Mama By Design

My 8 year old daughter Ana and her squirrel baby have graciously consented to assist us in learning the back carry. Please keep in mind that the MBD was designed to be used by adults, who are generally larger in stature than 8 year olds, to carry real babies, who’s legs are generally longer than 3 inches and who lack long fluffy tails. The images are thumbnailed, so click them to see bigger ones.

	1. As Ana will be putting on the carrier on over her left shoulder, we have unbuckled the right shoulder strap, and adjusted the clip toward the end of the webbing.
	2. Here she demonstrates the wrong way to open the sternum strap clip.   If you do it like this,  it will break. You have to squeeze it in the middle at the same time as you lift up on the thumb tab. Then it will be easy,  I promise.
	3. Open the carrier, and lay your baby so the roundest part of the rump is about 3 inches above the bottom of the panel. This allows it to shape around the curve, providing a little seat. What happens if you don’t have a convenient soft chair, bed, or couch to use? You will put your knee up on a step, a chair, or the doorframe of your car. Lay the carrier out on your leg and have your baby straddle both leg and carrier.
	4. Fold the harness and waistband up over your baby’s tummy. Keep in mind that a real baby has legs which will be sticking out from under the waistband in this position.
	5. Here, Ana has picked up the shoulder straps in her right hand, arranging the right strap over the back of her hand so she can keep track of it.
	6. Next, supporting with her left hand under the baby, she lifts baby and carrier to her left shoulder.
	7. Once baby is on your shoulder, stick your left arm though the left strap. Grab that right strap in your right hand, and bring it over your head to the right shoulder.
	8. Once you clip the sternum strap, your baby is supported by the carrier.
	9. Grab your right shoulder strap clips, and clip them. Pull down to adjust. Adjust waist belt by pulling on both ends of the webbing.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Baby Carriers, Babywearing, How-to. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.