How my baby wearing journey began...

The first time I had encountered any non-structured baby carriers was when I spent a year abroad in the Middle East, to me they looked like makeshift pieces of material and were mainly of the stretchy variety.

I began baby wearing, myself as a new mum upon the reccomendation of a lactation consultant.

We had an uphill battle at the start

of breastfeeding, but that's a story for another time.

The lady informed me of stretchy wraps and touted the great benifits in increasing oxytocin, bonding with baby, even helping to alleviate some of the dreaded 'baby brain.'

I researched online and went in to the local baby store to purchase one, or so I thought! In the store the sales lady convinced me to try on some popular structured carriers, the Ergo & the Bjorn, they may be great for some people, but they certainly weren't my cup of tea! They felt unnatural and unsafe, my little newborn didn't feel secure in any sense, even with the inserts.

We then tried on the hug-a-bub, the amount of long stretchy material was pretty overwhelming.

I was also concerned when the lady told me not to try my bub in it & used a practice doll instead. Then again, she was no baby wearing consultant!

Again I hit the net, browsing pages & forums. I decided I'd have more luck with making my own stretchy. I headed to the fabric store certain I'd leave with a DIY baby carrier, no such luck! Once again I was overwhelmed & not completely confident that I'd be making something that was secure for my bub.

I left, defeated and decided I'd head to a baby meet.

In researching I started leaning towards a woven over a stretchy. mainly due to the fact stretchies have a weight limit & tend to sag and become uncomfortable when bub reaches a certain weight.

We were also heading into summer & wrapping a piece of material around us thrice sounded like it'd be incredibly toasty.

I arrived at the meet, baby & hubby in tow. Not knowing anyone there I felt a little out of my element at first but everyone was lovely & helpful, so we warmed up quickly. It was the first time I had laid my eyes on an ETLA Aurora, a beautiful handwoven from Canada. It was love at first sight, I couldn't take my eyes off the beautiful rich colours and the way that they blended. It's owner offered to let me try it on, but knowing the value, I declined. She helped me practice a FCC (front cross carry) with a woven, lovingly reffered to as "the table cloth." (Review to come). I went home and practiced with long scraps of material (without baby) in anticipation of my Little Frog wrap's arrival.

At this point I had ordered just the one, that's all you need right? One budget friendly wrap? Little did I know I was teetering very close to the edge... about to fall down 'the rabbit hole'.