Wearing a Mei Tai - TROUBLESHOOTING!

The purpose of baby wearing is multi-fold. Many people frequently ask me how I can carry my child like that, and ask if it hurts me. I have to answer no, as I watch many of them pick up their own child, larger than mine and plant them on their own hip.

Babywearing is meant to allow you the closeness of carrying your child while providing safety and security to both the child and momma. Many chiropractors will tell you that carrying your child on your hip, while pressing your hip out to hold the child up, is NOT good or safe for your back.

When wearing a mai tei, it takes the stress off that one point on your back and allows your body to spread the pressure of carrying the child.

Here is one common mistake made when wearing a baby carrier, any carrier.

Actually two mistakes.

The straps are not flat on her body, which causes pressure points.
The straps are around her neck, this causes the neck to take up the pressure of carrying the child, instead of the shoulders. After a few minutes of carrying the child you would begin to feel pressure on the back of your neck.

Always be sure your straps are flat against your body, not twisted, and are pulled out on your shoulder caps for optimum comfort for both you and your child. :-)

Wearing a Mei tai, Step 2 - loading it up!

Now that you have your Mei tai tied around your waist you are ready to load it up!

Kris's sleeping son will be today's cargo. :-)

Place child against your front and pull the blanket of the carrier up between his/her legs.

Hold baby with blanket pulled up around him/her with one arm while using the other arm to place shoulder straps.Let your child slide down into the carrier gently, while supporting them with your arm.

You will will pull the straps of the mei tai up over your shoulders and cross them in the back.

Three points to consider at this point.
1. make sure straps don't twist when you are crossing them over your back.

2. Keep the straps out over your shoulder caps, not at your neck.

3. Let child slide

Pull straps around to the front to tie.

Some people choose to tie under the child's rump, others choose to tie behind child's back.
If baby does not yet have ability to hold head up, tie behind the child's back to give him/her that extra support needed.

Now you are ready to go about your business with both hands free.

Kris has flipped up the sun shield to keep the sun off of her sleeping son.
Note the placement of the straps!

Over the caps of the shoulders.
Starting to stir, she pulls off the sun shield so he can look around to see all that is going on.

How to wear a Mei tai. Step 1-Tie 1 on!

Thank you to my friend Kris who modeled this front carry technique for us!

Here is what you're mei tai looks like.

(This one has a sun flap)

Grab the bottom ties and hold the carrier so the fashion side of the carrier is toward you.

Tie the carrier on at your waist, tying it with a knot or a bow.
(Your own preference)


View of Kris tying it on.

Now your Mai Tei is ready to accept and hold your child.

See how when she pulls it up, the fashion side shows for all the world to see.

Not your Grandmother's Cloth Diapers!

I find that many people get a little grossed out by cloth diapering, when they first hear about it. To be honest, so was I before I started using them.


My first vision was big, flat, soft pieces of fabric folded and wrapped around my baby and then plastic pants pulled on over them and lots of leaks and accidents. WAS I EVER WRONG! ! ! There are some folks who still prefer prefolds and diaper covers, but what in the world is all of this! ! ! (The prefolds above are newborn size, dyed butter yellow for style :-) I use them as part of my night time inserts for Darling Daughter's super soaking nights.)

The diapers we use on our darling daughter are mostly used. (I know, another something that sounds really gross, but not really! I washed them and made sure they were clean for my baby.) LOL. We use mostly two types of diapers now, they were all "donated" to us by a friend who lives on the east coast and whose little girl didn't need them any more.

I would like to give you a little information about the cloth diapering world, as it stands today!

OPTIONS - OPTIONS - OPTIONS

Wow! Today a mom has a choice as to whether she wants to use diapers that require a cover or a diaper that includes the cover. We choose to use diapers with a waterproof outer layer. This gives us the simplicity of the disposable diaper with the reusability of a cloth diaper.

Next question, once a mom knows whether she wants to use a separate cover, is how quickly do you want them to dry? Personally, with the cost of fuel and electricity going up, this is very important to me!

We have a couple of All In Ones (AIO's) that were given to us as a gift. They are nice, but take a little longer to dry than the Pocket Diapers that we choose to use. I use pocket diapers which means they are made of two layers with a pocket to put a stuffer/insert/soaker into. (all words used to describe the thing that absorbs all the pee) Pockets bring up more choices.

Here are three options for stuffing my pocket diapers. The traditional prefolds that do a very nice job of absorbing liquids, the microfiber car towel, that is available from your wholesale store, (Costco, Sam's, Walmart, etc.) The prefolds and car towels are folded in thirds and then inserted into the diaper before putting the diaper on the child. (Much easier this way.) The other option is to use an insert. We use inserts from "Cotton Babies", they came with the diaper lot, and some hemp/microfiber inserts that I made as well. ( You will notice that the Cotton Baby inserts have funny little snaps - these are to fold the insert over and snap it to make it shorter to use in smaller diapers.) The car towels need to be washed a few times to get them ready to absorb.

NEVER USE ANY FABRIC SOFTENER ON ANY OF YOUR DIAPERS OR COMPONENTS! ! ! This causes them to become water repellent - NOT a choice of most cloth diapering families. LOL

There are some other options out there as well. All in two's that are a hybrid of the pocket/AIO in that you add an absorption layer of some sort inside the diaper, not in a pocket. Some of these inserts snap into the diaper. There are other options, but I am getting way too long winded here.

One great thing I have learned is that if a diaper comes out of the washer with a little staining of any kind on it, you hang it on the clothes line and a miracle happens... The stain disappears! ! ! Woo Hoo! ! !

God Bless!

Diaper Stash! ! ! Growing! ! !

Flannel for the diaper inners! I am sooo excited!

Meow - cat print - Jungle animals - Flamingos on yellow - Rainbow - Pink W/ Polkadots

Space Ships - Monkeys (I love Bananas) - Blue Cloud - Zen Monkeys - Sun & clouds

More space stuff - Fishes

PUL - this is Polyurethane coated fabric for the diaper outers!

Pink - navy polkadot - red - blush - saturn blue - celery - blaze orange - navy

Now, as soon as I get the fold over elastic, I can get started on whipping out the diapers.

I am currently trying to decide between using the diaper pattern I came up with for our Darling Daughter who was too skinny for all the other patterns, or using a more commercial pattern that requires a license to market.

Beginning to lean toward my own pattern.

Enjoy my addiction... I need to get a photo of all my snaps for you as well. LOL

Tess

Cloth Diapers

I bit the bullet and decided to try making some for sale. I have a pattern that I came up with that seems to work very well for my darling daughter. :-) I made some for a local diaper swap and am really happy with how they turned out.

I chose my fleece fabrics very carefully! Everyone should have a moon in their diaper. :-)
Noah's Ark is prepared for the big Flood!

Dinosaurs and Monsters are on the other flannels. Bright colors for bright children! The photo above shows the diaper inserts I make with Organic Hemp French Terry on the outside. I sandwich in a layer of microfiber for the utmost absorption. If you have a super soaker for a child, I also make these inserts with two layers of microfiber.

Not shown, are the pink diapers I made. This set of diapers are size medium and will fit babies and toddlers from about 17 pounds to around 30 pounds... Although, not all children are built alike. :-) My baby had to have special diapers with adjustable leg holes because she was so skinny. (Like her daddy!) I am working on another pattern with different snap configurations that will allow parents to fit the leg holes to the child rather than the current type. :-)

E-mail me if you have any questions!

Summer Time - Mei Tai

With Summer time comes Drag Racing and HEAT! We recently spent two LONNNGGG days in Immokalee, Florida for the Arm Drop Live Event. The temperature got up to 102 degrees in the shade and little bit did wonderfully! She was strapped on to momma for most of the two days with a little time in a stroller and some in her pack-n-play.

This Mei Tai style carrier is made with a double layer of SolarVeil fabric (No longer being manufactured) and twill rails (straps). This combination offers her sun protection from the SolarVeil and allows breathability for the hot days. You can just see the loops dangling from the back of these straps (plastic toy rings) that hold her meshy with the ice cubes in it. What a little trooper!
This carrier, like all my carriers, is complete with extra stitching through the rails for added safety. As the night went on and she got sleepy, we did finally transfer from the mei tai to gauze wrap. She prefers to sleep in the wrap to the mei tai.

I am really happy that I had this carrier. The traditional mei tai's or the pocket slings would have just been too hot for this application.