You really need more wraps?

For Christmas this year I decided that Elias' gift to me (aka me choosing a something, buying it for myself and saying it's from him because it came out of our joint checking account), would be the wrap that I have been eyeing ever since I learned about the world of wrapping babies and "legacy wraps".

In case I'm speaking a foreign language to you right now, a wrap is basically a long piece of fabric that you use to carry your baby on your front or back, much like of the rest of the world does. It works like a traditional baby carrier once your baby is on, but it tends to be more versatile and, well, prettier than a traditional carrier, and by traditional I'm talking about what you typically picture when you picture a baby carrier.

Wraps come in various sizes and materials. There are stretchy wraps and woven wraps and then there are wraps that are a hybrid of the two. When I first learned about wrapping, I started hearing people refer to "legacy wraps". This is basically a wrap that has some sort of significance for you. It might be a wrap that came out on a baby's birth date or birth month or it might be something different. For me, it was an adoption wrap called "chosen". On this wrap there are two hearts batiked onto the fabric. One little heart coming into the big heart, just like the little hearts of my children have come into my heart. I loved everything about it, but I held off and didn't buy it for a number of reasons. But that wrap has never left my mind.

You may wonder what the big deal is. It's just a wrap and our wrapping days are limited. But this is why it held importance to me. You may remember me writing about trying to induce lactation to breastfeed my babies and how it didn't work out the way I had hoped and planned. Because nursing didn't work out, baby wearing became my "nursing". It bonded me to my babies by keeping them close against my body. It soothed them when nothing else would and has made parenting in general so much easier. Now that they are bigger, Lucas will bring my a wrap or carrier for me to put him on my back for some "uppies" and mommy snuggles. Most days this is how Asher goes down for a nap. It is so special to be able to wear my babies and to have a wrap that has as much emotional significance as wrapping itself means so much to me.

So you to, it maybe just another wrap or piece of fabric, but to me it represents so much of our relationship and if it never carriers another baby beyond the two we have right now, then it will eventually find a place in our home where it will represent the sweet memories of the first years of parenthood where I carried my babies.