So, if you haven’t noticed by now I am a structured carrier kind of gal; a cranberry ERGObaby carrier to be exact. I have dabbled a bit with a ring sling, a Mei Tai, other structured carriers, and of course the Moby Wrap with a newborn with some success. However show me a long piece of woven fabric (ie- a woven wrap) and I was completely intimidated by it. I could appreciate how truly beautiful mamas and babies look in woven wraps, but didn’t think *I* could ever get the hang of it. But then this arrived in my mailbox one afternoon:

I was now the proud owner of a seriously GORGEOUS woven wrap; a 100% organic Dolcino in Stromboli to be exact. I guess that meant it was time for me to confront my wrap anxiety and learn something new! Thankfully my good friend Rachel, who is a jedi babywearing master, happen to be coming over later that same day. I eagerly showed her my new wrap and her purely excited response was contagious. She immediately said “let’s try it out!”.

So together we spent about a half hour playing with my new toy, er I mean my new wrap. She put her son in it; she helped me put my son in it. Meanwhile my house was filling up with the 20 other guests arriving for the pool party so we eventually had to put the wrap away and socialize. BUT we decided to meet again soon so she could teach me how to use the wrap more proficiently.

We actually video taped ourselves to share with you all! If you are interested in learning how to use a woven wrap with your little one, be sure to check back all this week for our wrap videos (not to be confused with rap videos, lol!).

Apparently, he's pretty excited about our new wrap!

Okay, so let me share a bit more with you about the Dolcino Woven Wrap. First of all, the colors are amazing! The rich gold, red, orange, and maroon tones remind me a of a perfectly crisp, sunny fall day where you stroll around enjoying the abundant beauty of Mother Nature. Coincidentally these are the colors I have decorated my house in, so I could honestly hang this wrap up as a decorative piece in my house…that’s how beautiful it is!

So besides the aesthetic value of it, let’s get down to function.  Dolcino is simply wonderful to touch! It’s super soft, yet slightly textured and feels really great against your skin. Also it looks like it would be a heavy piece of material due to the richness of the fabric but it’surprisingly light weight! It would be easy to tuck the wrap into a diaper bag or backpack to bring with you wherever you wanted. The medium size (4.60 x 0.70 Meters in length) is long enough to use for any variety of carries you wanted to do with it.

I was actually quite surprised by the versatility of a woven wrap. You can do front, back, and hip carries with all ages from newborn to preschooler. You could easily invest in this one carrier for all your babywearing needs. There is definitely a learning curve to using a woven wrap, however it’s not quite as difficult as I thought it would be. The Front Cross Carry only took a few attempts for me to learn how to comfortably and quickly wrap baby.  The other day I actually found myself reaching for my wrap instead of my beloved ERGObaby carrier which is a HUGE step for me.

9 month old Iz in the Front Cross Carry...I did it all by myself!!

The advanced carries such as the Rucksack or the Kangaroo Hip Carry definitely take more practice, but are not nearly as intimidating as they once were for me. In fact I really, really like the Rucksack and think it’s a perfect carry for a long hike. In fact I hope to have some lovely photos of me and baby hiking with our wrap to share with you all very soon!

Do you use a wrap with your baby? What carries are your favorites? How long did it take you to learn?

-Sarah

PS. Come back for fun wrap demonstration videos all this week!!