Babywearing Triplets: Feeding in a Carrier

Baby carriers are great tools for bonding with your baby and maintaining your busy life while meeting your baby’s needs. This is especially true when feeding our babies. Whatever your circumstances, a baby carrier can be helpful when your baby starts to let out those hunger cries! 

Many moms choose to nurse their babies. With a little practice it can be easy to nurse your child discreetly in a baby carrier. Any carrier can be adjusted for a baby to nurse in; however I find two shouldered carriers tend to be the easiest. As a new mom I often used a stretchy wrap because I could easily wiggle the wrap down a little and let my child nurse. The amount mom needs to wiggle the wrap is dependent, of course, on how well endowed mom is! The more blessed you are, the more you may need to wiggle.  If you are wearing a mei tai you can easily loosen the straps to lower baby down to nursing level. I often used an oversized sun hat on my baby to completely cover us from any peering eyes if I was in a public place and no one ever seemed to notice.

For many reasons, some moms use a supplemental nursing system. This can be useful for brief periods of times for small nursing problems, or for long periods of time for other situations, such as adoptive parents, babies with more serious feeding difficulties, or moms of multiples. Basically, a supplemental feeding system allows the baby to nurse while receiving extra nutrition. When using the supplemental feeding system I like to adjust my carrier slightly to the left or right so that the baby’s head is not in the middle of my chest where the feeding system rests. That way he or she does not knock into the supplemental feeder. Also, if you have an older baby, you will find that they love to grab the tubes of the feeder. I try to keep my babies’ arms at their sides when I put them in the carrier to nurse. That way it is harder for them to grab the tubes and rip them off. Otherwise, simply adjust for nursing and go!

Of course, not everyone nurses and many moms use bottles. When we first started using bottles I was surprised by how much more inconvenient they are than nursing. I had to hold baby in one hand and the bottle in the other hand which left me no free hands for eating, gesturing at my older children, or for posting on Facebook! I found it easy to put my babies in a carrier to bottle feed and to then have one or two hands free. To bottle feed, place your baby in a carrier and lower him or her just enough to give space for the bottle. If I am holding the bottle I find it most comfortable to place my hand underneath and up into the carrier to hold the bottle. To go hands free I give just enough slack that the bottle can lean on my chest while my baby is eating. It simulates nursing well and we can gaze into each other’s eyes, or I can wipe Orajel off of my 3 year old’s face, or assist my 6 year old in researching the state flower of Virginia.
Most importantly there are many ways we can feed our babies in a loving way and still accomplish all the tasks we need to throughout our day. Do try this at home, or better yet, stop by one of our fabulous babywearing meetings for demonstrations and assistance.

Babywearing Triplets: Each Baby is Unique

One of the first questions that people ask me when they come to a babywearing meeting is “What carrier should I get for my baby?” They are often looking for that magical answer that will work perfectly for their baby and their life. I also come across many parents who have a carrier but feel that it is not working for them and their child. There is no one size fits all answer for any parent and child or a particular carrier that is just right at a certain age. The right carrier is the one that works for a parent and their child and their lifestyle. When parents come to meetings we are able to teach them to adjust their carrier, often one that they thought did not work for them, to meet their needs, or give them a chance to explore their many options. Knowing your baby and the many ways to use your carrier can be the best tools for successful babywearing.
All these things have become blatantly obvious now that I have three very unique babies in my house. We always talk about how different our children are but it is amazing to see three babies, born on the same day from the same mom, and realize how they truly are individuals. I wear all of them in the same carrier but I wear each child differently, as they have different preferences.

E is an active little boy who loves to kick his legs and wants them out of the carrier, but he was still a bit too small to comfortably have them out of my Mei Tai. However, a good friend taught me a little trick, which was to put a hair elastic at the bottom of the Mei Tai to pull it in so it wasn’t so wide. That made it perfect for little E’s legs to be out and comfortable and still snuggling with mom.
Now R, on the other hand, is awake the most, very social and wants to see everything that is happening in our busy house. So, I put her forward facing (more on the controversial art of forward facing in a future blog). She went back and forth between liking her legs in or out of the carrier, so I continued to use the trick of synching the carrier with an elastic. And yes, I was changing her sister’s diaper while she was in the Mei Tai. That’s how life works when you have 3 babies!

S has remained a feet in the Mei Tai type girl, when in a front carry. My children have also begun to appreciate the back carry- as have I. Sometimes they enjoy it for the great view, and sometimes they just like to snuggle in and take a nap. And of course, around here, sometimes I am doing more than one carry at a time. It is so helpful to our budget to know that with just one carrier I can meet the individual needs of three sweet babies. It even works for big kids too! So stop by a meeting and we will put you on the path to babywearing success. 


Posted by Carolyn

Babywearing Triplets: SuperDad is my Valentine

In this edition of Babywearing Triplets, I’d like to take a moment to write about my valentine and mention how lucky I am to have him. Many people see me or write to me and tell me what an inspiration I am, how I have it all together, how they don’t know how I do it, and that I must be supermom. Absolutely not! I am decidedly average, rarely have it together, and am not super mom: just pretty good mom.  I am, however, married to super dad (or as we call him, super pop).  My husband Dan is the only reason that this family is still standing and is thriving through all the stresses and complications we have been through.
From the moment we found out I was pregnant with triplets Dan decided to take over everything. He has always been protective of me when I was pregnant and been an incredibly active dad, but he has gone above and beyond in the past year. He single handedly prepared our home to show for renters by packing up and storing all of our junk. Then he did all the work to move us to our new home, as the doctor told me I could not participate and could only oversee the unpacking. Dan joined Costco and began doing all the shopping for our family. He works from home and began doing quite a bit of work during my 2 year old’s nap time or in the evening so that he could care for the kids during most of the day.

Since the babies have been home Dan has been amazing. He has always worn our children as a method of calming them, and his skills are serving him well. He spends his day working in the kitchen so that he can make calls and send emails while loving our babies and running our home. He does everything from laundry to dishes to discipline. At night he sleeps with a baby on his chest, when necessary, and brings them to me when they want to nurse so that I don’t have to get out of bed. Dan is the reason that I look so good. He is the reason that our family is smiling and still intact. Many people have said that “if anybody can do this, you can do it” and I have often thought there must be a reason that we were chosen to have all these children. Truly, Dan is the reason. He is completely invested in our family every day. 
 
No, I’m not super mom, but I am married to super pop. So this year for Valentine’s Day I bought him his own manly carrier so he can stop borrowing mine and hiding the pink print. Happy Valentine’s Day to my wonderful Valentine. Who knew I could be so lucky?

Babywearing Triplets: Holiday Happiness

Part 2 in our series on babywearing with triplets.

As an early Christmas present our baby girls were taken off their apnea monitors! We were thrilled and finally could move around with the girls. After having been fairly immobile during the second half of my pregnancy, being horribly sick after the babies’ birth and being strapped to monitors I kept forgetting that I could walk around and go places.  I was asking people to get me things when I could, in fact, get them myself! As I got used to the freedom it was wonderful to move around more with the girls, and S even got to go to the bus stop one day.

As the Christmas season entered full swing I was determined to give the big kids a regular, magical holiday season. Mostly, I think that I reached my goal. Christmas decorations were up quickly and Christmas stories were read each night before bed. An important part of Christmas, for me, is baking together, and thanks to baby carriers, help, and persistence, we were able to bake a few times. It was a combination of organization, lack of sleep, and tons of help from friends (and strangers!) that we made it through the holidays and kept it magical for our kids.

Trader Joes offered us sugar cookie kits and my nanny made the dough in advance and put it in the refrigerator for me.  Our babysitter watched the kids while we decorated. One of N’s preschool teacher’s teenage girls wrapped all our presents.  My parents visited and did laundry and held babies. We still had meals in our freezer from generous friends. The list goes on and on. So, while I was determined to make Christmas normal, so was everyone else around me, which is how it all really happened.

Of course, on Christmas Eve, the babies were wide awake and fussy when we were supposed to be putting presents under the tree. Thankfully, baby carriers work just as well in the middle of the night as in the middle of the day. In the end there was a tree with gifts stuffed underneath and memorable smiles with squeals of delight from my children on Christmas morning. I can only imagine what next year will be like with a 6 year old, 3 year old, and three 1 year olds! 

Babywearing Triplets: Preemie Problems

Welcome to my first of many recurring blogs on babywearing triplets. My name is Carolyn and I gave birth to spontaneous triplets (!) recently. (Yes, that means they were totally natural and a big fat surprise). Oh yeah, and I also have a 5yr old and 2 year old. I’ve been a babywearer for many years and was sure I could handle this new challenge with lots of babywearing, but so far life has been more complicated than I’d hoped.
My babes (2 girls and a boy) were born at 34 weeks and because of that were in the NICU for a little while. I found out right away that there would be lots of obstacles between my babies and me. They could only nurse a little because they tired out too much. They were also attached to wires which made it difficult to maneuver with them. Lastly, of course, there were three of them, which had me rotating from baby to baby.

After 10 days we had S home, and 2 days later R was home. Great news! Unfortunately they were both on apnea monitors. This was wonderful for my sanity, because I knew they were breathing, but not great for babywearing. The leads pulled on the carriers and it was hard to carry around the monitor wherever I went and sort of defeated some of the purpose of babywearing (which is being able to get things done and play with the big kids.) I found myself putting my babies down much more than I ever thought I would. I held my first born all the time and wore my second child around the clock, so putting children down is strange to me.

I did find some opportunities to wear them, and even wore both girls in a Moby once. It was awkward, and they got too big for it quickly.  I found a ring sling great for wearing one and was able to tuck part of the monitor leads into the sling which kept it from pulling on the ring sling too much. Even at 4 pounds the ring sling was a perfect fit.
During really fussy times at night I did wear 2 in two separate mei tais. It looks like they are on top of each other in the picture, but really one is more on my left and one more on my right. Keep in mind that they are used to being pressed up against each other. I did have to put a receiving blanket in between the girls to make sure they didn’t bonk heads.

The best thing for us has been mei tais. My husband finds them easy to use and we are constantly switching which baby is being worn and which baby is in a swing or bouncy seat so a mei tai is good for quick ins and outs. I have also had a few requests to be worn from my 2 year old, and the mei tai is still perfect for him on my back.

So far, I have been a little disappointed that I haven’t worn them constantly, or worn two or even three, on a regular basis, but we have been plagued with unwieldy monitors, reflux, and other preemie problems. I have not been comfortable putting them on my back due to their small size and previous breathing problems. I look forward to them getting a little bigger and being off the monitors because we feel a bit trapped in one 10 foot radius these days.
 

Next blog: The girls are off the monitors and my determination to make Christmas normal