Tandem carry: mei tai and buckle tai

To see how to get the baby on your front with a mei tai, click here.

So, as promised, the continuation of the saga. To set the scene, I was looking after both babies in the evening (hence the slightly grainy quality of the video), and Coconut got fussy. I put her on my front. Next thing you know, Snort kicked off.

Be warned: this video features lots of baby screaming, so have your volume control at the ready!

If you have family or friends that are skeptical about babywearing, please offer them this video as proof that babywearing stops crying! Ha.

Now, a safety note. You know that lovely little baby you’ve got on your front? Well, as its parent or carer, you are responsible for its head. No, really, I’m going somewhere with this.

When you bend over to pick up the second baby, you need to make provisions for your front baby. Now, Coconut has excellent head control and mad crunching skillz. If you bend over while wearing her, she will hold herself in position. (Or perhaps she has learned to do so since she’s been in this position a lot!)

If you have a young baby, or a baby without strong neck muscles, then you have some options. One, put the sleephood up before you bend over. This will keep your baby’s head in line with his/her spine. If your carrier doesn’t have a sleephood, well, consider wearing a wrap on your front? This allows you to easily pull some fabric over to support their head.

And as to what happens to me and The Cutest Babies On The Planet after I get them in this tandem carry? Yes, you guessed it….stay tuned, you’ll find out tomorrow.

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Using a mei tai for a front carry.

Remember that night my wife was working till 9? From that erupted the babywearing videos that will be going up over the next week. First up, using a mei tai in a front carry.

Coconut hadn’t really slept all day and needed some sleep, and I needed some peace.

Sorry for the dark and grainy quality, but there was very little light. And much as I love you all, I wasn’t about to turn on all the lights in the early evening!

Here’s the video (with some notes on it afterward):

I did something slightly screwy with the lexi twist (the bit where I twisted the straps and brought them back round to the back). The most comfortable way is to bring both straps around to the front, and then twist on her back – bring the leftover straps under her legs and around to your back before knotting.

I started doing it this way, and then for some inexplicable reason swapped it around. I think I instinctively did this to try to hold her close and snug, and tie high to help my pelvis. Who knows, really! Doesn’t really seem to make much difference, as straps end up where they would be the other way, at any rate.

Finally, this is about the fourth time I have used a mei tai (which yes, I do know that it’s really pronounced MAY tye, I just can’t say it), and the second time I have used this particular Ocah – a lovely, generous mama from a forum has lent us two of her Ocahs, and I am hoping she’ll let us BUY this one at some point!!

Being a novice at mei tai ing doesn’t really feel very novice like, as I’m so used to wrapping and it really is very similar. I would say that the way I’ve done it in this video is really quite comfortable – the key is getting it nice and tight, and I’ve actually stolen the ‘support the baby’s weight and reach round with your opposite hand’ thing from my wife, who invented that for the buckle tais she uses.

And it is GREAT. Comfy. The best.

Now, what can you look forward to in the next entry? Why, the continuation of this video….what do you do when you’ve got one baby on your front and nice and calm, and the other starts crying?

Stay tuned.

Gorgeous guest stars: My wife!

Yes, I skipped her straight to the head of the queue. Obnoxious, aren’t I? But she was so proud of tandem babywearing, and deservedly so.

The babies have just turned seven months old. I have no idea what they weigh – but a week before 6 months, Snort was over 18 lbs and Coconut over 17. Yes, we have big twins!

The above is her first ever picture of her with both babies! (She is using two buckle tais – like mei tais, but with buckles instead of long straps you knot.)

The long shot:

And, this is the part where she’s a genius. For those not in the know, mei tais often have sleephoods. You can see one on the Coconut’s back above, actually – that flap of fabric hanging down. When a baby falls asleep, particularly on the back, head lolling and flopping can happen. With a sleephood, you pull it up, attach it to the straps, and blam! Head support.

The Connecta Snort is in doesn’t have a sleephood (oh, we should’ve spent the extra 5.00!) so when they were asleep and his head was flopping, here’s what she did:

She used our most useful wrap ever (said wrap currently helping to bind my pelvis), slipped it around him and tied in front. She has also subsequently done this with a pashmina:

And more love:

Ok, and this last pic? They are all staring at YOU, waiting for a congratulatory comment on my wife finally cracking tandem babywearing!

Gorgeous guest stars: Zina!

Zina’s a twin mum I met through a natural parenting board. Her babies Bo & Luke were born 9 weeks premature. She rocks tandem babywearing hardcore, as seen here:

Both babies froggied in a stretchy wrap, 6 weeks old.

I think this picture shows something I haven’t mentioned before: with young or tiny twins, it is more than possible to wear them both on your front. There are videos on how to do this on YouTube. This looks like a pocket front cross carry – basically Zina has one twin per piece of fabric coming down over her shoulders,with the pocket pulled up over both. This means each baby has two layers of fabric over them, rather than the three a singleton in this carry would have over him/her.

As seen in the close up below, each baby still is in a good position – open airway (not slumped) and access to plenty of fresh air (no fabric over their faces).

I think it’s lovely to show a mama wearing both her babies so young – in addition to the benefits of being close to their mum (which are  many), mums like Zina can do other things while loving on their babies – like stepping outside for some fresh air & sunshine.

When twinnies are young, it can be hard to babywear – particularly if you are breastfeeding. They need to eat very often, times two (or three, or…!). A simple carry like this in a stretchy wrap can be done quite quickly, with minimum fuss.

Ok…more of Zina and her mad skillz…

Here the boys are four months old – in this clever mirror shot, you can see that the baby in front is in a FWCC (front wrap cross carry) in a Neobulle Simon 4.6. Mr. Baby-on-the-back is in a Beco Butterfly.

Zooming forward in time:

Here the boys are 6 months old. She is using a tulikowo mei tai on the front, and a Didymos Goldfish 4 in a ruck carry on the back.

And zooming forward a little further:

This is a Didymos Deep Sea Fish 7, in a ruck/front cross carry. The boys are 9 months here.

I’m a big fan of wraps, and this looks like a great carry. I’ve not actually tried it yet, but these pictures are inspiring me!

And big sister wanting to get in on the action:

I think Zina shows that the way you babywear will evolve through time. I know on a day-to-day basis I choose different ways to babywear!

Doesn’t she make twin babywearing look beautiful??

What we did two weekends ago, when I could still walk!

Let’s pretend these last three days of bedrest were really spent like this…

Coconut snuggled up to the wife in a custom Connecta.

Family shot in the conveniently placed mirror. Snort is on my back in a straight off the rack Connecta. This was our walk on Saturday – on Sunday we popped into town, and the mums swapped carriers.

Coconut has doubts about the Pharoah.

Snort sleeps through the toy section, which is full of flustered people pushing screaming babies in strollers.

…and then he wakes up.

Baby’s first trip to Subway.

Snort falls asleep again.

Another family shot in our conveniently placed car window.

Obligatory cute shot of Coconut in her car seat, waiting for Mummy to carry her back in while Mama takes pictures.

Gorgeous guest stars: Lara!

Lara is one funky mummy. Yes, I said it: she’s my down to earth pal from Twitter. She’s got three kids – Kiernan is her oldest, and her twins are Juliette and Quinn.

Here’s a picture of Lara & company when her babies were four months, and Kiernan was three:

Notice the fabulously beautiful mei tai? She made it herself. Yes, folks, we can all envy and hate her for her creativity. But as Lara pointed out to me the other day, she made it when she only had one baby – and therefore, about 600% more time on her hands.

Here’s a more recent picture of Lara – I think the babies are about eight months here:

Quinn is on her back in a Beco, while Juliette is on her front in a Kozy. In addition to tandem babywearing, she is packing up to move house. Wowza.

You can find Lara in her new house, or failing that, at her blog Gliding Through Motherhood. She’s also a chatty mama on Twitter @glidinglara.

Now please do leave a comment and tell her how lovely her and her children are!!

Gorgeous guest stars: Jen!

Here we have the squishy lovely twins Ethan and Lyra….oh, and their mum Jen! In these pics the babies are 8 months old. Their adjusted age is 5 months, as these little survivors were born an astonishing three months early! They both weigh about 13.5 pounds.

Here they are using an Ergo and Kokopax frame.

And here, an Ergo Sport and Beco.

Jen is a shiny example of a mama who was comfy wearing one, but not sure how two would work. And look at her in these pics, doesn’t she look fab?

You can find Jen on Twitter, @theremotejen