure gives you a workout in a day, huh?!”

So I agree that if she had never been worn before and had this temperament and we all of a sudden tried it at age 9 mos or older, we would likely be met with some resistance.  But I am OH SO THANKFUL that we did it from the start for the sake of both my sanity and our bond and relationship with eachother.