Show & Tell Friday -- Mei Tai Baby Carrier

At the beginning of summer I began to contemplate buying a new baby carrier. I had a framed backpack carrier that I used with a few of our children, especially at the races. That worked okay but my shoulders would be so sore from wearing it. I saw a few posts where my blog friend was wearing her baby Hope in a Moby wrap and it looked so comfortable and convenient and so I began to research my options. Little did I know the vast amount of baby carriers out there, from slings, to backpack carriers to asian-styled mei tais.

After a few weeks of research it seemed as if a Mei Tai (pronounced may-tie) would best suite my needs, in addition to the fact that they have fun fabric choices! While the majority of Mei Tais have two tie straps I did find a custom made one that had a buckle waist that I thought would make it easier for me. Needless to say, I really love my new carrier and cannot believe it took me 6 babies to realize how much easier it is to strap a baby to my back or front rather than lugging around a stroller (or car seat carrier as I did early on). Now when we go to the store, I strap Baby Boy on, have Missy Blue in the cart and we are set.

Another advantage is that Baby Boy will fall asleep during naptime if I am wearing him. Typically my babies have all been trained to fall asleep in their crib without intervention which works wonderfully, except for those times when we are out and about and a nap is needed but no bed is in sight. I have never had success in getting any of my babies to fall asleep in my arms, but this baby carrier has solved that problem as baby is nice and cozy and can't really squirm about. The only problem I have found is that when he is on my back and falls asleep his head flops back but is okay in front. I am working on figuring that one out. It also takes practice to get him on my back but the comfort level of this is much better than what I had.

My back will hurt after wearing Baby for long periods of time (and that is typically when working on the farm) but then my husband said that no matter what type of carrier I wear, wearing 22lbs. on my back for two or more hours is going to make my back sore.

If you are interested in this carrier you can view it at My Blessed Baby

I love the fun fabric! You can't see this but the straps cross in back and come forward and are tied under baby's bottom.

To View More Show & Tell's stop and visit CanadaGirl.

Update: Tank took this picture of me this morning carrying Baby on my back. Baby loves to pull my hair though so I always have to have it up and even then, he grabs a fistful and yanks. Ouch!